The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1940-03-28
Frank S. Parker
Continued from Page one)

In that back lot, flower garden
ing in which both he and Mrs
Parker take a keen delight vii
occupy them this summer, an
many others perhaps. And in tn
meantime they'll be dividing thei
time at Birch Lake, for long thei
summer home.
Perhaps these things seem quie
retreats to those still tossed int
the rush Of things, but after thir
ty-five years as agent Of a railroad
a mans ready for quieter things
There were days in the old woot
traffic, Mr.. Parker relates, wher
he stood at the track scales, bareC
to the weather, for hours in the
night and knee deep in snow. Anc
all this after a twelve hour day
in his regular work. In those ole
wood hauling days when the wood
moved west, the hills to the east
complicated things, he pointed out
From here west could be hauled
twice as many cars. So from the
east a group of a dozen carloads
of wood would be brought one day
and another group on the next
Then the two groups would 60
chugging out together on the flat
ter, prairie trip west to Starbuck
and Morris and even farther on.
When the wood stayed here, it had
to be weighed. That's where agent
Parker fitted into the scene.
Born at Belmont, Iowa, March 2,
1870, Frank Parker came to this
community with his parents in 1882.
He arrived here in March of that
year, and in the same spring when
the frost went out, it is strangely
coincidental that the tracks for the
road, he served so many years,
were being laid through this COM
munity.
Farm work and delivery work
for the stores, all these odd jobs
Mr.. Parker did here before his
chance came on July IS, 1894,
when Mann, then agent at Little
Falls, called him to enter the ser
vice as clerk. In the next year he
returned to Sank Centre as assist
ant to the agent, a post he held
here until 1901. Then the job took
him west to Billings, Montana
where he was appointed chief clerk
for the company. Rapid changes
now, he was appointed travelling
auditor in 1902, and in 1905 he was
urged to accept the agency at Sank
Centre. That move anchored him,
and in 1929 when he was offered
the agency at ST. Cloud, he de-
clined because of personal interest
both in this community and at
Little Birch Lake.
In the days when he first became
agent, it was not only popular but
of the greatest necessity that one
become a penman. Frank chuckles
now over his efforts at schooling
in penmanship, conducted by a
former agent, Augsburg, at the N.
P. depot. Augsburg was a left
hand writer and to copy his char
acters was like working backward.
Nonetheless, Mr.. Parker did de-
velop writing characteristics. All
up and down the line conductors
hiSW SlylC. oIlSc "Ilcil xnL D.
o. F. Silver was on a trip out
west, she handed her ticket to the
conductor. He smiled and told her
he knew where she was from.
That's Frank Parker's writing at
Sank Centre"
Things change in 35 years, even
the traffic that moves in and out
of a small town station. Wood,
apples by the barrel, lumber, ce-
ment, building materials in the
days when Sank Centre was Writ
ually the only jobbing center for
these towns to the west, moved in
and out. The platform groaned
under the in and out traffic. In
35 years a man sees the coming of
such traffic as tractors, automo-
biles, the small carton stuff, and
the whole is a scene snatched from
modern business.
Agents, too, apparently have to
wait for trains. He remembers one
time years ago when the boys on
the train stopped to go fishing.
The tracks pass close to Lake
Amelia near Willard. This partic-
ular day the boys had gone fish
ing, got caught in a north wind.
The inevitable break in the oar,
sent them scurrying on foot to the
parked train. And they had plen-
ty Of fun trying to make up time
that day. Well, those things don't
happen today; business goes along
without the lethargic treatment it
got in those days.
So the end of an undramatic
career, or is it entirely without
drama? It's certainly dynamic, for
after forty-six years man faces
a new future. At the depot a
small wooden frame, under whose
glass were the glaring words 81.
S. Parker, certified -, and the
rest doesn't matter, will come
down. From the walls where it
hung on a rawhide thong a new
name will go up, a new career
will be furthered.
The story of the Man in the
Moon occurs in one form or an
ofbar In tho fDllylnra of o,,a,,, 49,