JUSTIN S. WATERMAN is one the highly respected citizens of the village of Oregon, and although a comparatively young man he can look back upon an extended and successful business career.He was born in the state of Connecticut, November 12, 1854, and was the only child of J. S. Waterman, Sr., and his wife Clara J. (Sugden) Waterman. The father was born in Vermont, and the mother was of Scotch descent, but her place of birth is unknown to her son, as the parents died when he was but four years of age. Being thus left an orphan at so tender an age, and with neither brother nor sister, he was taken care of by a kind-hearted uncle, Charles Waterman, who reared him to manhood.

It is but fitting that our subject’s benefactor should be given more than a passing mention here. Charles Waterman was born October 13, 1822, in Orleans county, Vermont, and afterward resided in Springfield, Mass. and Windsor Locks, Conn., being in business at different times in each of these places. He came to the town of Oregon, in Dane county, Wis., in 1849, and in May of that year bought what became the Waterman homestead, a farm of two hundred acres.

The first survey for a village plat was made not long thereafter, under Mr. Waterman’s direction and on part of his land, and in 1858 he opened and for two years conducted the Oregon Exchange hotel, it being the first hostelry in the village. For two years, beginning in 1860, he was engaged in the mercantile business, and in 1862-3 was a contractor in grading the Chicago & Northwestern Railway from Oregon to Madison. He was in the livery business at Oregon from 1874 to 1880, and the remainder of his business career was devoted to farming.

In politics he was a Democrat, and filled the positions of justice of the peace, and collector, and for six years was deputy sheriff of Dane county. During his incumbency of the latter position he was shot and seriously wounded by a horse-thief whom he was endeavoring to arrest-an incident that will be remembered by the older residents of the county.

J.S. Waterman, to whom this memoir specially refers, received his education in the common schools of Dane county, and at the age of nineteen years started in life for himself.

He first began in the business of buying and shipping livestock, and followed that line very successfully for a period of sixteen years. Since about 1889 he has devoted his attention almost exclusively to farming, with the usual adjunct, stock-raising. In the latter business he has more than a local reputation, as he has raised a great many blooded horses, and has shipped stallions to all parts of the United States, the German coach stallions being his specialty.

He is the owner of two hundred and eighty-seven acres of land, two hundred acres of which are within the corporate limits of the village of Oregon, and the entire tract is well improved, being either under cultivation or devoted to grazing purposes. At this place Mr. Waterman has made his home for forty-two years, and no one is more favorably known or more highly represented than he and his estimable wife.

He was married on April 27, 1873, to Miss Anna T. Ozburn, daughter of William T. Ozburn, deceased. Mrs. Waterman is of Scotch-Irish descent and her parents came originally from Pennsylvania. They lived a number of years in Illinois, but moved to Dane county about 1885, Mrs. Ozburn now living with her daughter in Oregon.

Mr. Waterman is a Democrat in his political views, and in religious matters unites with the Presbyterian Church. No children have been born to Mr. Waterman and wife.

1906 History of Dane County, Wisconsin, p. 950-951.