A Little Family History

Our oldest son wrote about a family heirloom we have that used to belong to his great-great grandfather (seen on the left in the picture). He based it on what his great uncle wrote a few years back....

The Watch
In the early 1900’s Harley Palmer was going to school crossing a dry ford in the Niobrara river bed. He had to step carefully to because of the deep hoof prints that the horses made in a wetter time. In a hoof print that was almost a foot deep he spotted a gold clip which shone as brightly as if it were polished. Slowly he got down on his hands and knees and dug it out of the very dry dirt.

When he reached the school he sat down in his desk and started toying with the clip instead of doing his work. The teacher noticed him and asked about the clip. Eagerly Harley explained that he found the clip in a dried up river bed. The teacher said that the clip was actually a watch chain. The watch was probably still in the river bed which excited Harley.

After school Harley went back to the river and dug in the hoof prints until he found a shining gold watch which also glistened. He pulled it out of the baked dirt. That night he showed it to his father. The next day his father brought it to the jeweler’s shop, because it wasn’t theirs. If there was anyone who could describe it properly then he could have it. After a year passed and no one claimed it, the watch was given back to Harley.

Years later when Harley could afford to he got the watch cleaned and all the rust thoroughly rubbed off. Sadly when he died in1945 the watch stopped working. Harley’s widow gave the watch to Jim Palmer who then passed it on to Tim Palmer. In the end it will go to Zachary Palmer, and in turn he will pass it on to his son.