George S. McWatters was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland in 1814 and moved to Northern Ireland at a young age.  After attending school he became a mechanic for a short time before moving to London, England where he met his wife Charlotte.  They married and started raising a family of six children. Charlotte the oldest daughter would marry Signor Errani a well known tenor of the Academy of Music.

McWatters immigrated to America with his family and settled in Philadelphia some where around 1848-49.  There he studied law under William R. Dickerson, a Philadelphia lawyer. He became disillusioned with the law practice and migrated to California during the California gold rush. Disappointed with the high rate of crime and vices in California he returned to the East and settled in New York. There he met the actress Laura Keene who engaged him as a detective. This sparked a new interest in a career of law enforcement. At this time McWatters became interested in solving social problems.

In 1858, McWatters joined the Metropolitan Police force where he distinguished himself by solving many crimes during this twelve year period. He retired from the force on     October 17, 1870. During the Civil War he was responsible for appealing for aid to help support the war efforts. Officer McWatters wrote many articles and stories about his criminal cases during his career. His book, “Knots Untied” is available online and may be read at the follow web address:  http://openlibrary.org/b/OL7183534M/Knots-untied.

It is unknown how long McWatters resided in Modern Times / Brentwood. George and his wife, Charlotte are listed on the September 1852 Circular as a residents of Modern Times. He founded the public school system in Modern Times and assisted in many other chartable committees in New York City. He died of Pneumonia on April 8, 1886 and is buried in the Brentwood Cemetery.

-M. Koferl, Local History Room Newsletter,  April 2009