Watson, Eli Tulis

Submitted by Mike Miller

Eli Tullis Watson is a member and partner in one of the best known investment banking houses in New Orleans, Watson, Williams & Company. He has been identified with the bond and stock business since leaving school. He is a member of several old and honored families of Louisiana.

Mr. Watson was born on Chetwynde plantation at St. Joseph, Louisiana, April 12, 1883, son of Frank and Nellie (Tullis) Watson. Both of his parents represented old families of Tensas Parish, families that both before and after the Civil war owned extensive cotton plantations and lived the generous and hospital life of that time. Eli Tullis Watson has been a resident of New Orleans since boyhood, finishing his education in the Boy's High School of New Orleans. He graduated in June, 1900, but did not continue his college course on account of financial reverses that embarrassed the family.

He first entered the old firm of Stanton & Littlefield, who at that time were the leading bond house in the city of New Orleans. His early connections with that firm opened the way for his permanent business career. In 1907 he became a partner in the firm of Louis H. Stanton & Company. From this he retired in 1912 and with Mr. George Elliot Williams organized the firm of Watson, Williams & Company. In thirteen years this firm has grown to a position of recognized strength and prestige in the investment banking world. The firm has been active in many phases of national financing as well as local. During the World war this firm were the leaders in placing the securities for the allied nations in this part of the south.

Mr. Watson has a record of service as a private with the old Washington Artillery on the Mexican border in 1916. He inherited his democratic polities from the old south, but is a conservative in politics, with strong leaning toward some of the essential republican doctrines. He is a member of the Boston Club, Louisiana Club, the New Orleans Country Club, several of the carnival organizations and the Racquet Club of St. Louis. His church affiliation is Episcopalian.

Mr. Watson married at New Orleans, January 14, 1908, Miss Jeannette Amalie Craighead, daughter of Emanuel Craighead, of Dayton, Ohio. The Craigheads are an old Ohio family many of whom have been distinguished as members of the bar. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Watson are Jeannette Elizabeth and Arthur Nolte Watson.

NOTE: The sketch is accompanied by a black and white photograph/drawing of the subject.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 381-382, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.