Robert Watchorn

Robert Watchorn (April 5, 1859 – April 13, 1944) was an English-American coal miner, union leader, immigration commissioner, businessman, and philanthropist. He worked as an Immigration Commissioner at Ellis Island and the U.S.–Canada border. In his later years, Watchorn worked in the oil business and amassed a sizable fortune.

Early life Robert Watchorn was born in Alfreton, Derbyshire, England on April 5, 1859, to John and Alice Watchorn. Before the US Civil War, Great Britain was a large contributor to the mining population that immigrated to the United States for employment. This trend picked up again after the Civil War, and Watchorn was one of the Derbyshire miners who came over at this time. He was 22 years old when he immigrated to the United States and found a job in the coal mines of the Pittsburgh area. Many duties were bestowed on Robert Watchorn while he was serving as a commissioner. For instance, President McKinley "sent him to investigate the causes of the tremendous emigration of Jewish people to the United States". In an article he wrote for Metropolitan Magazine that appeared shortly after his dismissal in 1909, Watchorn addressed many points of contention in United States immigration policy. He also criticized popular nativist behaviors held by a portion of the U.S. citizenry while he was alive. "To call immigrants a horde at once suggests a dreadful picture; to refer to them as a swarm suggests a pestilence; and to designate them as individually as "sheenies", "dagoes", Huns and Slavs incites derision", Watchorn wrote. He criticized these commonplace slurs, which he dubbed as indicidant of public opinion at the time. As the article came to a close, Watchorn called the nation to "bend every energy to shut out the "camp follower," the criminal, the destitute, the immoral, and the seriously diseases mentally and physically, and we shall rejoice in the strong, the healthy, and the industrious [immigrants]. Such a statement is exemplary of Watchorn's later views on immigration.

Entering the oil industry After resigning as immigration commissioner, Watchorn entered the oil business in 1909. He first worked as an assistant to the president and treasurer of the United Oil Company of California, and the religious part of him played a role in a significant amount of his donations. For example, Watchorn gave his two-hundred-acre New York estate to the Atlantic Union Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, with the understanding that it was to be used as a church-operated medical facility. He also made sizable donations to Protestant churches in California, Oklahoma, and his home country England. Watchorn's donations from the year 1915-1936 totaled nearly US$1.5 million, and Robert Watchorn Charities, Ltd. Donated over $3 million to a number of charities from 1936 to 1957.

Personal life Robert Watchorn married Alma Jessica Simpson on June 30, 1891, in Columbus, Ohio. Robert Watchorn later built the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands, California in memory of Ewart

Death Robert Watchorn died in Redlands, California, on April 13, 1944, at the age of 85. Buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.