Ruby Mateson

Marble Springs 2.0 screenshot of Ruby Mateson

What we know

1867-1929
Eldest daughter of Jake and Mollie Mateson. Left Marble Springs when she was fifteen after being given to Bart Morrison. Returned thirteen years later in 1895 with an crushed leg. Died with her sister, Emmy, in a snowslide in the winter of 1929.

French

Jake Mateson kept the White Owl Saloon,
and it was rumored that he gambled
away his first daughter,
since Ruby was given to Bart
when she was only fifteen—
and ran off three days later.
Edna Harris once claimed
to have seen a letter marked
France¹ when visiting Emmy.

Ruby came back five weeks late
for her father’s funeral.
Her leg was crushed, she said,
on the Riviera.
She took to sitting
on the front porch of the White Owl,
hollering at Emmy
for cold-water compresses
and hot spiced ale.

The white-caned chair she rocked in
slowly bleached around her,
leaving ivory shadows
behind.

Footnotes

1. Item 446. Family Circle. They manage it better in France. the writer fancies that the prevalence here of a few bad customs, easily changed, causes the disadvantageous difference between ourselves and our more courteous and agreeable neighbors. Enquire within upon Everything

Connections

Portal

Sources

Noel, Thomas J.The City and the Saloon. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1987.

Portal caption and links

A drawing of a rocking chair.

Rebecca Reaver
Lottie Horner
Edna Harris

Portal for secret connections