1182) Thomas E. Watson

Thomas Edward "Tom" Watson (1856 – 1922). American politician, attorney, newspaper editor and writer from Georgia. In the 1890s Watson championed poor farmers as a leader of the Populist Party, articulating an agrarian political viewpoint while attacking business, bankers, railroads, Democratic President Grover Cleveland, and the Democratic Party. He was the nominee for vice president with Democrat William Jennings Bryan in 1896 on the Populist ticket.
Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1890, Watson pushed through legislation mandating Rural Free Delivery, called the "biggest and most expensive endeavor" ever instituted by the U.S. postal service.

- "One December morning in 1863 a diminutive, red-haired boy set astride a large bay mare at the railway station of Thomson, Georgia."  https://books.google.it/books…

- "Red-haired and slender, he was bookish even at an early age."  https://books.google.it/books…

- "Under the wool hat was a shock of thick sandy-red hair. Perhaps it was because his hair was a shade too dark that his schoolmates did not call him "Red," and perhaps it was because of something else."  https://archive.org/…/agrarian-rebel-biography-tom-watson_d…