Carrie is the daughter of Waltus Watkins, one of the original forefathers of Clay Co Missouri and prominent businessman who established the Watkins Woolen Mill and affiliated agricultural businesses near Lawson Missouri.

Carrie never married, helping her mother manage the large household which almost always had visitors and many farmhands to feed. After the passing of her parents, she managed the house for her brothers who kept the business concerns going. She was the last of the Watkins family to live on the farm. Her hand written cookbook contained recipes from 1870. She went blind in the early 1900's.

Per Watkins Mill staff, Carrie moved to Montana to live with her nephew, Spencer Watkins, as she was mostly blind and deaf. She was 89 years old at the time.

OBIT

Caroline Emma "Carrie" Watkins passed away just 5 days after her 95th birthday in 1949. Her obituary was printed in The Lawson Review on July 14, 1949 as follows...

"Word has been received here of the death of Miss Carrie Watkins - the last member of a pioneer family of this community.

She died Wednesday night of last week at Bozeman, Mont., where she had been making her home for about six years.

She was born July 1, 1854, and was 95 years of age at the time of her death.

Prior to going to Bozeman, she resided at the family mansion near Lawson, where she was born, one of a family of 11 children.

She had been blind and deaf for several years.

Miss Watkins had been living at the home of her nephew, J. Spencer Watkins, a former vice-president of the Lawson Bank.

She is survived by a host of relatives and friends.

She was a brilliant woman, of keen intellect, and a charming, gracious and hospitable hostess.

The funeral services and burial were at Bozeman Friday.

Her father, the late Waltus L. Watkins, came to this vicinity in 1832 and in 1860 he built the historic Watkins Woolen Mill, for many years the most important factory in northwest Missouri and one of the largest in the state. The mill still stands, although it ceased operations in 1886. It is visited by many tourists and historians. At one time plans were under way to make the Watkins place a state park.

The 1,600-acre farm was purchased from the Watkins heirs in 1945 by Henry Frass, Jr., a Texas rancher - who moved to the southern-style residence which was built in 1851 with bricks made on the farm.

The Watkins family has owned hundreds of acres of land in this vicintiy, as a perusal of property abstracts clearly shows."