Birthdays

We lived at this time in our old house which was later moved off and the new house built on the same lot.

Fay Watson Richardson was born Sunday eve Dec. 10, 1893. Weight at birth 9 lbs. Was a very robust looking child, with an exceptionally well developed head, but he was subject to many severe sickspells until he was about eight years old. When 14 mo. old he had a very severe illness that lasted for a month. Was 13 mo. old before he had a single tooth. Did not walk alone after this illness until 18 mo. old.

Fay had measles when 2 ½ years old, at the same time other children were all sick. It was at this time he made such a friend of Mrs. Dr. Lynde who used to bring in picture books and entertain him. She was the only one he would let take care of him beside the family. He had whooping cough at five years, and was vaccinated at the same time and was very ill… He has also had chicken pox.

He commenced going to school with nearly seven yrs old. He didn't enjoy going to school and used to beg, and beg to stay at home. He would ask every morning, "What do I have to go to school for?"

Fay, Ruth and Russell were baptized on the same day [June 26th, 1898] and united with the church about six or seven years later…

- From Clementine Watson Richardson's Scrapbook

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Letter from grandfather George Warren Richardson, dated Bruneau, Idaho, December 20, 1893:

My dear David & Clemmie,

I hasten to send you my congratulations. Another Grandson to perpetuate the Richardson name. I know you are pleased that the baby is a boy, and mother Lillie[1] and I both "rejoice with them that do rejoice."

I began to feel afraid that the family name would become extinct till George Alonzo[2] came to the rescue. Clara[3] used to try to comfort me and say, "Pa don't worry - there's time enough yet," but I was afraid her comfort would end in talk.

I presume the small boy will find a name before this reaches you but it will do no harm to suggest.

I think it would be a nice thing to have his name perpetuate the memory of his father and mother as well as the family name

Fay Watson Richardson

How would that do?

I have not rec'd Emma's weekly letter. Maybe she was too busy caring for her nephew. Well, your card brought the most important news.

I cannot understand why Emma does not get my letters oftener than once in two or three weeks. I have failed to write every week a few times, but I am sure some of my letters have been lost. We are getting along nicely. Mother has the contract for the school six months more (that is six months after the first quarter). She is as busy as she can be training her scholars for her Christmas performance. I am getting along well with the work on the circuit. There has been an addition to my missionary appropriation of $150 - and this extra amount came all in a bunch.

Yesterday I got my wire fence around my stockyard and stable and around the house, so I am nearly ready for winter before Christmas. Weather cool and pleasant, no snow in the Valley. We both send love and Christmas greetings to the Father - Mother and all the children - including Emma.

Affectionately,

This will have to do for Emma this week

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Letter from grandfather John Watson, dated River Falls, Wisconsin, December 14, 1893:

My dear David,

I received your card announcing the Birth of a son. I'm glad to hear that Clemmie and the boy are doing well. I hope he will prove to be a great blessing to you and grow up to be a good man and an useful citizen.

I have not been feeling well for more than a month past. I suffered from Heart failure, was over a week confined to the house. I got round a little but did not feel well. Day after Thanksgiving I was taken down again and have not been out of the House since, but I am feeling better and think I will be able to go out in a day or so.

Mother got Home this morning from a two weeks outing and joins with me and love to Clemmie and all the Richardsons.

Yours lovingly,

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Letter from Helen Field Watson, to Russell David Richardson, dated Northfield, Minnesota, June 1, 1966, in reply to his request for help in getting a passport:

Dear Russell,

I surely can authenticate your birth date.

Clara's carefully kept diaries have come into use many times when we wish to find out when or where someone did something. She began keeping them in 1893.

In April of 1895 she was staying at your home helping to care for the children. She writes: Sat. 20. Uncle Dave went for Mrs. Meade & Dr. Greaves about five o'clock. A little baby boy came this morning about 8:15. Uncle Dave took Ella, Florence, and Ruth out to Maggie's.[4] I took Fay out for a ride. In the afternoon I took him over to Mrs. Weeks and she helped me amuse him… and more about that day…

California could hardly be lovelier than our Minnesota now. My back lawn and garden seemed beautiful to me - probably more so because I'm yard man and gardener.

I'm glad I could be of a little help to you!

With sincere interest,

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Letter, Florence Richardson to her brother Russell, dated Morton, Minnesota, April 18, 1907:

This should reach you on your 12th birthday, if it does not tarry on the way. It is very, very hard to realize that you are celebrating your last birthday before entering your "teens," but at the rate you've been growing this year you'll be a young man shortly. Congratulations!

As spring advances, I suppose you and Fay are finding almost more work in the way of odd jobs, than you can do. Very soon school will be out and then you'll be free to work and play as you wish. Do you realize that six weeks from today is Decoration Day? I can scarcely wait till school is over.

I received Ruth's and mamma's letter to-night. I am so sorry that mamma has been so poorly. I do wish she could manage to do less work.

To-night after school Floyd Patten took Aunt Emma, Miss Brown and me riding way out into the country. We went out to Patten's farm, tied the team, and then rambled all through the woods, gathering what few flowers we could find.

I went to a home-talent play here last evening, which was rather good. It lasted rather late, and consequently, I have been sleepy all day. One just has to go to what few things like that do come along, or they don't like it at all.

Well Russell, I must say, "good-night." Wish we could have bought you something decent here. Give my love to all the rest of the family.

Most lovingly
Your sister

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Letter, Emma Richardson to Russell, in the same envelope:

Florence and I have not forgotten that you have a birthday this week - but we haven't been able to find anything that we thought you would care for, so we each send you a quarter and you are to get but you most wish whether it is a new book, an ice-cream soda or as Florence suggests, a new bell for "Cherry."

You are certainly to be congratulated on 12 years well spent; At the same rate 10 more will finish your education and fit you for some useful place in life.

Meanwhile, grow tall & strong, earn & save as much as you honestly can without being stingy; But above all be the sweet, happy, helpful boy that you have always been.

We are proud of Our Boys and feel sure that they are making the right sort of men.

Your affectionate

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NOTES:

1 GWR married November 17, 1889 as his second wife Rachel Elizabeth Silver, who was born March 11, 1844 and predeceased him, dying March 18, 1907.

2 The first grandson, born February 26, 1892 to Frank and Alice (Dibble) Richardson. Up to this time all the grandchildren had been girls. George A. attended the School of Mines at Lead, S.D., served in WWII, came home in ill health and died March 8, 1922. David Fay Richardson's two sons, Fay and Russell, were the only other grandsons; They survived to have issue.

3 Owen Richardson's wife, Clara Milne.

4 Probably Maggie Milne Lyman.

Richardson Family Papers: Volume II | Introduction

By Madge Richardson Walsh, 1991

Ruth Catherine Richardson 1910 

Northfield High School graduation portrait

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A MEMORY BOOK

Ruth in the family parlor of the
D.F Richardson home, Northfield, Minnesota

In Volume I of these annals, Florence Richardson Street reminisced about her parents, D.F. and Clemmie Richardson, and her brothers and sisters. She looked back to the time they lived in Northfield, Minnesota before the turn of the century, up to 1908. By then, Florence had married Claude Street and had her only child, Paul. Ella, the oldest sister, married Claude's brother Bernard (it was a double wedding) and had Harold, the first of her five children.

In Volume II, we have a diary and a series of articles by Ruth Richardson Smith, third child and youngest sister (these are being shared courtesy of her children). In her Private Diary, Ruth gives us a con­temporary account of the period 1907 - 1909, written during her teenage years at North­field High School, and illustrated with her own charming drawings.

Some of the gaps in the Diary I have been able to bridge with clippings from the Northfield News. For these, I shall forever bless the unnamed souls who indexed the newspaper. I also owe thanks to local Northfield teenager Reenie Martin, who spent a good part of her 1983 summer vacation in the library, reading microfilm to find the articles on my want list and making copies of them.

As her sisters did, Ruth went to Carleton College (Class of 1914, though she did not graduate). She worked as a nurse at St. Luke's in St. Paul for a year until moving to Suther­lin, Oregon in September, 1913 with her parents. On April 29, 1916, at Suther­lin, she married Arthur Gerald Smith, rancher.

Their first child was not born until 1921, and her early years on the ranch were lonely and often demanding. During this time she wrote an account of her experiences; later, during the Depres­sion when cash was hard to come by, she offered her writings to the editor of the Roseburg News-Review. The news­paper published her articles anonymously as Letters of an Oregon Bride. Though the incidents were true, the names were fictional (but she used quite a few family names and some individuals were composites).

The first series of 12 letters appeared daily from January 17 to 30, 1934 (six days a week - there was no paper on Sunday). These were so popular that she was "persuaded" to continue the series for an addi­tion­al 15 letters. These ran from April 17 to May 3, 1934. The letters covered an apparent time period of two years. The newspaper was in the habit of run­ning such serials - romances, mysteries, or adventure stories - by then-popular authors never heard of since (except for one, perhaps - Ben Ames Williams). But they were fictional, and the Letters were unusual in being true.

Ruth told no one that she was doing this, though Art must have known. Florence thought he might have considered it a reflec­tion on him that she had so rugged a life. Her children say they watched for the articles eagerly, never suspecting their own mother had written them.

Many years later, she got permission from the news­paper to publish the Letters as a book. Early in 1963 she sent a big envelope of them in manuscript to her sister Florence, asking her to type them. "Hurry!" Florence was astounded at the hidden talent of her sister; "I've never appreciated Ruth before."

Florence did have the letters typed before she died in July, 1963; but nothing more was done, and Ruth her­self died the following year.

The only "editing" of the Letters I found necessary was to correct the typist's obvious mistakes, and to add occasional clarifying remarks or illustrations.

The text of the remembrance read at her Memorial Service con­cludes this volume.

Ruth Richardson Smith has left us a true "Memory Book" to pour over, evoking times past in a style that is refresh­ingly ingenuous, often humorous, sometimes poignant: truly a gift of herself.

Madge Richardson Walsh 

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