The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1908-08-19
AN OLD TIMER.
Grandma Watson Contemporary With
StOCkade Period of Redwood Falls.

VI oHuiHd WdlSUH SUHtClupUt Oily Will
StOCkdde Period of Redwood Falls.
1t is hard sometimes when one,
with head frosted with time and step
slowed down by the weight of years,
is brought to mind to recall the fact
that once that one was part of the
active life of Redwood Falls. The
new replaces the old and the present
forgets the past.
A few weeks ago the Twin City
papers presented the features of
Mrs. Watson, nearly century old
and aresident Of the Soldiers Home.
Nearly so years ago, then middle
aged, but vigorous and active. she
came to this town and began life in
the old stockade. The massacre was
then of recent memory and the fear
of the Indian was ever present with
women and children. The settler
returning from his work of break
ing the prairie found his wife and
children within the walls of the
rude fort for protection and safety.
Slowly began the civic life of the
place. Nesting about the saw and
grist mills which supported and
made possible the village, it grew
and she with others moved into the
little cabins built from native timf ar
and sawed near the falls. The sec
ond period of civic life began then.
Steamboats,. able to float on heavy
dew, occasionally ran up the Mime
sofa and brought the few necessities
the settlers could not produce. A
rag carpet was a luxury and a
chrome on the wall was an almost
impossible sign of social advance.
Mother Watson could probably tell
you that there was about as much
real satisfaction then as now. Hap
piness existed with the tallow candle
as with the electric light; with the
weekly mail as with the telephone.
That gossip existed and scandal pre-
vailed without labor saving means
to give it wider publicity.
Col. McPhail, even in that rude
age, rivalled the doings and deeds of
the Pittsburg millionaire. The vi
cious and the virtuous were here,
each living the life that best suited
him. Common law wives preced-
ed the railroad.
And the steamboat became too
uncertain and Fred Peabody ran
freight and passengers from New
Ulm and back. The U. S. land Of
flee brought finished politicians here
long ago and wehad rings" gangs"
bosses and machines when the
stage brought the mail. The town
went dry and the fellows kept wet
in cellars and back room blind pigs.
SO the years rolled on and Mother
Watson washed, baked. and talked
too.
Her husband laid out several adj
ditions and Poverty Heights" be-
came social land on election years.
a political problem. Redwood Falls
j Incorporated as village and she
didn't see much difference except
they voted bonds; it Incorporated
as a city and she didn't see any more
difference except the city voted some
more bonds and she never saw any
Of them paid. The city always re-
funded by issuing more to take them
lup.
School began in little cabin and
finally fight came as to whether
two larger ones should not be built
She thought. probably, that two
would be ample for her life time
and voted for them; she lived to vote
again on brick one and was told
that it was at least fifty years too
large; but she voted to double it a
few years later THAT is if she did it
she got free ride that was offered);