By H.L. Green — September, 1897
Watson Heston (left), was born in the backwoods of Anglaize County, Ohio, September 25, 1846. Was brought up on a farm at a time when the facilities for education were very limited, being able only to attend the common district schools during the usual term of three or four months in the winter season, but being an omnivorous reader, ransacked the surrounding country for reading matter of any kind, and by studying at home of evenings and at odd times, managed to get a fair English education in all the usual studies of the day.
As a boy he was rather puny, pale and small for his age, but endowed with a good deal of endurance and energy. He was no “goody-goody” boy by any means; on the contrary he had, perhaps, more than his share of boyish deviltry and recklessness, the result of which caused him to get in numerous fights and “scrapes” with his mates, and many floggings from parents and teachers. Never being very strong physically, and growing tired of the monotony of farm life, he got the consent of his parents to seek other employment when he had a chance to do so. Being of a roving disposition he traveled about selling books, sewing machines, or whatever seemed to bring the best returns, but growing tired of such a bohemian sort of life, quit it and taught school a few terms; but despising the rule of the rod then in vogue and enforced in the common schools, he quit that occupation rather reluctantly and learned the painters’ trade, soon becoming an excellent workman in that calling. After learning the painters’ trade, Mr. Heston made several trips west of the Mississippi, worked in several states, wandered over the plains, took up a claim in Kansas when the bison and wolves were far more numerous than the people are now. Being called back to Ohio on a business matter in which he had an interest, and his father dying not long after his return, his aged mother naturally looked to him to care for her in her declining years. Having a most dutiful affection for a noble mother, he cheerfully and gladly provided a home for her for ten years; although at great sacrifice to himself and his aims for the future. In 1873 he married the girl he loved and in 1876 moved to Carthage, Missouri.
Failing health compelled him to give up the painting trade, and he learned photography and worked at that calling till the close confinement again so affected his health that he had to quit it. For about a year he turned carpenter, built houses, and painted them. A long siege of typhoid fever, however, left him so weak physically that he has never been strong since, and then came hours of mental torture and a hard struggle to keep the wolf from the door. He then turned his attention to writing political and literary articles, and was offered a position as associate editor on the Chicago Express, by Col. Heath. He accepted that offer, and that work and his pay for an occasional article in the New York Weekly enabled him to meet expenses.
In 1886 he was solicited to try the cartoon work for the Truth Seeker, at which he labored faithfully for over eleven years, but was forced to quit last February owing to the hard times. At different times during the last ten years he issued quite a number of political cartoons, which were published in many papers throughout the country. During the last seven years, on account of the sickness of his wife chiefly, he has moved about much in search of health, only in the end to be disappointed, and to-day, after all these years of toil and privation for the sake of Free Thought, he and his wife find themselves, broken in health, out of work, and bankrupt! Verily a sad reward for such long service in behalf of human liberty!
Mr. Heston never took kindly to churches, Sunday-schools, or religious dogmas, even when a. boy, but preferred to ramble on Sundays in the woods or go fishing rather than listen to the gospel. He never belonged to any church, and became a skeptic or Infidel when yet a youth from reading the Bible, which he read through. The first Liberal paper he ever saw was the Religio-Philosophical Journal, and the first Liberal book he read was Ecce Homo. He believes in no god, gods, devils, angels, saviors, saints, popes, priests, parsons, mediums, or mahatmas; is an enthusiastic lover of nature; believes in equal rights for all, regardless of sex or race, and regards womanhood as the crowning’ glory of nature’s work, which true manhood should reverence, and with whom he is only worthy to associate when his heart is pure and his mind clean. He is strong in his friendships and affections, but a relentless foe also. He likes sincerity, and frankness, and hates cant, affectation, and hypocrisy; is genial, generous and charitable, and thinks home is the holiest and sweetest spot on earth. His ancestors are of English stock, with a sprinkling of Scotch, German and Norse blood, thoroughly Americanized by a line of descent born this side of the ocean for over two hundred years. He is the youngest of nine children, six of whom were boys and all in the Union army, and two of them lost their lives in the war. Mr. Heston has traveled a good deal, has been from Canada to Mexico and from sea to sea, and is now stranded at Kokomo, Indiana, trying to get some kind of employment till better times.
