The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1924-06-05
Articles of Real Historic In
terest Used in Pageant

Hearing of bonnet that is over
one hundred years in age that was
worn in the pageant, we wondered
whether there were not many inter-
esting, human stories found when col
Letting material for the pageant.
Those in the city living in homes
that have been in the family for de-
cades are fortunate in possessing at
tics that hold many old pieces of fur
niture and queer-fashioned garments.
These people were most gracious
and helpful in putting at the dispo-
sal of the committees their relics of
bye-gone days and in telling of the
early days in River Falls.
Mrs. Elmira Powell and Mrs. w. S.
Armstrong visited, in the pageant, the
old log school house, wearing bon
nets of years ago. Mrs. Powell's is
especially interesting. Nearly hun
dred years ago, her aunt moved to
Illinois from the East bringing with
her trunkful of bonnets, for she was
sure she would never be able again
to get decent headgear in this wild
west country. The young woman and
her bonnets came by way of the Great
Lakes and landed at Fort Dearborn,
the beginning of the Chicago yet to
come.
A tall, square-cornered grandfath-
er's clock with wooden works whose
age is also around the century mark,
that belongs to Miss Alice Hardy
was used in one of the episodes. The
clock, made by that famous old clock
maker, Seth Thomas, was bought by
the grandmother of Miss Hardy when
young woman with the money she
earned from selling one of those now
rare hand-woven bedspreads.
A child's small chair with legs
worn three inches shorter than they
originally were through a hundred
years of usage, was resurrected
from the barn of Miss Belle Deans.
This chair was first used by her
grandparents in New York for their
children and later was brought here
by her parents in the early days of
River Falls history; it has been used
by three generations.
Would you believe that the old
black walnut clock that licked on the
wall of the original building of the
normal school is in existence now :?
When the building was burned in
1897, the clock was saved with some
other articles and President Parker
stored it in his house. When T. Z.
Thomson moved into the Parker
home, they found in the attic the old
normal school clock.
A carpet bag belonging to Mr.. and
Mrs. Allan HI. Weld, the first teachers
in the old academy and the grandpar-
ents of Miss Laura Weld, and carried
by them when they came here from
the east, was also used. 1t is
nothing like our all-leather Boston
bags now even though the carpet bag
perhaps had been made in Boston. >
An odd-looking black trunk was
used in the second episode. It be-
longed to MIR. Byington, the proprie-
tor of the Greenwood Hotel, the first
hotel in River Falls. The trunk must
be hundred years old.
A little black silk taffetta shoulder
cape lined with lavender. silk belong
ing to Mrs. w. D. Parker, the wife
of the first president of the school,
was worn in Episode three.
N. N. Fuller carried with him thru
the Civil War a satchel that was
used in the pageant. 1t is rectang-
ular leather covered wooden box
bound with iron.
Several of the dresses. worn are
forty years or so old; one of them is
the wedding dress of one of the wom-
en- in the city.
The violin used in the second cpl
sode in the wedding scene is another
old relic, formerly owned by c. w.
Ensign, now the property of c. E.
Nelson.