WAT'TERS, WILLIAM (1751-1827). A odist Episcopal minister. lie was born in Balti more County, Aid., entered the Philadelphia Con ference, 1773, and labored in Virginia. .Mary land. and the District of Columbia. lie bore the distinction of being' the first American-horn Alethodist minister. Owing to ill health, his labor was somewhat intermittent, but uniformly successful. lie published 4 Short Account of the t'l•istian Experience and Ministerial Labors of William Watters (Alexandria. 1S06). Con sult I). A. Wafters, The First American Diver ant of Methodism, William Walters (1898).
WAT'TERSON, An Amer ican journalist, born in Washington. D. C. He was educated for the most part privately. en tered journalism in Washington as editorial writer for the Slates and general newspaper worker“served in the Confederate Army in 1S61 62 as private soldier and aide-de-camp slues sively to General Forrest and General Polk, and in 1862-63 edited in Chattanooga the Rebel, the official newspaper of the State of Tennessee. In
186'4 he was again in military service as chief of scouts to General Joseph E. Johnston. Subse quent to the war he edited the Republican Ban ner of Nashville, and in 1867 became editor-in chief of the Louisville ,Journal. With W. N. Haldeman he established the Courier -Journal, of which be became the editor. Under his direc tion this newspaper came to occupy a foremost place in Southern journalism. In 1876-77 he represented the Louisville district in Congress, in 1S76 was presiding officer of the National Democratic Convention at Saint Louis, and in various other national conventions was chairman of the Platform Committee. In 1896 he declared himself a Gold Democrat. In both his editorial and platform utterances he effectively repre sented the policy of conciliation between North and South. His publications include Oddities of Southern Life and Character (1882).