Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1912-07-19

81 Just before you reach Indian
creek and shuts from sight the
a Dig stone house that cost S4,-
600, the last southern OUTPOST
Oh Kansas City that is SPRAYING out
ana engulfing all this rolling prairie
You look for the old bee tree and
there is a catch in your throat when
you miss 1t-but no-that clump of
walnut trees hit 1t for moment. The
ak OF the real estate Spectator has
not come quite that far yet.
Those bees fitting far up among the
oead Frances against background Of
gray sky are the oldest settlers of this
county. The colony was there in that
same tree long years before white
man set foot in Missouri. There are
men living who knew that tree and
It's wild bees sixty years ago.
Turn to the right after you cross In
dian Creek and go about two hundred
yards to where the stream pours in
broad white waterfall over low ledge
of rock and drifts lazily in wide pool
with streak Of silver bubbles down it's
center. The banks here are rock, with
hollows gouged in them and overhang-
Ing shelves that cast black shadows
upon the stream.
Wattss mill squats low upon the OPP
posite bank. The weathered gray of its
sides and roof is the exact shade Of
the limestone beneath and all around
1T and the old mill seems to merge
with 1t and is part Of it. You look
In vain for any line of cleavage be-
tween mill and rock. The years have
blended them into one somber gray.
An Atmosphere of Gray.
The naturalists tell of birds and
lesser creatures of the wood who take
on the color Of the bark or the grasses
upon which they live. You think of
this as you see the miller in the door
way. His clothing, even to his cloth
slippers, his long beard, his soft felt
hat, sprinkled with -four, are a uni
form gray, the gray of rocks and mill.
Stubbins Watts, great-great-grand-
son of Daniel Boone, Is rs years old.
But the old water mill Is older than
he. 1t was built in 1880 and for eighty
wheat within ten mil Of Kansas City.
The hands that hewed its walnut
beams and fashioned the hickory pins
that keep it's weathered boarding In
place moldered into dust a half GEN.
fury ago, but the old mill grinds on
just as patiently, as faithfully, as I'M
mindful of passing time and genera
tions as 1t did long years before this
city was dreamed OF.
You pass your hand over the sur
face of walnut beam, hewed out by
the ak of John FitZhugh, eighty-two
years ago, and lay your fingers in
gaping notch just as his AK blade LEFT
It. and think of the changes that have
come to Western Missouri since then
Westport Landing grew out along the
old wood road until 1t bridged with
paved streets the miles between 1T
and Westport and overlooked south
ward and yet the old mill wheel turn
ed and the corn was ground to meal
between the homemade stones OF rock
Cuarried on the bank of Indian Creek
Since this mill was built the COM
merce of the Santa Fe Trail came,
flourished for a time and died; and
then the rush of forty-niners to Cali
fornia flowed past 1t, and after them
the railroads came and passed on 10
the Pacific, and with them the leglons
Of pioneers like the clouds or locusts
overspreading all the land beyond 10
the westward. The Mormons of lnde-
Incidence. who brought their grist to
this MILL departed to found new en-
pire beside the dead sea In the I'M
known desert. Past this old mill, just
two hundred yards to the east, wnere
the big elm leans out over the creeh'
armies of the Civil War hurried
splashing wildly through the ford, the
Southern amy in flight from the defeat
or Westnort. the Northern forces not
in pursuit.
Indian Creek Has Never Hurried.
great city Of tall buildings ana
all things modern has made the coun-
trv IN the north like teeming ant
hill where all is hurry, hurry, hurry
but Indian Greek has never nurlieo'
lis stream has flowed placidly, oaskins
ing the sun. pausing in the shadows 0.
its trees: and just as placidIy the oiu
mill wheels have turned, their $40"
creakings attuned to the liquid muir
murings Of the WATERMAN.
Placidly has Stubbins Watts gone IL
end ont among the turning shafts Tor
sixty-two years, barring tnoss iou.
wears of strife when he fougnt III 1ne
Southern army. In those years ne was
aroused and filed with afervor tna'
got him honorable mention more tnsn
once for deeds on the battle front Du'
when it was over he returned TO IN
dian Greek and the old mill ana .ne
c,raI;rg of the water as 1t ran unoer
Two tcor saothed him into CAIN
-. he talks but little,