Editing Thomas J. Watson (section)

==Early life and career==
Thomas J. Watson was born in [[Campbell, New York]], in the state's [[Southern Tier]] region, the fifth child and only son of Thomas and Jane Fulton White Watson.<ref>Rodgers, William (1969) THINK, Stein and Day, p.&nbsp;18</ref> His four older siblings were Jennie, Effie, Loua, and Emma. His father farmed and owned a modest [[lumber]] business located near [[Painted Post, New York|Painted Post]], a few miles west of [[Corning, New York|Corning]].<ref name="Maney 2003">{{cite book|first= Kevin|last = Maney|title = The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM|url= https://archive.org/details/maverickhismachi00mane|url-access= registration|publisher = John Wiley and Sons|year= 2003|isbn = 9780471414636}}</ref> Thomas worked on the family farm in East Campbell and attended the [[District School Number Five]] in the late 1870s.<ref name="nrhpinv_ny">{{cite web|url=http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=8581|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: District School Number Five|date=November 2000|access-date=June 14, 2009|author=William E. Krattinger|publisher=[[New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120918144825/http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=8581|archive-date=September 18, 2012}}</ref> As Watson entered his teen years he attended Addison Academy in nearby [[Addison (village), New York|Addison]].<ref name="Maney 2003"/>

Having given up his first job—teaching—after just one day, Watson took a year's course in accounting and business at the Miller School of Commerce in [[Elmira, New York]]. He left the school in 1891, taking a job at $6 a week as [[bookkeeper]] for Clarence Risley's Market in Painted Post. One year later he joined a traveling salesman, George Cornwell, peddling organs and pianos around the farms for William Bronson's local hardware store. When Cornwell left, Watson continued alone, earning $10 per week. After two years of this life, he realized he would be earning $70 per week if he were on a commission. His indignation on making this discovery was such that he quit and moved from his familiar surroundings to the relative metropolis of [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]].<ref name="Maney 2003"/>

Watson then spent a very brief period selling sewing machines for Wheeler and Wilson. According to his son [[Thomas J. Watson Jr.]]'s autobiography:
<blockquote>One day my dad went into a roadside saloon to celebrate a sale and had too much to drink. When the bar closed, he found that his entire rig—horse, buggy, and samples—had been stolen. Wheeler and Wilson fired him and [[debt|dunned]] him for the lost property. Word got around, of course, and it took Dad more than a year to find another steady job.<ref name=MyLife /></blockquote> Watson would later enforce strict rules at IBM against alcohol consumption, even off the job. According to Tom Jr.: <blockquote>This anecdote never made it into IBM lore, which is too bad, because it would have helped explain Father to the tens of thousands of people who had to follow his rules.<ref name=MyLife /></blockquote>

Watson's next job was peddling shares of the Buffalo Building and Loan Company for a [[huckster]] named C. B. Barron, a showman renowned for his disreputable conduct, which Watson deplored. Barron absconded with the commission and the loan funds. Next Watson opened a [[butcher shop]] in Buffalo, which soon failed, leaving Watson with no money, no investment, and no job.<ref name="observatory"/>