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This booklet gives details of the ceremony held to celebrate the 200th anniversary of St. Paul's Parish. It includes prayers by the Rector and speeches made by members of the community.
Alfred Augustin Watson was born August 21, 1818 in Brooklyn, New York, to Jesse and Hannah Watson. He was a graduate of New York University with a B.A. degree. He later studied law under Chancellor James Kent and was admitted to the bar in 1841. Watson gave up the practice of law to tutor the children of Josiah Collins in Washington County, N.C., on the Somerset Plantation.
Although Watson's parents were Presbyterian, he became involved in the Episcopal faith of the plantation family he served. He entered the General Theological Seminary in New York City and was ordained in 1844. He came back to North Carolina and served several missions including Grace Church in Plymouth and St. Luke's in Washington County. In 1858 he accepted the invitation to become the priest at Christ Church in New Bern. At the beginning of the Civil War, he became the chaplain to the Second Regiment of Infantry, North Carolina State Troops.
In 1863, he became the assistant bishop at St. James's Church in Wilmington. The war brought many hardships to the parish, but at the war's end, Watson and his parishioners were able to help the church make a full recovery.
In 1884, Watson became the first bishop of the East Carolina Diocese. He died April 21, 1905 and is buried in Wilmington's Oakdale Cemetery. Watson was married three times. Two of his wives, and an infant preceded him in death.
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