Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
Work Together, Support Each Other, Buy At Home
Milam History by Joy Graham
Rockdale Reporter - June 6, 2013
This is the last of a two-part series on Fred Palmer, a Rockdale businessman in the
early part of the 20th Century.
Fred Palmer left his mark on Rockdale. Many of the rural people of south Milam County
would remember him.
My grandparents who lived in the Tracy Community purchased “soda water” from him. They
would return their case of empty soda water bottles when in town and pick up a full
case on their way back home.
I remembered the man in the wheel chair who wasn’t bothered by his method of getting
around town. As a child I didn’t recognize his handicap but all the children recognized
“Mr. Palmer.”
He navigated his way on the side walks, and that was the day before handicap ramps.
He also ran a Sinclair station. I remember seeing him travel across the street on Main
over to Buck Henry’s Garage which sold Sinclair gas, going up the steep drive into the
station office.
Mr. Palmer was involved with the Crazy Water Crystal Plant that opened in the area
around Thorndale, about 12 miles west of Rockdale. The first well of that water was dug
about 4 miles east of Thorndale on the south side of the I&GN Railroad tracks. There
was a small building used to draw the water, bottle it and get it ready to sell.
After use and need was communicated the location moved about 4 miles toward Thorndale
where a larger building was constructed.
Between the first and second locations, a three-room tourist camp building was
constructed. When the bath houses were built in Brushy Bottom, people could rent a room
when they came to bathe in the medicinal water.
Fred Palmer was known to many people, and as the saying goes, “he was nobody’s fool.”
He had a head for business.
Fast forward over a hundred years later, pick up the Rockdale Reporter today. The Cooke
family still owns and run the paper.
Read the editorials and the front page articles of Rockdale City Council meetings in
2013. You can still pick up on what is or is not happening.
Seems like some of the same issues still happen today that were happening when Rockdale
first became a municipality.
Mr. Palmer was astute enough to identify what was needed over a hundred years ago and
the people of Rockdale are still struggling to identify what that is.
Work together. Support each other. Buy at home.
.
All credit for this article goes to
Joy Graham
and the
Rockdale Reporter
Joy Graham
and the
Rockdale Reporter