Johnson Watts, a native of Kentucky, was a charter member of the Versailles Masonic Lodge and served as Grand Master of Masons in Indiana in 1846, the only Ripley County Mason to do so. He served in both houses of the Indiana General Assembly and in the Constitutional Convention of 1850. He also served in the army during the War of 1812 and later as a Colonel in the Kentucky Militia. He died May 27, 1871, and was buried in the family cemetery near Friendship.