Inside Grandma's Sewing Machine Table, Part 1

This morning I brewed up a pot of the delicious Pecan Pie flavored coffee my son brought me, drank a couple of cups, and the next thing I knew I was down in the basement cleaning and going through things!  I don't know what was in that coffee...  After an hour or so of sorting through the usual boring things (clothes the kids had outgrown, half-finished craft items, piles of computer paraphernalia), I came upon Grandma's old Singer sewing machine that Grandpa gave me after her death in 1991.  It sits inside its beautiful wooden and wrought iron sewing table, tucked down in its little cubbyhole, with all kinds of stuff piled on top of it.  Today, I cleared it off and brought the machine up for a good cleaning, and proceeded to go through the sewing table drawers.  Some of the items inside belonged to my grandmother, and some I picked up at garage sales.  All neat stuff.

I don't remember Grandma using this machine - I think it was the 1950s when she got a new or newer Singer with a "gas pedal", the same machine I learned on.  I was 12 years old before she'd let me use electricity - until then, it was crank, crank, crank.  Naturally, she told me one of her little white lies about knowing a girl who sewed too fast with electricity, and ran the needle right through her fingernail and out the other side.  I believed it then and was horrified, and still think of it while sewing occasionally today.  But Grandma, if you're listening, I'm on to you now.  But I'm still scared.  And I never go fast.

By that time though, this machine was tucked away in her basement, with stuff piled on top of it, much like it's been at my house for the last 21 years.  I remember her mostly patching Grandpa's clothes and making blankets, not so much sewing clothes except for our Barbie dolls.

I checked the Singer website to see if I could find out when this machine was manufactured, and it was in 1920, which was a bit of a surprise.  I didn't think it was that old.

The first thing I found was tucked down on the bottom of the table - and old Climax sewing machine that I had picked up cheap at a garage sale many years ago.

The Climax Sewing Machine Company was a sub-company of New Home.  Singer bought out the company in the 1920s.  This machine has a motor added on to the back of it.

I will save what I found in the sewing table drawers for the next blog post or two.  A nice glimpse into the past, if I do say so myself.

I think I'm going to have another pot of that Pecan Pie flavored coffee tomorrow and see what else I can find...


Sources:
http://www.blurtit.com/q860236.html

Someone Else’s Treasure–the Autograph Book of Miss Helen Sundquist, Part 2

Dear Helen

Round as a ring with no end
and so is my love to you my friend.
Yours Truly
Gertie Cooley

Dear Helen

A handsome man is hard to find
And when you find one good and true
Marry him if he will you.
Katie Smyth
Toulon, Ill. Stark Co.

Friend Helen

Do all the good you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as every you can,
Be good to yourself
And remember me
When you can.
Your school mate.
Jeruah Cooley
Toulon, Ill.
Jan. 29, 1890

Friend Helen

What! write in your Album
For the learned to laugh at,
And the critics to spy,
No not I.
Emma Whittaker (Class of ‘88)

Yours with Kindly Regards. Plessie Johnson, Toulon, Ill. Class of ‘88 March 15, ‘88.
*
Remember me as a true friend. Edna V. Hassen, Seniors of the Three Eights 1888, Toulon, Ill. Mar. 14.
*
Remember me as another true friend. Ollie B. Harlisser.
*
Clara M. Myers. Toulon, Illinois. October 12, 1885.
*
Zaidee V. Hulsizer. Toulon, Illinois. March 14th, 1888.
*
Helen: Ever be faithful to your trust. J. H. Broomall.
*
Dear Helen – Remember your friend, Myrtle Ward. Feb. 17th, 1880.
*
Maggie Gemmell, Toulon, Ill. March 2, 1885.
*
Will Morrison

Dear Helen

May your life be like an Arithmetic:
Your joys added. Your cares subtracted.
Your blessings multiplied and your sorrows divided.
Your Friend,
Jennie Myers
Toulon, Ill.
Oct. 12, 1885

You ask for your Album a rhyme;
With pleasure I hear and obey;
Refusal were folly or crime
For who could to Helen say “nay?”
Susie M. Edwards
Toulon

Helen

Forget me not is all I ask
This simple boom of thee
Oh! may it prove an easy task
To some times think of me.
Your Friend
Alva Ban
March 18, 1887

Friend Helen

Weeks may pass and year may end
But you will find in me a friend.
Yours Lovingly
Emma Olson
Feb. 11, 1889

Helen:

If you love me as I love you
No knife can cut our love in two.
Yours Truly,
Mabel Stanley
Toulon, Ill.
Jan. 7th, 1885

Dear Helen

May the days of your life be as joyous as the birds in the trees.
Yours Truly,
Willie Sundquist
Toulon, Ill.
Feb. 17th, 1885

Dear Helen:

Bright be the springtime of thy youth, serene thy summer bloom.
And may thy heart like the shrine of youth know not the winters gloom.
Emma Miller
Toulon, Ill.
Jan. 7th, 1885.



Dear Helen

Lives of great men all remind us
we can make our lives sublime
and departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
Ever Your Friend,
Ella M. Gelvin
West Jersey, Ill.
Jan. 28th, 1890

Dear Helen

I only ask one little spot where I can write Forget Me Not.
Yours Truly,
Alice Foulk
Toulon, Ill.

Friend Helen:

May your joys be many and sorrows few.
Is the wish of your Friend
Baye Nowlan
Toulon, Ill.
Feb. 14th, 1886.

Friend Helen

Away back hear wheare [sic] no one will look
I will write my name in your neat little book
Your Friend
John Follett
Toulon, Ill.
Feb. 10th, 1886

Someone Else’s Treasure–The Autograph Book of Miss Helen Sundquist–Part 1

Helen

When sitting in the twilight
Reflecting on the past
Remember you have one kind friend
Whose love will always last.

--Your Friend,
Madalia Johnson
Bishop Hill
Jan. 1st, 1885

The best wishes of your friend, Ida M. Johnson.  Bishop Hill.  Jan. 1st, 1885
*
Earnest Van Osdel
*
Friend Helen – Honor thy father and mother. Your Friend, Charlie S. Perry. March 2, ‘85 Toulon, Ills.
*
Helen [no excuse for me] Compliments of Adelle Trickle. Feb. 12, ‘88. Toulon, Ill.
*
Mrs. Herbert Smith.  Larimore, N. D.
*
Compliments of Theresa Volgamont.  Toulon.  School days 1888, March 5.

Dear Helen
When years and months have glided by
And on this page you cast your eye
Remember ‘twas a friend sincere
That left this kind remembrance here.
With best wishes for your future cheer!

Your Friend,
Mary Christy
2-25-1886

Dear Helen,
When far away and friends are few, think of me and I will you.
Yours Truly,
Lizzie Gemmell
Feb. 11, 1886

Dear Helen
Some boys are pleased with your Brilliant eyes
But ‘tis your worth and polished mind I prize.
Eva Edwards
Toulon, Ill.
Feb. 11, 1886

Dear Helen

In twining your wreath of friendship, please twist in a bud for me.
Best Wishes of Jennie Ryder
Toulon, Illinois
January 7th, 1885

May your life be as pure as these pages as unshadowed as these lines are.
The best wishes of Bessie W. Marsh
Toulon, Ill.
Jan. 7th, 1885

Dear Helen

Be true to your friends and you will never be friendless.
Katie Anderson
La Fayette, Ills.
Oct. 15, 1885

Dear Helen

So short our existence a glimpse at the most
Is all we can have of the few we hold dear
And oft ever joy is unheeded and lost
For the want of some fond heart to echo it near
Ah well may we hope when this life is oer
To meet in a world of more permanent bliss
For a smile or a grasp of a hand hastening on
Is all we can have of each other in this.

Maggie Brady
Toulon, Feb. 12, ‘89

Friend Helen

Look how we can sad or merrily
Interpretation will misquote your looks.
Harry Whittaker
Sunday School days of 1889

Friend Helen, Remember me.  Chas. Bacmeister, Toulon, Ill.
*
Eddie Henderson, Toulon, Ill.  Feb 10th 1886
*
Remember your school-mate.  Alice Berfield, Toulon, Stark Co, Ill.
*
Compliments of Flora Gelvin.  Mar. 6/’88.  Stringtown, Ill.
*
Lines to Helen.  Florence McClenahan
*
May your life be full of sunshine.  Yours Very Truly, Mardell Lyon
*
Helen, Ever your Friend, Minnie Trickle.  Feb. 12, ‘89
*
Compliments of Your Friend and Schoolmate, Esta Cole.  Toulon, Ill.

Friend Helen

Among the many who claim a kind remembrance
I too would add my name.
Your Friend
Flora Smith
Toulon, Ill.  Stark Co.
Feb. 14th, 1887

Helen

Tis sweet to court but O, how bitter to court a boy and then not get him.
Your Friend
Ada Walker
Toulon, Ill.
1885

Dear Helen

Remember me and my best wishes,
When your at home washing dishes.
Your Friend,
Effie Holmes
Toulon, Ill.
Jan. 31, 1890

Helen

Remember me when far far off
Where wood chucks lie with whooping cough.
Frank S. Price
Toulon, Ills.
Feb. 17, 1885

Helen

Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you.
Jimmy A.Nowlan
Toulon, Ill.
Feb. 17, 1885

The Short Life of the Unpopular Bonnie Posy

The year was 1965.  Yes, that’s me, with my new Christmas present, Bonnie Posy.  Despite the obviously pleased look on my little face,  I have no recollection of ever owning that doll.  Don’t remember playing with it.  Don’t remember picking it up off the floor.  Don’t remember what ever happened to it.

I’ve had a lot of luck learning about old toys through Google and eBay, most impressively through the Ugly Baby posts.  I never thought I’d know so much about that doll.  But for some reason, Bonnie Posy is proving to be a more difficult subject.

The only information I was able to find on this doll was through a couple of newspaper ads, circa 1964-65, one of which appears below:

The above advertisement was from the Milwaukee Journal, December 4, 1964, courtesy of Google News.  While it vaguely resembles my doll, it’s obviously not the same; but the doll in the ad is the 1964 version, and mine made her appearance the following year – perhaps a newer model.  At any rate, with Cootie games (remember those?) selling for ~$1.50, the $4.99 price tag on this doll would suggest that it was a much-coveted item on the wish list of little girls of that era.

So why don’t I remember this doll?  The only other ad I found was for these dolls on “clearance” in 1967, so perhaps Bonnie Posy was a “flash in the pan.”  Apparently mine was!

Wordless Wednesday - Sons of Veterans

Mystery Monday – What Am I??

This … umm… “item” belonged to my grandmother, Lisa Hammer, who came to the United States from Norway in the 1950s.  I suspect it had something to do with making lefse, or some other Norwegian treat, but I’m not at all certain.  It’s relatively heavy, and would make a great weapon!
Has anyone seen an item like this?

Evidence Revisited

I spent some time this morning drinking a few cups of coffee and reading the latest issue of the “Shades of the Departed” online magazine – it took several cups of coffee because the articles are so inspiring that I find myself sidetracked frequently.  After reading Joe Bott’s article, “Celebrating Dead Fred,” I had to pause to re-search his site for any new family photos, and then got as far as footnoteMaven’s “Photography & Mourning” article before being motivated once again.
Her article featured photos of mourning brooches – small pins or brooches that may have originally been created for other purposes, later being a mourning/remembrance keepsake, or may have been created specifically out of the death of a loved one.  I immediately thought of a lovely little pin that was the subject of a recent blog post.
To quote Elizabeth Shown Mills in her book Evidence Explained, “The case is never closed on a historical conclusion.  Just as scientists revise their theories in the wake of new discoveries, so do historians.  Any decision we make today could be changed tomorrow by the discovery of previously unknown information.”  With that quote in mind, I dug out the tiny little keepsake box containing the pin, a baby’s hairbrush, a tiny child’s thimble, and a small glass vial that originally had a screw-top of some sort, long since gone.  It reminded me of one of those necklaces filled with holy water, or a empty, to hold a remembrance item, similar to this one being sold online:

As a whole, it looks as if the items in the box are keepsakes of a specific person’s life, which I had originally assumed to be true, and still believe.  However, *which* person specifically, may be up for debate.

The note reads: “The little baby’s hair brush belonged to Myrtle Lair age 1 in 1889.  The photo pin is her at the age of 10 or 12.”  These things very well could be Myrtle Lair’s, but Myrtle had a little sister, Allie May Lair, who died at the age of 11.  Finding the article in Shades this morning made me wonder if this pin was indeed a mourning brooch, and these items the only remaining keepsakes from her short life.

As I looked through the box once again, I realized that these articles, with the exception of the vial, are specific to a child’s life.  The vial could be representative of either a child or an adult.  The box itself, in very old lettering, says “Birth Announcement.”  Myrtle Lair lived to be 52 years old.  Allie Lair died at the age of 11.   And who authored the note?  To answer that question, I had to imagine who possessed this box over the years.  Myrtle and Allie May’s sister Nettie was my great-great grandmother, and oldest daughter in the family, and their mother died young.  She had many items that belonged to her parents.  She lived her last years with her daughter Lulu, who seemed to have been the recipient of most of the family heirlooms.  Lulu died as a spinster in 1986.  My aunt, Lulu’s niece, likely got this box from her, and then it came to me.  I do not believe this is Nettie’s handwriting, but could have been Lulu’s.    Allie May died 18 years before Lulu was born, and there was quite a geographical distance as well.  Perhaps Lulu knew these items belonged to her mother’s sister, and Myrtle was the only one she knew of.  Or perhaps she was right in stating that these things were Myrtle’s.

Myrtle, however, outlived her older sister Nettie by six years, which makes me wonder how her baby keepsakes would have ended up so far away, in Lulu’s possession, when there were nieces and nephews still in Myrtle’s area?  In contrast, little Allie May, as well as their mother, died while Nettie was still in the immediate vicinity. 

I have a copy of a portrait of little Allie May at the age of 3, and I also have a picture of Myrtle as a young woman.  I think the photo pin resembles Allie May much more than it does Myrtle, but the girl in the photo pin has an outwardly wandering left eye, as does Myrtle.  However, with the portrait of Allie May being a painting rather than a photo, I could understand if any particular imperfections might have been altered, especially if this painting was done from a photo after her death.  I know of no paintings of the other children.

Above, Allie May Lair at the age of three

Above: photo pin of Myrtle?

Above: Myrtle Lair, as a young woman

Of course, all this is nowhere near sufficient to say that the girl in the photo pin is Allie May Lair, but it does cause me to wonder, and to go back and take a look at the evidence once again.   Now, coming up with a plan for further research is in order, but this task might be difficult if not impossible.

So, in the meantime, it’s back to Shades of the Departed.

Sources:
Mills, Elizabeth Shown.  Evidence Explained.  Baltimore, Maryland: 2007.  p. 27               Shades of the Departed, Oct. 4, 2010 issue                                                                    Pendant photo (sold at): http://www.thisnext.com/topic-empty-silver-vial-pendants

More on the Loyal Americans

Many thanks to Debra Wilson, who has solved the mystery of the Loyal Americans by finding the following pin:

which bears a striking resemblance to the one I found:

The top pin was associated with the Loyal Americans of the Republic in Springfield, Illinois; the name of the organization was changed to Loyal Americans in 1915.  The following year, the name was changed to Loyal American Life Insurance, and then Loyal American Life Association in 1917.  In 1934, the Loyal American Life Association merged with the Ben Hur Life Association.
The Loyal Americans of the Republic was incorporated and commenced business on November 7, 1896 in Springfield, Illinois, with E. J. Dunn as its president, and H. D. Cowan as secretary. 
The name on the pin would then date it to about 1915.  Some of the other items found in the box belonged to the Lair family (or their descendants) of Princeville, Illinois.  Based on these facts, I would speculate that the pin belonged to Lawson F. Lair (1833-1923), of Princeville.  I might possibly have belonged to his son, William L. Lair, but because I have never seen any of Will’s belongings in my family’s possession, I would tend to think it belonged to Lawson.  However, Lawson’s probate file does not mention him having any insurance at the time of his death in 1923.
Again, thank you, Deb!
Sources (besides Debra):  http://bulletin.lifeguide.com/issuer_tracing.html                                                                       Fourth Annual Insurance Report of the Ninth Biennial Period by the Commissioner of Insurance of the State of North Dakota for the Year Ending December 31, 1906 (p. 464)