A half century before I was born someone took this picture of Seaton. By the time the Blythe boys were roaming the street and exploring their universe, this, or most of it, would change. One wouldn't know it by driving through it now, but at one time, Seaton was a prosperous village. It was even under consideration to be the county seat, until Aledo got that honor. Back in those days if you had a railroad you just about had it all. It had a hotel, a couple restaurants, blacksmith. lumber yard, newspaper, general store, bank, grain elevator and even had an opera house.
Its pretty much the tale of every small town. There has been a steady migration of business and people to bigger areas with more opportunity. Towns in the old days were self-contained and all the amenities necessary to sustain themselves. But "economies of size" developed and businesses would die out or move according to geo and demo graphics. When this picture was taken the population was around 326. Today it is 204.
Taking a detail from the above picture we zoom in on the bank. It's the building with the spire. Look at all those people milling about. I don't know what those other buildings housed but by the time we were around the building on the left was a grocery store. The one to the right of the bank wasn't there but a new structure had been built as a fire station.
That far building was the old grain elevator and that's the lumber yard right in front. I can't figure out the water tower unless it had something to do with the trains. By the time the Boys were out making names for themselves in town a new elevator had been built and the lumber yard was in the same general area but was housed in new buildings. That ladder on the tower to check the water must have been a harrowing experience. But then again, there weren't too many ladders in town when we were around that weren't climbed. Kind of sorry we didn't have the opportunity to climb that one.
There is the story that when Herb's father ran the elevator in town he walked out of the weigh house as a train was traveling through and he saw his son, my dad riding on one of the cars. Apparently they waved at each other. My grandfather then walked back into the weigh house and announced that he'd just seen his son travelling on a train heading West. Dad was in college then and he and some frat brothers decided to hop on a train in Monmouth to see where they would end up. They ended up in Oakville, Iowa.
This is the old depot. You'll never believe it but it was still around when we were growing up. I even remember the assorted train going through town, too. Of course by this time there were no passenger trains so the depot was derelict. One of my prized possessions was the "Seaton" sign that was on a post along the rails to let train passengers know where they were. It was a gift from a grateful village. Well, no, I stole it. But I'm sure the village was grateful nonetheless.
This Seaton is as different from my time there as today's village is. Gone from my childhood is the grocery store, the elevator, the bank, the gas station, hardware store, lumber yard, vet's office, whatever Smarjessie's store was, restaurant, newspaper, and Stan's Garage.
Seaton and these pictures embody two of my favorite axioms: it never ends well, and everything is temporary. Go out and do something fun this weekend.
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