Letters: The Watson Family

Letter, Russell D Richardson to his daughter Madge Walsh, dated June 14, 1966:

Helen Watson is my first cousin, and therefore your first cousin, once removed. Her father, Charles Watson was my mother's older brother and they lived across the street from us in Northfield. Helen was one of seven children, next to the youngest, I believe. She graduated from Carlton in 1908 so she was probably born about 1886 and must be about 80 years old. She has never married, writes poetry and has published a book of her poems.

As a child I visited them frequently. Her mother, Ella Watson, was always baking cookies and pies and she was very generous with her goodies. Helen tells me that she is the last living member of her family and is living in the old family home. If you care to write to her for information about our family I am sure she would be happy to respond.

I remember her sister Clara especially because she was father's bookkeeper, and as my brother Fay and I worked at the store every day after school we came to know Clara a bit better than the other members of the family.

Charles Watson operated a leather good shop. He manufactured and repaired all kinds of harness and since we kept two horses (Fay and I had to do the chores of feeding, watering, currying, harnessing and driving the team down to the store before school) we had frequent contact with Uncle Charlie to keep the harness in repair. He was a good-natured John bull type of Englishman and both families had a fine friendly relationship.

The oldest brother, Earl Watson went into one of the three local banks. Elliott the second son became assistant postmaster and held this job all his adult life. Helen's youngest sister Marian was musical, married and moved away. Elliot, Clara and Helen never married. I suppose they were too happy and contented in their home life.

Genealogy studies can be fun. Hope you enjoy it.

Love, Dad

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The Watson genealogy & family chart are presented here as Helen sent it to me [mrw], with a few additions, especially the date of death of John Watson, from Clemmie's scrapbook. 

The data on the Featherstone children come from a letter from L.R. (Ted) Featherstone to Jeanette Richardson Nelson, dated Red Wing, Minnesota, April 6, 1978:

…It brings up history from a long way back. I am 83 and these things happened when I was a boy.

My uncle Charles Featherstone married Amy Watson, a local girl whose father was a local preacher. Aunt Amy had several sisters and brothers - I can't tell much about that family. But one sister was married to a Richardson in Northfield. Occasionally they came to visit in Featherstone Township. There were two boys - Fay and Russell - with whom I played as a boy 70 - 75 years ago. There were also two girls that I remember-  their names are gone.

Aunt Amy died a long time ago… after her death we heard nothing from each other. When uncle Charles died many years later, I remember meeting Fay at his funeral but our contacts have been practically nil…

perhaps you have known all of these things but I am happy to have had some reason to recall days long gone that I enjoyed greatly.

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Helen Field Watson died April 1, 1978 at the age of 92. She was a woman of many talents: a teacher, writer, and artist, and inspired affection in all those who knew her. The following is adapted from The News obituary.

Helen Field Watson in 1957

Helen Field Watson was born on the Nutting farm, later the Odd Fellows Home, at the West edge of Northfield on 5th Sreet. She graduated from Northfield high school in 1904, and from Carleton College with a BS degree in 1908. In 1929 she received a master's degree in biology from the University of Michigan and worked out of the universities biological station and Ann Arbor.

She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, 1914; She belonged to, and was president of several, organizations which gave an indication of the range of our interests: PEO, AAUW, SDEA,NEA, State Biology Roundtable, South Dakota State Poetry Society, the National League of Pen Women, et cetera.

Many summers of her life were devoted to study in a variety of fields: commercial subjects, plant life and ornithology, art, and writing. During her earlier years, she wrote science and nature articles. Her poetry appeared in anthologies and in 1949, her book of poetry, Field Notes,[1] was published. She illustrated the book, as she had some of her articles.

In 1961 she won the grand prize in a design contest conducted by the Red Wing Potteries for her "Snail on a thorn." In 1962, she had a one-man exhibit of 16 paintings on the Saint Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. One of her oil paintings, which was among 30 from the Minnesota Rural Artists Association hung in Washington, DC, was entitled Monday and was of washing hanging out in the backyard of her Northfield home. 

She often travelled, to California, New York, and New England, and in 1952 spent six weeks in what she described as a "glorious, invigorating experience," traveling in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and England.

She first taught mathematics and bookkeeping at Saint James, 1909 - 1913. She devoted 1913 - 1914 to the study and active practice of social service in Chicago, returning to the classroom in 1915 to teach algebra and biology in Redwood Falls High School.

From 1921 until her retirement in 1953, she taught biology in the senior high school at Mitchell, SD. She kept an apartment in Mitchell for a year after her retirement, but was called to Northfield in the fall of 1953 by the serious illness of her sister Clara, and never returned to live in Mitchell.

Clara died in 1956, and Helen and her brother Elliot lived on in the family home on Winona Street. After Elliot's death in 1960, and that of her sister Mary Ann Schlattman in 1964, Helen was the last remaining member of her immediate family. Though in failing health, her mind remained clear to the very end.

Memorial service was held at the United Methodist Church of Northfield conducted by Rev. W.T. Horst. Interment, by the Bierman Funeral Chapel, was in Oak Lawn cemetery.

Helen Field Watson's headstone
Oaklawn Cemetery, Northfield, MN

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1 Field Notes by Helen Field Watson: "This quatrain is typical of the work of Helen Field Watson, a new writer who has been represented in various magazines but now for the first time appears between covers. Both in form and content, she gives the impression of being an old hand; there is finesse, depth and lyrical grace to her work, which is equally at home whether dealing with fields and the animals in them or with the human world. The author, a resident of Mitchell, S. D., has embellished the book with several of her own drawings. Published January 1, 1949" (From Goodreads)