Samuel Paxson Watters was born in Wilmington (New Hanover County), North Carolina on November 2, 1833. A University of North Carolina graduate, Watters was a minister who served in the Confederate cavalry during the Civil War. As a minister, he variously served congregations in Rhode Island, Virginia, and Florida, and Morganton and Hillsborough in North Carolina. He died in Charlottesville, Virginia on November 23, 1912.