P.A. Watson Log House

Duane's take

The official marker's the one doing the talking here; I'm just the voice it's riding in on. Now settle in, because this one starts, as so many good Texas stories do, with grief. Patrick Alfred Watson was born in 1810, and by the time 1855 rolled around, he'd already buried his wife, Margaret Ann (she was an Armstrong before she was a Watson).

Left behind six children. Six. And what does a man do with that kind of weight pressing down on him out near what we'd come to know as Arlington?

He builds. He picks up an axe, he notches some logs, and he puts up a house. For those children.

That's the P.A. Watson Log House, and it's been standing as a testament to that decision ever since. Now, three years later (1858), Watson married again.

Her name was Mary Jane Donaldson, and here's a detail the marker wants you to sit with: Mary Jane was the niece of his first wife, Margaret Ann. And together, Patrick and Mary Jane had six more children. The man built a house for six and ended up with twelve.

That log house didn't stay small for long; it was enlarged, which, given the arithmetic, you can understand entirely. But Watson wasn't just a father and a builder. He was a surveyor, an educator, and a religious leader all at once: the kind of man a young community leans on from about three different directions simultaneously.

He gave land for the P.A. Watson Community Cemetery. He gave land for the original site of a church and school building.

That congregation he helped plant? It grew into what is now the West Fork United Presbyterian Church, over in Grand Prairie. Patrick Alfred Watson lived until 1894 (eighty-four years on this earth), and when he was gone, his family kept right on living in that house he'd built out of loss and necessity back in 1855.

Watson family descendants occupied it all the way until 1961. Then, in 1976, the house was moved to where it stands today. More than a century after one grieving father raised its walls, it's still here.

Some things you build hold longer than you ever meant them to.

What the marker says

After his wife Margaret Ann (Armstrong) died, Patrick Alfred Watson (1810-1894) built this dwelling in 1855 near present Arlington for their six children. In 1858 he married Margaret's niece Mary Jane Donaldson and they had six children. A surveyor, educator, and religious leader, Watson gave land for the P.A. Watson Community Cemetery and for the original site of a church an school building. The congregation is now West Fork United Presbyterian Church in Grand Prairie. The house was enlarged and Watson family descendants occupied it until 1961. It was moved here in 1976.