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Buckeye Force Pumps

5/28/2014

One of our Vendors brought this antique, very rare, cast iron Buckeye Force Pump into Grandma’s Attic. This pump was made by Mast, Foos and Company, of Springfield, Ohio. The number on the pump is No. 215. It appears that this was a style number and not a pump number for there were several No. 215 pumps. The patent dates were 1872 to 1881 making this an authentic antique.

The Buckeye Company was considered the greatest mechanical and manufacturing enterprise of its time. Mr. Phineas P. Mast, partner, designer and producer of these pumps, was a businessman and banker. He seems to have had the Midas touch, for everything he did turned to money. He and partner John Thomas, a lawyer, invented a Grain drill, cultivator, and cider mill. Later, Thomas passed his interest to Mast. In 1875, Mr. Mast joined forces with Foos and Company, inventions that came from this union were lawnmowers, iron fences, iron turbines, and...Buckeye Force Pumps.

There was poetry written in honor of the Mast-Foos & Company and the force iron pump. The following is a copy of a postcard from a Mr. Jonathan
Gump.

Do you have any stories about antique water pumps like this? Leave us a comment below, we'd love to hear from you!

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"It's Al-man-zo, not Al-mon-zo"

5/21/2014

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Our day in Mansfield, Mo.

Since we found that Dabbs’ date of death was missing from his headstone, we have been on the search for information. A few weeks ago, our search led us to Mansfield, Missouri, Southeast of Springfield, where two of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s homes are located. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the Little House on the Prairie books, which is what the television show “Little House on the Prairie” was based on. We really enjoyed our day at Rocky Ridge Farm.

One of the things I found interesting was that Laura’s husband’s name was pronounced Al-”man”-zo not Al-”mon”-zo. It seems creating a role for television made a change in the way the name is pronounced.

I fell in love with the rock house that Laura and Almanzo’s daughter, Rose, had built for them as a retirement home. The front opening up for air flow and overlooking a beautiful valley, the water cistern, the stone, and even the design by the stone mason when he put the rock together all show that the home was built with love.

The builder put these unique trowel marks on the entire house between the rocks.

While we were in the museum, we found out that we have a few items in Grandma’s Attic that are similar to, or exactly like, some of Laura and Rose’s favorite possessions.

There were pieces of Depression glass throughout the rock house.

All of these pieces of Depression glass are for sale at Grandma's Attic

In the museum, there was a leather postcard.

In the corner of the museum displaying Rose’s possessions, there was a set of Stangl “blueberry” pottery dishes.

There was a lovely lilac bush in the front yard of Laura and Almanzo’s original farm house. This house was a house built with love over time. The kitchen had first been attached to a log cabin then moved across the yard to be the beginning of what grew into a farm house over time, complete with a library and music room.

We ended the day with a visit to Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company’s village which is also located in Mansfield, Missouri. It is a fun village, where you learn the story of how it started with a seed finding trip, and now has hundreds of varieties of natural seeds.

Building at Baker Creek Village

With annual weekend festivals at Baker Creek and the prospect of more exploration of the Rock House....

Mansfield is one up for a second visit from me!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Baker-Creek-Heirloom-Seed-Company/155935376162?fref=photo

http://www.rareseeds.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-Ingalls-Wilder-Historic-Home-and-Museum/166413716755023

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We Called Him "Billy Bob" Around Here...

5/14/2014

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You may be wondering, "Who is 'Billy Bob'?"

Well, it is the actor famous for his role as Reverend Alden on “Little House on the Prairie”, Robert William “Dabbs” Greer. He was raised here in Anderson, Missouri and was called, “Billy Bob” by locals.

On April 8, 2014, we published our blog post about this local hero, and our research for that post has set us off on a journey. A few weeks ago we went to Peace Valley Cemetery to take pictures of Robert William Greer’s final resting place. We discovered that his date of death was absent from the headstone. Being curious, I did some calling around, hoping that it was just an oversight. I found that Dabbs’ final resting was completed by power of attorney of a funeral home in California, as he was the only child of Randall and Bernice Greer and there are no close relatives. It seems this responsibility did not include having the date of death placed on the headstone after his passing on April 28, 2007.

On May 5, 2007 the town of Anderson, Mo. had a wonderful memorial and placement of his ashes. They placed a memorial stone in the area park and named a natural pool after him. Ozark Funeral Home, Premier Memorial of Anderson, and many locals did a wonderful job of laying him to rest. Talking to these same people have been very helpful in my search for information. It was while reading over materials provided to me by a local business that I came to find out that he was called “Billy Bob” by the people from this area when he lived here.

We've been doing a lot of note-taking while gathering info from local people.

Now that you're caught up on our journey so far, here's where we're at.

Grandma’s Attic would like to have Mr. Greer’s date of death put on his headstone as well as having a commemorative bench placed close by his grave site as a memorial to: William Robert “Billy Bob”-“Dabbs” Greer, with one of his quotes inscribed on the top, back:
"Every character actor, in their own little sphere, is the lead."
as well as having this picture of him etched on the bench.

Photo graciously lent to us by http://jimnolt.com/

Here's where you come in!

WE NEED YOUR HELP
and believed you would like to be a part of this project.

The cost of this project will be $3,071.55, which includes;
the inscription of the date of death on the headstone,
the cost of the bench with inscribed words,
and the placement of the bench.

These services will be completed by Premier Memorial, of Anderson, Missouri.
Thank you, Premier Memorial for donating the slab on which the bench will be placed.

Digital Mock-up of the bench to be purchased

If you are interested in helping place the bench and get the date of death put on Robert William Greer’s headstone, here’s how you can help:

-Donations can be made at Grandma’s Attic, in Anderson, Mo.
There will be a jar available for cash donations.

-We are also able to take credit card donations
in store or over the phone.

-If you would like to send donations via mail, please send them to:

Grandma’s Attic,
Attn: Billy Bob,
4712 Goldfinch Road
Joplin, Mo. 64804

For more information about this project,
please email [email protected]
or call Grandma’s Attic at 417-845-8000.

We hope you’ll join us on this journey of discovering more regarding the life of Mr. Greer and paying our respects to him. If you’d like to read what we have posted about Dabbs’ life previously, please click on the links at the bottom of this article to read our recent posts regarding his life.

Please feel free to leave a comment below, as we’d love to hear any stories/information that you might have to share about Robert William Greer, as well as childhood memories of watching his many movies and TV shows.

After all, we’ve surely all seen this face on our TV screen at some time or other… :)

For more on Dabbs' life, visit the links below:

http://www.grandmasattic-antiques.com/1/post/2014/04/dabbs-greer-anderson-mo.html

http://www.grandmasattic-antiques.com/1/post/2014/04/camp-crowder-creators.html

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Patchwork Stories

5/7/2014

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Those who are quilters or have been around quilters know that no one would ever be able to really pay the price that a quilt is worth, especially if it is stitched by hand.

Quilting takes lots of time and much energy, and then to top that off, quilts often have stories attached to them, for instance, the material may be clothing that was worn by a loved one, the quilt was made by someone special, or maybe the quilt was even used in connection with the “Underground railroad” as a way to communicate. Some quilts are priceless because of the story that goes along with them.

My mother was a quilter. She had callouses on her thumb and middle finger of her right hand, worn by the needle from quilting so much. She had a favorite thimble she wore on her middle finger on her right hand. She loved to quilt and also loved the finished product. It relaxed her. Of course, since she loved it, she wanted to introduce her daughters to it. I can quilt, and know how to do it right but, alas it is just not my thing.

I do have a love for a beautiful quilt though.

Below are the stories of three quilts from my house;

The first quilt that I would like to share with you, is the one my mother used to teach me to quilt. That alone is enough to make it special, but it is also important to me for several more reasons. The top was made by my grandmother, Irene Rosadena McBride – Wilson (1908 -1979), when she was about 13 years old. It is made of cotton and is in the design of airplanes on an emerald green back. My mother gave the top to me and promised to teach me to quilt. If you examine this quilt, it’s very plain who quilted where. My mother who weaved that material six times onto the needle before pulling it through and me barely getting four stitches on the needle before pulling it through. :) This quilt is really showing wear due to some of the pieces of material wearing thin quickly as well as the fact that the pieces were well worn before the quilt was ever finished. It may look ragged, but I love it.

Then there is the quilt of my teens; this quilt took on many stories before its completion. When I reached my teen years I would spend a lot of time with my Aunt Dot. We wrote often, and I would spend weekends with her in South Texas in the Big Thicket. We decided we would both do a quilt of the 50 states. We would embroider the blocks and then piece it together. For years we would account what states we had embroidered. Time passed and Aunt Dot completed her blocks. I went overseas on missions and put the squares I had completed into a donation box.

My Aunt became sick and her brothers and sisters went to South Texas to visit her. While my mother was there, my Aunt gave her the quilt, as well as some lilac material to use for backing, and asked her to finish it. My mother began to quilt it, and before it was finished my Aunt Dot passed away. The last square on the Lilac quilt is Texas. I was born in Texas and my Aunt Dot lived in Texas most of her life. For my 45th birthday my mother gave me the completed quilt. I’m crying as I write this because God is so good to me. He brought the quilt to me.

In my eyes, this is a priceless quilt.

Last, is my inherited quilt; this quilt is blue with ducks. I loved this quilt before it ever came out of the quilting frames. Momma had traced around the ducks in the squares she had bought and was stitching the outline in the blue squares that had no ducks. The back of this quilt is almost prettier than the front. She quilted the part of the block outside the outline in a triangle design. When my mother passed, I inherited this quilt, with much begging, (that’s another story). :)

My mother had created a design of her own for quilting, most of her quilts are quilted in a rainbow design, visible on the 50 states quilt above. She made quilts for all five of her children and her twelve grandchildren and then made arrangements to give them as a graduation gift when they graduated from high school.

So you may wonder why a quilt can cost so much.

Unless you know a quilter or are a quilter you may not realize
that a LOT of love, time, and stories goes into those quilts…

but when a quilter buys a quilt…

they can feel that love.

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Buckeye Force Pumps

"It's Al-man-zo, not Al-mon-zo"

We Called Him "Billy Bob" Around Here...

Patchwork Stories

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