Portal:Cincinnati/Selected biography/5
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Henry Watkin (March 6, 1824-November 21, 1910), was an expatriate English printer and cooperative socialist in Cincinnati, Ohio during the mid-to-late 19th century.
While a young printer in London, Watkin became interested in the utopian socialist writings of Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, and Comte de Saint-Simon. Although it is still unknown to what degree Watkin participated in any cooperative or communalist movements in England or America before the Civil War, evidence suggests that Watkin was an active member of a community of progressive and radical Cincinnatians during his professional life. In 1870, he helped to found the Cooperative Land and Building Association No.1 of Hamilton County, Ohio. The housing cooperative was organized in 1871 to build and develop a railroad suburb named Bond Hill just a few miles outside of the corporate limits of Cincinnati. Besides his work founding Bond Hill, Watkin is best known as the friend and fatherly mentor of the 19th century Japanophile writer, Lafcadio Hearn.
After the Civil War, records indicate that Watkin was active in Cincinnati's socialist scene. In 1868, he was one of the initial stockholders subscribed in the Mutual Benefit Grocery, a cooperative grocery store in downtown Cincinnati. The grocery was a hub in the network of Cincinnati progressives including members from other prominent socialist families, the Hallers and McLeans, as well as other forward thinking printers, Caleb Clark and Charles Adams, also active in Cincinnati socialist movements.
