| Don Alonzo Watson | |
| Birth Date: | 15 June 1807 |
| Birth Place: | Palmer, Massachusetts |
| Death Place: | Rochester, New York |
| Occupation: | Businessman |
| Signature: | Signature of Don Alonzo Watson (1807–1892).png |
Don Alonzo Watson (June 15, 1807 – January 1, 1892) was a Rochester, New York businessman and philanthropist who, with Hiram Sibley helped found Western Union.
Don Alonzo Watson was born in Palmer, Massachusetts on June 15, 1807.[1]
He was educated at public schools, and trained as a machinist in Boston. In 1832,he moved to Honeoye Falls, New York, where he met Hiram Sibley. They were partners in a profitable machinery business for eight years.[1]
He married Caroline M. Manning in 1855, and they had three children.[1]
In 1856, he was a major investor in Sibley's new Western Union company.
Watson purchased a building for Rochester Homeopathic Hospital which became Genesee Hospital in Rochester.[2] Watson also endowed a professorship to the University of Rochester in acknowledgment of the college's achievements in political science and history.[3]
He died at his home in Rochester on January 1, 1892, and was buried near Sibley in Mount Hope Cemetery.[4]