July 10, 2007

Claibourne Watkins, born in Pulaski County in 1844, was one of eight men (three native Arkansans) who, in 1879, founded the Medical Department of Arkansas Industrial University, now the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Watkins, who served in the Confederate forces, graduated from medical school after the war. He served as the professor of chemistry and toxicology at the Medical Department, and when he died in 1908, he was professor emeritus of the school.