Tulare County Biographies

WATSON S. CLAWSON

Transcribed by Jeannie Miyama

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
Watson S. Clawson, owner and proprietor of the Exeter (California) Sun, is a 
native of the Keystone state, born in Blairsville, Indiana county, December 24, 
1892.  His parents, Adam and Mildred (Moorehead) Clawson, were representatives 
of old families of Pennsylvania.  For many years the father was a mill worker, 
but is now living retired.
 
Watson S. Clawson received a good common school education.  While still in his 
early teens he went into a printing office and began learning to set type.  With 
the exception of three years since then his energies have all been directed to 
the printing and publishing business.  One of these three years he was in a 
glass factory and the other two he was in the employ of the Mellon estate of 
Pittsburgh.  In 1911 he came to California.  After a short time in Los Angeles 
he came to Exeter, where he was a foreman in the mechanical department of the 
Tribune for two years.  In 1913 he embarked in the job printing business.  About 
two years later he bought the Exeter Sun and combined it with his job business.  
He now owns the property in which the Sun is published and has a well equipped 
plant.  The Sun is issued weekly and has a circulation of about one thousand 
copies.
 
Mr. Clawson was married to Miss Lefa Ray Crookshank, whose father was one of the 
pioneer ranchmen near Exeter.  Mr. Crookshank was for many years a teacher in 
high schools of Tulare county and served for eight years as county 
superintendent of schools.  Mrs. Clawson is a talented musician and was a music 
teacher prior to her marriage and still gives lessons to a selected few who 
receive high school credit from their instructor, as Mrs. Clawson is an 
accredited teacher in Tulare county.  As an accompanist on the piano her 
services are in demand in church and concert work.  Mr. and Mrs. Clawson occupy 
a comfortable home in Exeter and have four children:  Samuel R., James M., Nancy 
E., and Watson Phillip.  Mr. Clawson is a charter member of the Exeter 
Commercial and Kiwanis Clubs and is vice president of the Chamber of Commerce.  
He was one of the youngest who served as master of his blue lodge and is also a 
Royal Arch Mason, a Modern Woodmen of America, and belongs to the Order of 
Sciots.
 
History of Tulare County and Kings County, California � Kathleen Edwards Small & 
J. Larry Smith, Vol. I, Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926, Page 
370