Joseph Ray Watkins

The American Watkins are of Welsh descent that settled in New Jersey in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Watkins' great-grandfather was born in New Jersey in the early 1700s and during the American Revolutionary War had contracts for furnishing food to the Continental Army. His grandfather was also from New Jersey; in 1800 he migrated to Ohio and settled at Fort Washington, where the city of Cincinnati developed.

Joseph Ray Watkins was the second son and third child of Reverend Benjamin Utter Watkins and Sophronia (Keeler) Watkins. He was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 21, 1840. Joseph and his older brother were educated at a Farmers' College founded by Freeman Cary. After his graduation, his father sold their homestead and moved the family to Minnesota in 1862 to keep out of the American Civil War.

His father purchased a 1,000-acre (400 ha) farm in May 1862 on Pearl Lake in north central Minnesota. In August, there were rumors of an Indian massacre at New Ulm, Minnesota. That prompted the settlers of the area to build an extensive fort around their houses for protection. There were Indian skirmishes outside the fort the following year when the farmers went to work their fields. The US government then issued a $300 bounty on Indians. This caused them to move out of the area. The threat of an Indian war then ended for these pioneers. Watkins moved to southern Minnesota around 1867.

Watkins horse and buggy sales wagon, c. 1900

Watkins started to experiment with making Red Liniment at his home in Plainview, Minnesota, by 1868. He personally bottled the home-made medicine of Asian camphor and red pepper extract. Watkins sold his product directly to the local farmers and villagers, being credited as the founder of the direct sales industry. Watkins at first pushed a cart as a one-man operation. Later he peddled his business with a horse and buggy sales wagon filled with products, developing a 100-mile (160 km) sales territory around his hometown. The direct door-to-door business was so successful that he brought in other wagon salesmen who sold throughout Minnesota and eventually to other states.

Watkins built his business on customer satisfaction and extended the first money back guarantee in the country for his product. He had a "trial mark" molded onto each bottle – positioned about one-third of the way down – and promised customers that if they hadn't used the product below that point, they would receive a full refund if they were unsatisfied. Watkins moved his business to Winona, Minnesota in 1885. There it was easier to obtain the materials for his medical products. He rented a four-room house and used half for manufacture of his home remedy medical products – liniment, extracts, and salves. These products were purchased by lumbermen for relief of sore muscles from working all day in a sawmill.

Watkins and his wife, Mary Ellen, had two children while living in Plainview. Their eldest, a son, died at 14 months of age. Their second child, Grace, was born in 1875. Grace was a respected marksman and avid hunter, having been trained by Annie Oakley, and at one time held the women's trap shooting record of 186 consecutive targets. She married typewriter salesman Ernest L. King, who eventually became president of Watkins Incorporated.

Watkins' wife died in 1904, which was the same year his daughter married. He then married his son-in-law's mother in September 1911, but she died in Jamaica three months later.

The Winona Daily News was originally founded by Watkins as the Winona Morning Independent in 1898.