<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'> <div>Hi Dean:</div> <div><br> </div> <div>A very inter4esting story.</div> <div><br> </div> <div><br> </div> <div><br> </div> <div>Lee<br> <br> <br> </div> <div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----Original Message-----<br> From: Alameda County Central Railroad Society <accrs@mail.accrs.org><br> To: ACCRS - All <accrs@mail.accrs.org><br> Sent: Tue, Jan 31, 2017 5:28 pm<br> Subject: [Accrs] Fwd: Buying a watch in 1880<br> <br> Message From: Dean & Margaret Lewis <a href="mailto:lewis2@earthlink.net">lewis2@earthlink.net</a> <div id="AOLMsgPart_2.2.1_75cb61ca-cb8d-4964-92d2-fa37973ef4e1"> <div class="aolReplacedBody" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I found this </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">very interesting. </span> <div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Read to the end to get the whole point. </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><img id="7CE92F0C-BF7D-4F6D-A291-F93754A3ABA7" alt="image1.jpeg" src="cid:part1.07040508.04070302@earthlink.net"></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Buying a watch in 1880. </b></span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you were in the market for a watch in 1880, would you know where to get one?</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">You would go to a store, right?</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Well, of course you could do that, but if you wanted one that was cheaper and a bit better than most of the store watches, you went to the train station!</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sound a bit funny?</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Well, for about 500 towns across the northern United States , that's where the best watches were found.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Why were the best watches found at the train station?</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The railroad company wasn't selling the watches, not at all.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The telegraph operator was.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Most of the time the telegraph operator was located in the railroad station because the telegraph lines followed the railroad tracks from town to town.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It was usually the shortest distance and the right-of-ways had already been secured for the rail line.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Most of the station agents were also skilled telegraph operators and that was the primary way that they communicated with the railroad.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They would know when trains left the previous station and when they were due at their next station.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And it was the telegraph operator who had the watches.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As a matter of fact, they sold more of them than almost all the stores combined for a period of about 9 years.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This was all arranged by "Richard", who was a telegraph operator himself. He was on duty in the North Redwood, Minnesota train station one day when a load of watches arrived from the East. It was a huge crate of pocket watches. No one ever came to claim them.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So Richard sent a telegram to the manufacturer and asked them what they wanted to do with the watches.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The manufacturer didn't want to pay the freight back, so they wired Richard to see if he could sell them.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So Richard did.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He sent a wire to every agent in the system asking them if they wanted a cheap, but good, pocket watch.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He sold the entire case in less than two days and at a handsome profit.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That started it all.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He ordered more watches from the watch company and encouraged the telegraph operators to set up a display case in the station offering high quality watches for a cheap price to all the travelers.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It worked!</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It didn't take long for the word to spread and, before long, people other than travelers came to the train station to buy watches.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Richard became so busy that he had to hire a professional watch maker to help him with the orders.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That was Alvah.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And the rest is history as they say.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The business took off and soon expanded to many other lines of dry goods.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Richard and Alvah left the train station and moved their company to Chicago -- and it's still there.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">YES, IT'S A LITTLE KNOWN FACT that for a while in the 1880's, the biggest watch retailer in the country was at the train station.</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It all started with a telegraph operator: Richard Sears and his partner Alvah Roebuck!</span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br> </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bet You Didn't Know That! </span></div> <div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">OK, Maybe you did; I didn't! </span></div> <div><br> </div> <div><br> </div> <div><br> </div> </div> </div> </div> _______________________________________________ Accrs mailing list <a href="mailto:Accrs@mail.accrs.org">Accrs@mail.accrs.org</a> <a href="https://mail.accrs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/accrs" target="_blank">https://mail.accrs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/accrs</a> </div> </font>