Rexburg Postal Services

              VOICES FROM THE PAST
REXBURG POSTAL SERVICES
By Cyral A. Watson
October 25, 1971
Tape # 16
Oral Tape by Harold Forbush
Transcribed by Louis Clements
December 2002
Upper Snake River Valley Historical Society
( Through the facilities of the Upper Snake River Valley Historical Society the following interview was first recorded on reel- to- reel tape. It is now placed onto a C- 60 Cassette this 5th day of April, 1984.)
Forbush: Seated across from me this afternoon on this 25th day of October, 1971, here at my office at 68 East 1st South, Rexburg, Idaho, is Mr. Cyrus Watson whom I would like to interview this day. I am going to start by having you state your full name and the date and place where you were born?
Cyral Watson: My name is Cyral A. Watson, born September 11, 1889, at Fairview, Bannock County, Idaho.
HF: Now how do you pronounce or spell your first name?
CW: C Y R A L.
HF: And Watson?
CW: W A T S O N.
HF: What is your present day residence?
CW: 178 East 2nd South, Rexburg.
HF: And just in one sentence, what has been your whole life’s occupation?
CW: My life’s occupation has been post office worker. I worked in the post office from June 16, 1916, to November 30, 1957.
HF: You have had a long many, many years of this haven’t you then?
CW: Forty and half years.
HF: Now I would like to have you give the name of your father and something about the Watson surname, as you understand it, for genealogical purpose?
CW: Well, my father’s name is Hyrum A. Watson. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, 8th day of April, 1853. His parents were Hyrum A. Watson, Sr. and Rebecca Hendricks Watson.
HF: Do you know anything about the Watson’s, where they came from, why they came to America, and some of this background information?
CW: They came to Massachusetts; I don’t know when, and in that territory, in the New England states.
HF: Did they come west as converts to the Mormon Church?
CW: Well after he joined the Church they came out West and lived in and around Cache Valley for a number of years. He was sent back east for some reason, to get some people and bring them out or something. While he was back there he decided not to come back and he wanted his wife to come back east with him, She wouldn’t come back so they were divorced. There she married grandfather Roscoe in cache Valley.
HF: I see, now these were your grandfathers that you are talking about?
CW: Yes, that’s my grandfather.
HF: Now your mother’s maiden name?
CW: My mother’s maiden name is Lavinia Hyer Watson.
HF: Can you tell me something about the Hyer surname and their background?
CW: Well they lived in Cache Valley around Lewiston, Utah. They are very prominent people there. They lived there for a number of years and then she married father and then they moved up here into Rexburg.
HF: Now how do you spell her name?
CW: H Y E R. It used to be different from that but at the present time that is it.
HF: Now you inferred that they moved into the Upper Snake River Valley into Rexburg. Could you indicate, as you understand it, the factors which induced, encouraged your father, mother, and family to move into the Upper Snake River Valley?
CW: Well, I really don’t know the reason. I never thought to find out. I just assumed they wanted to get in a place where they could get some land of their own and start in a new environment.
HF: Do you know when your folks came into the Upper Snake River Valley here at Rexburg?
CW: They came in the early fall of 1891.
HF: Can you relate how they came?
CW: By wagon. A two horse wagon outfit. That’s all I remember.
HF: You would have been?
CW: Two years old. HF: Any other brothers or sisters?
CW: Yes, we had eleven in the family. There were two children born after we came here. The rest were born before we came here.
HF: I see. This would have included your father and your mother. This was just a single family? There was no plural marriage?
CW: No. He did have a second wife that lived here. I didn’t know too much about it. Her name was Addie. She lived here for a number of years and then she moved back to Smithfield, Utah, and stayed there. I didn’t see her too much. They had a family of five children.
HF: Was she referred to as Aunt so and so?
CW: Yes.
HF: So your father was a polygamist then?
CW: Yes.
HF: Upon this coming to Rexburg, did he have an occupation that he pursued?
CW: Not in particular. He used to do contract work. He helped on railroads and so forth.
HF: Now this would be working on roads and railroads?
CW: Yes.
HF: But it wasn’t building homes or anything like this?
CW: No.
HF: When your parents moved to Rexburg in 1891, can you tell me where they established their first home?
CW: Well, I think it was on 1st South and 2nd West. That would have been down to the other end of the block.
HF: Can you describe that home as you understand it?
CW: As I remember it was a two room long cabin, dirt roof, with no flooring in it. Later on it was.
HF: Did you stay there for a few years before you moved into another home? CW: Yes, we stayed there for several years and then we moved up to the opposite corner, the corner north from there. We moved there and lived until we moved out to the Grand, Oregon, for about eight years. Then we came back.
HF: Well now at this first home, when you first came here, originally they allowed settlers to purchase a whole lot which consisted of two and a half acres. It was a quarter of a block. Now with your parents, do you suppose they had a cow shed or a little barn or something out at the rear?
CW: I can’t remember one but I suppose there must have been one there because of the severe winters and everything.
HF: Most families had one cow.
CW: Yes they did.
HF: A garden, you remember as a boy having to work in a garden?
CW: Yes, we had a garden. I remember we used to go out and have to hoe it. We’d lay down in the furrows most of the time. We worked when we had to.
HF: Do you recall some of the items, vegetables that were easy to raise and good food material.
HF: Now you would get your water through a ditch?
CW: No, we had a well. They apparently drilled a well. I don’t remember the time when they drilled it but we had a well and we used to draw the water out of the well.
HF: Now was this water used for the household. We had a trough there and we’d water the animals there. We used to draw it up with a rope.
HF: It was an open well but was curbed?
CW: Right.
HF: But you remember this yourself? You had to draw it up with a pulley and a rope? Then the water would be carried in a bucket, of course, to the house.
CW: Right.
HF: That water was used for bathing and for your culinary purpose, drinking, washing clothes and everything like this?
CW: That’s right. HF: Now for the garden, how did you water the garden?
CW: Well, now, I don’t remember. That’s too far back. It seems like there must have been a ditch there someplace and I think there was.
HF: Now in that part of two, were there any business houses down along there?
CW: No, no. none there at that time.
HF: Do you recall Porter Park, what is called Porter Park? At that time what did they used that for? Was it settled? Were there home on there?
CW: Well, there were people I used to know who lived on the corner of one of those blocks. But this particular block, I don’t remember anything being on that block. I don’t remember any homes being built on that particular place.
HF: It is my understanding that it was a public square and that they brought the cows there. Do you recall this at all?
CW: Yes, I remember that. There was an attorney by the name of Hicks that used to live just across the street north of that Porter Park. He was an attorney, you wouldn’t know him.
HF: No. Were there any, I think you mentioned as you recalled there were no so called business houses down in that part of town?
CW: No there were not any at that time.
HF: Where did you go to get the family shopping?
CW: Well I remember we used to go up the ZCMI. That’s way up to the head of Main Street, across the street from the present court house.
HF: Can you describe that building?
CW: Well, it was a big two story building. It seems to me that there used to be people living at the top of it but the store was on the bottom of it. One of the first buildings in the town was built by Flamm and Company there just about where the Idaho Bank of Commerce ( Key Bank 2002 is. We used to do a lot of trading in there too.
HF: Now in both of these stores, did you purchase items by barter, by taking say eggs, or butter, or something like this, or cash?
CW: Well, I think it was cash. It was cash. I think that was one building I am talking about that used to be used by Ricks College at one time before they moved into the place just a half block…
HF: Now this was the ZCMI?
CW: The ZCMI, it seems to me it used to be headquarters of Ricks College for a shot time. Then they moved a little further south by where the old pump house is ( corner 1st south and 2nd East).
HF: Do you know at to whether, this pump house as they call it, a well that the community could go to and get there water from there?
CW: I don’t think so at that time. I think it was a church house, a ward building then. That’s where we used to have our meetings and so forth. And then the college used to use that at one time.
HF: To teach the youngsters?
CW: Yes.
HF: I see. Can you describe, was this a log building as you remember?
CW: No, well, maybe it was, a log building with a shingle roof. It wasn’t too big because the land wasn’t very big I guess.
HF: But you remember it?
CW: Yes.
HF: You family would, of course, walk from you home to attend school. And that was the only church in town at that time?
CW: I believe it was.
HF: Do you remember the Bishop?
CW: No, I don’t remember the Bishop?
HF: Course it was Thomas E. Ricks, Jr., who was the first Bishop there?
CW: That could be.
HF: Do you recall as a young boy of attending any meetings at church or stake or something like this, that stand out in your mind?
CW: No not in particular. About the only things I remember is the Second Ward across the street from where we lived. That’s about the only place a remember of attending church. Now, I believe I do remember attending church in this old building up there where they had the school and the college was there for a short time. I was too young to be going to School; I might have been going to Sunday school.
HF: Now where did you attend your first schooling?
CW: It must have been at this place here; at this particular place there the meeting house was where the pump house is now.
HF: You don’t recall of attending at school down there near your home?
CW: No.
HF: It is my understanding that the first public school was where the Second Ward is?
CW: Yeah, just across the street from where we were. We probably would have gone to school there if they had school in there.
HF: But you don’t recall of attending school there?
CW: No, I don’t recall it. My memory is not what it used to be.
HF: Well, now, can you recall where you did go to school, specifically?
CW: No, I have really forgotten. I know when we moved out to LeGrande, Oregon, I was about twelve years old and I went to school out there in LeGrand. We lived there about eight years. Then I went on a mission from there and then I came off my mission and came to Rexburg and never went back there.
HF: Now as I understand from you and our chatting before, while your family was still living in Oregon, you were sent back here to Rexburg to attend Ricks College or what did they call it then, the Academy?
CW: Ricks Academy.
HF: How many years did you attend there?
CW: Four years.
HF: Most of your schooling was done in the Spori Building? The big rock building?
CW: Yes, the Spori Building. All of it was.
HF: Well in those years, with whom did you live? CW: I lived with my sister, Mrs. Robert Tempest.
HF: And she had married a son of?
CW: A son of Phineas Tempest.
HF: What was Phineas Tempest doing those years?
CW: It seems to me that he used to be in the newspaper business but I’m not right sure of that.
HF: You remember him somewhat?
CW: Very well.
HF: Can you describe him just a little bit?
CW: As I remember he was quite aged at that time. I really don’t remember what his work was but it seems to me like he was in the newspaper business. He lived just a house away from us.
HF: While you were staying with your sister?
CW: Yes.
HF: This was probably an older sister?
CW: Yes, one of the older sisters.
HF: Changing the subject matter just a little bit, going back to perhaps an earlier date when you were just a young man, does it occur to you as the road conditional past your place down there on Second West. Were the roads such that they were awfully muddy?
CW: I don’t remember them being muddy. I do remember them on Main Street but I don’t remember them being muddy on the streets where we lived.
HF: Do you recall that they were graveled? Had the county or the city done anything to gravel those roads?
CW: Well, it seems to me like it was. They had fenced off the blocks. The streets were wide streets at that time but I don’t remember them ever graveling them at that time.
HF: I don’t suppose there were too many people who lived down there at the earliest times in the southwest part of time, were there?
CW: There were not too many. I remember Oliver Anderson and ( ) Spori family, and some of those people there but there were not too many.
HF: When you talk about Oliver Anderson, was this the man who married Mr. Tempest’s daughter?
CW: Right.
HF: What other daughters and sons did Phineas Tempest have that you knew?
CW: Well, he had Joe Tempest, a son, younger than Robert. Then he had a daughter, Margaret. Sarah married Willard Johnson. Then there was the one who married Oliver Anderson. I remember there were three.
HF: Was their home on further west and south of you?
CW: Their home was just across the street from where the Third Ward meeting house is now, where Carl Johnson lives. Right next to him.
HF: On further south across the street?
CW: It was just west one house from where Carl Johnson lives. She died a couple of years ago, Sarah.
HF: That is Mrs. Anderson?
CW: Yes, Lula.
HF: She was a real elderly lady.
CW: Yes, ninety something.
HF: Almost a hundred years old when she did pass away. But you don’t recall specific knowledge about the roads?
CW: No, I don’t have too much knowledge about the roads, how they were. Main Street was always muddy in raining weather but other than that I don’t remember anything about the roads much. They weren’t bad much, I am pretty sure.
HF: The hitching posts were out in front of each business?
CW: All along Main Street.
CW: Yes, they used to have two by fours put about that far apart, about an inch or so apart.
HF: Then they were built up so that soil could drop down in- between.
CW: I wouldn’t be too sure of that now that I think of it. That wouldn’t be a good way to build a sidewalk, would it? People would drop things and they couldn’t get it. So it probably wasn’t.
HF: I would kinda think that might be so. But you recall the hitching posts?
CW: Yes, they were very popular places.
HF: What, could one team or wagon be put up at each one or could two or three?
CW: As many as could get around. They had several along the street there. It never was crowded to speak of unless it was a holiday or something. Then there used to be a livery stable right where Calvin Dicks’s Jewelry store is there now. It was run by Henry Bigler.
HF: The Bigler Livery Stable, now that would be on East Main but over on the north side.
CW: Right where the jewelry store is now, Calvin Dick’s.
HF: Could you describe that a little bit for me?
CW: Well, as I remember, they used to have a few buggies and horses and you would come in and hire them. I never used one of them and I don’t know the price they charged for it. They used to have some pretty good service as I remember.
HF: Now was this a building, all of it under cover?
CW: Yes, it was all under cover. They had a nice big front door there and you could drive in and out. It was a fairly good place considering the time it was built.
HF: Now would this be a lumber building, probably one story? Now where would they store the hay and feed for he animals?
CW: Yes, it was one story. I imagine it was in the back end of the livery stable cause at that time they were not using too many outfits on occasions like that.
HF: Well, now coming down to, as we say today, the nitty- gritty of this of your lifetime occupation, mainly working for the U. S Postal Service, how did you come to become interested in the postal service?
CW: Well, I came home from my mission in January, 1916, and I was working with my brother, Ira, who was an electrician. One day Brother Lorenzo Rigby came around to me and wanted to know if I wanted to work the post office. I said I’d sure like too. He said you ought to have one so when you go away you have someone to look after the place. So he named me as assistant postmaster. After a few months I got my appointment. But at the time there was Ethyl Cutis working at the general delivery window. Neil Call was working in the dispatchers place and Brother Rigby put me up at the cashiers office. I can’t figure out yet why he did it. So a little later on Brother Call quit the job. Then he got someone else in there to take place. Ethyl Curtis was a very efficient clerk.
HF: Was she a married woman at the time?
CW: No, no she wasn’t.
HF: Were you a married man at that time?
CW: No I was not a married man at the time. She was very efficient. All her traveling then going up and down the country, they always made this the headquarters for the mail. She was very efficient and kept such a good care the mail and forwarding it and so forth. She was very good.
HF Now at the time that you commenced working under Mr. L. Y. Rigby, where was the post office located here in Rexburg?
CW: It was located right around the territory that Holley’s Plumbing place is up her on East Main. It could have been just a little west of that place. There has been so many changes in there that I can‘ t figure out just where the place was but in that territory.
HF: On East Main…
CW: On East Main right close to where the Holley Plumbing place is.
HF: Now that would be, so in that time it was just east of the Flamm Store?
CW: Yes.
HF: Can you describe the building or the structure in which the post office was located?
CW: It was a frame building. There wasn’t too much of a lobby there, it was a small one but it was large enough for the time. Then we had an entrance to the post office around to the back on the side between the wall and the place you worked in the post office. That’s where we entered the place. Then we had a general delivery, a small window. Then we had another small window for money orders and other transactions.
HF: Now then people or patrons would come to the window and ask for the mail?
CW: They did some but they had mail boxes.
HF: Were those boxes so that they could be locked?
CW: Yes, they had a combination.
HF: Something like they had today then. That much of the operation hasn’t changed a great deal. Do you remember what stamps sold for when you…?
CW: I think they were around two cents. Two cents for letters and one cent for post cards. The first post office, as I remember it, was named Kaintuck. It was across the street from the Idaho Bank of Commerce there where Thell and Mary have their café.
HF: Now this would be on 1st East?
CW: It would be south on 1st East.
HF: Just west of the Idaho Bank of Commerce today.
CW: Across the street from the bank.
HF: Can you remember and describe the building in which the post office was located?
CW: No I don’t remember it.
HF: But you understand that was where it was?
CW: Yes.
HF: When you commend working it was as you have described it. Now in 1916 had there been organized some rural deliveries?
CW: There were two deliveries in the country part of the place. Ralah Harris was one of the carriers and Bill Stevens was the other carrier. One went one direction and one the other.
HF: Do you remember which?
CW: Well, I think Ralah Harris must have gone out to Salem and Sugar city and Stevens went out down this other area.
HF: Down south of town
CW: Yes.
HF: I’d like to have you describe and tell a little bit about L. Y. Rigby. What type of man he was as you recall?
CW: Well, he was a rather small fellow. He was a very conscientious man. You don’t get them any better than he was. He was honest and very nice to work for. He was considerate of everyone. I never knew him to do anything out of the ordinary. He was so good to me that I will never forget. He was just a wonderful man in my opinion. He was a Democrat but he was still a good man. I worked for him for a long while.
HF: He had received his appointment through the Democratic administration of Woodrow Wilson. Can you recall the wages that you first were paid?
CW: When I was first paid I was getting $ 66.30 or something a month, $ 33 and something every two weeks I think it was on the fifteen and the first.
HF: You were first as a clerk and then you became his assistant. And then, perhaps, you got…?
CW: I went in there as a clerk. I got a fairly good raise when I was appointed assistant postmaster.
HF: Can you call to mind how long post office remained there?
CW: Well, after I got there in June, 1916, it was June, 1917, when we moved into the new Eccles Building on College Avenue.
HF: So you were just about one year.
CW: Yes, just about one year.
HF: This would have been where in the Eccles Building?
CW: It was in the corner building. It was on Carlson Avenue and College Avenue, where Dr. Hoffman had his office for along time.
HF: Now this would have been the southeast corner of the building?
CW: Yes.
HF: What changes in facilities were there provided as compared with what you had?
CW: Well, we had some new mail boxes and some nice equipment we put in there. It was so much nicer. The other place was just a haphazard affair and when we got his place we had a new paneling for the hot lobby. We had some nice machinery and so forth. It was very nice.
HF: I presumed you had a lot more room too?
CW: Yes, we had a lot more room.
HF: And the patrons could come in, they had a better place to pick up their mail? CW: Yes, they had a nice place and they had some nice mail boxes there. It was much nicer but we soon grew out of that.
HF: Did L. Y. Rigby continue to be the postmaster after move?
CW: When we made the move, he was still postmaster, but shortly after that politics changed and then they put in a new postmaster who was Samuel Oldham. Then they put in…
HF: Samuel Oldham? Now he would be Volney Oldham’s father?
CW: Right.
HF: Now this Samuel Oldham, hadn’t he lived out around Lyman or Archer or out that way?
CW: Not that I know.
HF: Can you tell me something about this man, his size or his…?
CW: He was fairly good sized. He was considerably taller than brother Rigby. He was a little taller than I am. He used to be the county auditor, county clerk, and so forth. He was a very good penman, very good. He worked there until parties changed again and then George Hooks went in, a Democrat again.
HF: And in the meantime, were you still considered as the assistant postmaster?
CW: Yes, right down to the time that I retired.
HF: Had the number of employees increased quite a bit?
CW: Yes, they increased. We had three mails, rural mail carriers at that time. We had a couple of more clerks extra by that time.
HF: Had the city initiated daily deliveries in town? When did they start that? Do you know about when it was?
CW: No, I don’t know.
HF: By the time they moved over there. There were two mail carriers. One was Emory Anderson and the other was…
HF: Now was that the Emory Anderson who lived just up the block here?
CW: Yes, I am trying to think of who the other one was. I can’t remember. I should have written that down.
HF: They just had the two then?
CW: Yes, at that time.
HF: And, of course, patrons would come to the…
CW: General Delivery for their mail outside of the delivery district.
HF: Or if they had a box. Did the business houses pretty much come for their own or did you deliver…?
CW: Most of the business houses had mail boxes. They had larger mail boxes. Most of them had mail boxes so they could get their mail as soon as it was distributed. Most of them do that today, I think.
HF: Do you recall, and I suppose this is a rather difficult question, but do you recall about how many mail boxes, patrons you had, that is individuals who would come to the post office to get their mail?
CW: Oh no, I couldn’t be able to tell. We had quite a few mail boxes, a couple of hundred of them I imagine. A lot of them used those.
HF: Do you recall anything about your schedule in those years? The mail would be put out once or maybe twice a day?
CW: Well, I think we used to send it by train. We had it trucked down to the train and it would go out in the evening.
HF: Was there somebody who would have a contract to go down and brain the mail up from the train?
CW: Right.
HF: Do you know who this was?
CW: Well, one of them I remember was Jim Barrett. He had a contract.
HF: Was this the same Jim Barrett that later established Barrett Dress Shop?
CW: Yes. But he let his boy do it. Bill, I think his name was. Bill Barrett, he let his boy do the work, just had the contract. He didn’t do the work. He just had the contract. Then he let his son, Bill, he carried the mail back and forth.
HF: This would, of course, be the first class mail and packages and parcel post?
CW: Everything.
HF: Was there quite a lot of freight brought through the mail in those days?
CW: Yes, there was quite a bit. I think more than there is now.
HF: Backtracking just a bit, when the post offices leased space in the southeast corner of the then Eccles hotel was it?
CW: Yes.
HF: Now it was known as the Eccles Hotel at that time, that was the name?
CW: Right.
HF: I suppose this was a very beautiful building?
CW: Very nice, outstanding for the times.
HF: It was by far the largest single structure then in town?
CW: It was.
HF: Can you recall, on College Avenue, going from the post office north, what some other business leased from the Eccles Hotel people?
CW: Well, they had a grocery store right next to between the post office and the hotel entrance. Then next they had a lovely dinning room just north to the entrance of the lobby. Then they had, Steve Skelton had a meat market right on the corner, right next to the alley. Then the other two spaces, I just don’t remember.
HF: But it was a very attractive building and it catered to good patrons, I guess?
CW: That’s right.
HF: Now you mentioned that your second employer was Samuel Oldham, as the postmaster. Following his service, who then became the postmaster of Rexburg?
CW: George Hoops.
HF: Do you know approximately the dates when he became postmaster?
CW: No I don’t.
HF: Was this in the twenties or thirties?
CW: Oh I think it was in the thirties.
HF: What particular rating did the Rexburg Post Office have then?
CW: It was a second class. I think it was a third class before we moved in there. Shortly after we moved in there it became a second class.
HF: On College Avenue?
CW: Yes.
HF: Can you tell me your impressions of Mr. Hoops?
CW: He was another mighty fine fellow. He was a Democrat again, but he was a good man and was dedicated to his work. He stayed on the job and did the job the way it should be done.
HF: Did he bring about any particular changes to the service?
Watson: No, he didn’t make any changes. When you are in there, you are on civil service. Unless you do something you are still there. He was very efficient and very dedicated.
HF: Now by this time, of course, the mail would be taken out in the country by automobile?
CW: Yes, they all had their automobile. They had three carriers shortly after that time. There was Archie Anderson, Harry Hill, and George Nedauld.
HF: And in Rexburg itself, as you recall, how many footmen?
CW: There were two footmen who took the mail and delivered to the business and residences.
HF: Now would mail be delivered once a day?
CW: Just once a day was all.
HF: Now that’s pretty much been maintained down through the years?
CW: That’s all they do today. They still have two carriers and then one fellow that help out here and there. They should have a third carrier in a short time because I think the business is such that they need a third carrier.
HF: Now you served under one more postmaster. Who was that? CW: Willies Lyman.
HF: About what year did he become postmaster?
CW: Well, I don’t know what time he became postmaster but he was there when I retired.
HF: And you retired in what year?
CW: I retired in 1957. Forty- one years and a half.
HF: You mentioned, in comparison, if you wouldn’t mind sharing this with me, that when you commenced working in 1916 you were paid about $ 33 every two weeks or $ 66 a month. At the time you retired that had increased to how much?
CW: I don’t remember how much per month but I know by the year. I was getting $ 5700 a year. That would be at the time I retired. It has pretty near doubled that by now for the same job.
HF: When you retired was the post office still in the same place on College Avenue?
CW: No, it was over on Center Street.
HF: By that time it had been moved?
CW: Five, six, or seven years.
HF: Were the facilities somewhat improved by the move over on North Center?
CW: We had lots more room there. We had some new equipment. We had a fan in there to ventilate the place. It took the heat off the afternoon. They had quite a bit more. We had a nice big safe there. It was much better equipped. But now they are in bad shape. They really need new building.
HF: Now as we close the tape, I would be interested in learning something about your family. Who did you marry and about your boys and girls?
CW: Well, I was married September 15, 1920, to Minnie Christensen from Sugar City. She was working in the bank here at the time. Our first child was born July 2, 1921. That was Gordon Watson and he is now the executive director of the American Dental Association with headquarters in Chicago. We were there just a month ago. My second daughter was Ladonna Watson. She married Clarence Lenniger. He used to live here have owned a jewelry store. She was going to school there. Then my third daughter was Rebecca Watson Bott. She married Forest Bott, who lived at Clementsville at that time. Since then they have been divorced and she is living alone. She works at the post office window there as a clerk. HF: Becky?
CW: Yes, Becky.
HF: That’s interesting. I didn’t realize that she was your daughter.
CW: Yes she is. I think she is pretty efficient there. They say she is anyway.
HF: She’s carrying on the old tradition.
CW: She was a Democrat at the time she went in there because she was living on the dry farm. On the dry farm, most of them were Democrats. But I think she is a Republican now.
HF: And that is the size of your family.
CW: Yes, that is the size of my family.
HF: Well now, you have referred a time or two to politics and being a Republican, I don’t think there is any question that you are Republican?
CW: Right?
HF: What were the factors that caused you to be interested becoming involved in politics?
CW: I am not too involved in it. I just think they have more of the things that the people should do. It just seems like the Democrats, all they want to do is have you give them something. Like all this crop sharing and all that stuff? Course the Republicans go in it too but I don’t know, I just figure, I just like the Republicans best.
HF: Did you ever run for public office?
CW: No.
HF: Never did seek for public office?
CW: No, no. When I was at the post office you were not allowed to take part in politics.
HF: That’s true. Let’s se, what act was that? I don’t recall to mind right now just what that is but I know you are prohibited from taking part. But you have worked for the party and have tried to be interested and helpful and make yourself available for service.
HF: Mr. Watson, I express appreciation to you for the opportunity of interviewing you this afternoon. I want to say in closing that we are planning, as usual, to place this and other tapes with the Ricks College Library, the David O’ Mackey Library. From the expression I understand from you, you would consent to perhaps have a person that they want to listen to the tape or one day in the future to have the tape transcribed into the printed form for any material that might be worthwhile for historical research. Would this be satisfactory to you?
CW: That’s fine. I appreciate being here too.