Treasure Chest Thursday--Antique Toys

     I remember these tiny toys as a child.  They were part of the train display under our Christmas tree back in the 1950's.  The two little buildings are made of wood and the tiny doll is porcelain with a hand crochet or tatted dress.  Back in the 50's there were several additional dolls.  In particular, I can remember one with a little bonnet.  Over the years, only these three items remain.

     I do not know the date these were made.  There are no makers marks on the buildings or the doll.  My mother once told me that she could remember them when she was a child and that her father also used them as decorations under the Christmas tree.  Perhaps that was the reason they also found their way under my childhood tree. 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published. 

 PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2011, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Treasure Chest Thursday--Baptism Dress and Booties

Martha Jean Stark Hughes
and
Linda Lee Hughes
1947

     This past week I have been engaged in the annual rite of spring cleaning.  The target area has been the immense accumulation of stuff in my basement.  Also housed there are all my family photos and many of my "genealogical momentos".  While thumbing through an old Hughes family album, this photo of little Linda Lee (Moi) and Mom jumped off the page.  Turning around I went to a plastic container and inside a small yellow box.   There I found the little white dress and booties in this 1947 photo. 

     I don't know if this was my baptism, although the dress certainly appears to be one worn at such an occasion.  The question mark in my mind is that Mom does not have a corsage attached to her suit jacket.  Dad ALWAYS celebrated events with flowers. 

     The dress and slip were "store bought"; however, I do believe that the little booties were knitted or store bought by my maternal grandmother, Martha Marie Frederick Stark aka Teek.  She was quite the seamstress and was proficient with all forms of hand work.  The little pink roses embroidered on each booties are most certainly her hallmark.

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however if they are inappropriate, they will not be published. 

PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2011, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Treasure Chest Thursday--Martha Marie Frederick Stark Ring

     Another treasure from my maternal grandmother's estate.  This ring probably dates back to the 1880's and 1890's.  She was born in 1880 and the size of the ring appears to be a child's.  Also, it is engraved "Mattie," her nickname when a child.

     I can't tell what stone it is; however, my guess is a garnet.  It is not her birthstone as she was born in April.  There seem to be stones missing from the setting.  The area surrounding the red stone might have had smaller chips....perhaps diamond chips or extremely small pearls.

     There is no karat marking inside.

© 2011, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Fearless Females-- #6 Heirlooms

     I have quite a collection of sterling silver spoons that belonged to my Frederick family ancestors. They were probably used for tea service as I have only teaspoons.

     This one is beautifully embellished with flowers and scrolls on the front and back.

     Clearly marked sterling silver and the maker's mark is identified in "Kovels' American Silver Marks" as Simpson, Hall, Miller & Co. (1866-1898). Spoons in sterling silver after were made after 1895. The company was located in Wallingford, Connecticut and later became International Silver Company.

     The green star is beside the maker's mark and the red star is beside a letter "D" which would be the year the spoon was made. Unfortunately, my identification book does not give that information. 

Source: Kovel, Ralph and Terry. Kovels' American Silver Marks, Crown Publishers, New York, New York, 1961, page 340. 

© 2011, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--George Henry Hughes Certificate of Baptism

Baptism record of my paternal grandfather, George Henry Hughes

George Henry Hughes, son of John George and Elizabeth Ferdinande Hughes. Was baptised at St. Aidan's Church, West Hartlepool [England] on Easter Sunday, April 10, 1898.

Sponsors:

John George Hughes (his father)
Samuel Hughes (paternal uncle)
Mary Ann Hughes (either his paternal grandmother or his paternal aunt)

Signed: William J. Knowlden , Vicar

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published. 

 PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2011, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--Heirloom Christmas Ornaments

Decades ago, I came into the possession of an old Joseph Horne's box that belonged to my maternal grandmother, Martha Marie Frederick Stark. Inside the box were numerous Stark and Frederick heirlooms. Some were in other smaller boxes...many were just loose. All treasures.

Another view of the Dresden ornaments
Found among the bits and bobs were several old Christmas ornaments. My research shows that they are Dresden Christmas ornaments, made in Germany in the from about 1880 to 1919. I have no idea which branch of the tree they came from, but my "educated" guess is the Stark side.

Last year I featured three little blue ones that my Mom had professionally framed for me one Christmas. They have graced my dining room wall for decades.

© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--Growing Up Hughes: The Dog House

When I was in high school, a little dog house similar to this one was prominently displayed on one kitchen wall...I think it was near the wall mounted telephones. Unfortunately, this is not the original. I found it during my e-bay procurement years.....when I was looking for items from my past

The date on this one is 1958. My guess is that Mom picked our up on one of our vacations....probably during one of our last family summer vacations in Stone Harbor, New Jersey.

I don't have a recollection of it when we lived on Washington Drive.....just on Bramble Lane. Of course each dog had a name.....Dad, Mom, Lin, Ken and Jeff. I can't remember if Mom would put one of us in the dog house when we were "bad". What I do remember is that the three of us kids would interchange our names into and out of the dog house.

It became a game. Someone would put Lin in the dog house at night....I would come down for breakfast and exchange my name for Ken and Ken would place Jeff in so he would find it when he came home from elementary school in the afternoon.


The game would go on for weeks, until we tired of it.....it would lay dormant until suddenly, one of us was back in the dog house again. And the game was on.


I wonder who is in the dog house now!

© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--August C. Farschman Money Bag

Yet another find from the condo. As clean as this money bag is, I am sure Helena gave it a good wash and press before packing it away with a note tucked inside identifying the importance of the piece.


As listed on the note, the money bag belonged to August C. Farschman, paternal great grandfather of my husband. August was the son of Gustave Julius Albert Farschmin and Eva Hass of Lorain, Lorain County, Ohio. He was married to Amanda Agnes Kutza, daughter of Julius Martin Kutza and Ida Hermine Kroll also of Lorain.

The Farschman's were the parents of four daughters: Caroline, Eva, Anna and Viola. Eva married Orison Hiser--they were my husband's paternal grandparents.

August C. FarschmanCirca 1939
August was a businessman. While living in Lorain, Ohio in the early 1900's, he owned and operated a candy and tobacco establishment. For a brief time ( 1915-1916)moved his family to Cleveland, Ohio, where he purchased a storefront and operated a billiards and confectionary store. The family returned to Lorain after the death of their young daughter, Anna, who died on from pneumonia on Feb 25, 1916 at age thirteen.

After returning to Lorain, Ohio, August was employed at the National Stove Company from 1916-1920.

Between 1922-1932 August owned and operated a grocery store and gas station in Axtel, Ohio at the southwest corner of Route 60 and Mason Road.

I have no information whether August contined to work after 1932 or perhaps he retired. He died just shy of his 76th birthday on November 19, 1950 at the home of his daughter, Viola Farschman Harris, in Vermilion, Erie County, Ohio.

© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--Smith Farm Lease 1927

At the end of the summer, my sister-in-law finished the final cleaning out of Helena's condo and on her way back to Mississippi, stopped here in North Olmsted for a visit. I became the proud new owner of additional pieces of family glassware and tucked inside the box were several envelopes. One contained this document dated April 1, 1927.

Grover Cleveland Smith was Helena's father. John A. (Andrew) Smith, her paternal grandfather. The family owned and farmed land in Clinton Township, Seneca County, Ohio. This document is a lease from John Andrew Smith to his son, Grover Cleveland Smith.

Grover Cleveland Smith agreed to pay his father the annual sum of $300.00 for the land outlined in the contract. Some of his duties were to repair all fences, to sow clover and timothy seed to keep the soil from deteriorating, to plant one half acre of strawberries and to keep the weeds cut.

When the lease was drawn up, Grover Cleveland Smith was married to Mildred Claudine Tate Smith and they had four children and one on the way.

Witness to the signing were:
Jesse C. Heebsh
Peter C. Welter

Relationship to my two sons
John Andrew Smith--paternal great great grandfather
Grover Cleveland Smith--paternal great grandfather

© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--Steuben Compote

As I mentioned in last week's Treasure Chest Thursday, my Mother loved glass. This is one of her prized pieces....a Steuben Compote. It always had a place on honor on the dining room table...both on Bramble Lane in Pittsburgh and in her Lakewood, Ohio condo.

I believe that it was either a gift from my Dad or they purchased it on a trip to NYC one year. I am pretty certain that it dates back to the mid 1960's.

It now graces my dining room table and I am thrilled to have it. I can't go into the dining room and not think of my Mom every time I look at it.


The Steuben name etched into the glass.
© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--Tiffin Glass Candy dish

Sometimes I wonder if enjoyment of glassware is a genetic trait. My mother loved glass. She collected various glass pieces....items that caught her fancy when out and about to more expensive pieces of Steuben.

When I was attending Heidelberg College....now called Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio, I was pleased to find that there was a factory in town that made crystal and glass. For me a pleasant afternoon was browsing the tables in the factory. As an impoverished student I was unable to afford the "firsts"--the flawless pieces that were still sold at reduced prices. My area was the tables of "seconds"--pieces that were flawed, but still saleable.

You can imagine that Christmas gifts for my Mom came from the Tiffin Glass Factory.

The piece above is from a collection that once belonged to my mother-in-law. While cleaning out the condo, I found this avocado green glass candy dish in a cupboard. There was no doubt in my mind that it was Tiffin and it came home with me.



Top taken off exposes that the dish is divided into three sections.


This would be classified as a second. This photo shows a flaw in the handle--a tiny bubble. There were several other bubbles in one of the sides.

I would guess that Helena purchased this piece from the factory in the 1960's. The factory closed it's doors in 1980.

History of Tiffin Glass

© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--A Letter from Grams

I am so glad my Mother saved this little letter from my paternal grandmother, Sarah VanGilder Hughes aka Grams. It was written sometime after my birth on May 1, 1947. She mentions my Uncle John Aiden Hughes and my Aunt Faith Hughes. Even my two paternal great grandmothers, Jessie Pool VanGilder and Elizabeth Olesen Hughes.

At this time, Grams, Pop Pop and Aunt Faith were all living in Monaca, Beaver County, Pennsylvania with Pop Pop's mother, Elizabeth Olesen Hughes. No one seems to know why they moved from Avalon, Pennsylvania to Monaca. They lived there during Aunt Faith's high school years and several days following her graduation, the family moved from Monaca to Bellevue, Pennsylvania in Allegheny County.

I rescanned the letter in two parts for easier reading:







© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--South American Map circa 1875

Another glorious find among the boxes and boxes of paper in Helena's condo. The artist who drew this rendering of South America was Helena Fredericka Oster, my husband's great grandmother and his mother's namesake.

Helena Fredericka Oster was born to Jacob W. Oster and Katherine Seewald on July 11, 1860 in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio. Helena married John Andrew Smith on December 9, 1880 in Seneca County, Ohio.



This label was attached to the original frame which held the old drawing. I am wondering if the map was in the possession of Corletta Katherine Smith Renninger, Helena Oster Smith's daughter. It could be her writing on the label. Perhaps Corletta gave the framed map to my mother-in-law since Helena was named for her mother.

The map is hand drawn on a piece of lined tablet paper and is in relatively good condition considering its age.

What else can I say but WOW!!!

© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--Hiser Depression Glass

Decades ago my mother-in-law gave me this sturdy green depression glass celery dish. If I remember correctly, it belonged to my husband's paternal grandmother, Eva Farschman Hiser. For the past several months I have been busy, once a week, cleaning out the condo of my mother-in-law and have found additional pieces of green depression glass....again, probably belonging to Grandmother Hiser.

This piece does not match the others, it is a much lighter shade of green.....almost a celery color. With each item I have found, I begin to wonder if this was Eva's glassware, or perhaps predated her. Nothing to do but google depression glass. Here is what I found on a website by Dr. Lori that no longer exists. Thank goodness for the cached feature!

"In the collecting category of 1930s Depression glass, green is king. Green is the most popular of the Depression glass colors overpowering the traditional amber, yellow, or pink varieties. This American made glass called Depression glass has a deceptive name because the glassware was first introduced in the mid 1920s and continued to be produced by some companies well into the 1950s—a far cry from the Depression era."

Looks as if this was Eva's as she and Orison were married in 1920.

I should use this piece more. Frankly, it is hidden away on a top shelf in a cabinet in my kitchen. I think one Christmas I did use it for butter pats on the holiday table. I need to make a mental note to pull it out again this Christmas. It certainly fits into the red and green holiday color scheme.

© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--Charles Edward Stark Bible

I found this palm size New Testament Psalms Bible among the estate pieces of my maternal grandmother. It belonged to my maternal grandfather, Charles Edward Stark.

Dated September 22, 1899 I am guessing it was a birthday gift as he would be celebrating his 19th birthday the next day, September 23.

My mother, Martha Jean Stark Hughes, repeatedly told me stories of her father's dedication to the church and that he "held close to his Bible". In the estate I only found two....this small Psalms and a larger complete Bible which was my grandmothers.

Of interest and found tucked inside were several items:


A handwritten piece of paper, probably in Grandpa Stark's hand, of verses that speak of "Unpardonable Sin"......YIKES!!!


And a little note written to him by a friend and teacher (probably church school), Marion A. Paden dated September 22, 1897.

My question is this....was the New Testament of Psalms given to Charles Stark as a birthday gift from Marion A. Paden and the wrong year was written on the inside cover. The handwriting looks to be that of the gift giver, Marion Paden.

© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--Antique Napkin Rings

These napkin rings are not family heirlooms, although perhaps they might become one since I purchased them back in the early 1970's. When I was first married, I was an antique fanatic. Granted we didn't have much additional cash to spend on items as frivolous as antiques, but to be fair, before there was an antique collecting craze in the states, many nice items were selling back then for amounts that would be considered relatively cheap on today's market.

Photos borrowed from e-bay
At that time, I didn't even know what a napkin ring was. I was introduced to them by my then, brother-in-law, who had the most extraordinary sterling and silver plate napkin rings collection I had ever seen.....including to date! He had the regular, ordinary round bands that would hold an individuals table napkin securely by their plate at the table. And then there were the remarkable ones.....3 dimensional sterling silver horses rearing up off the table with the ring portion down near the hoves.....wagons and ox carts with the rings down near the wheels.....various wild animals with the rings near their legs or feet.

Whenever I saw his collection, I was full of envy.....how I wished to have one of those spectacular rings! Now, I did mention that many antiques back then were were not as expensive as today; however, the extravagant ones, if you could find them, were WAY out of my price range.

I didn't purchase too many as I quickly tired of napkin rings and moved on to another collectible. The ones above are probably the best of my collection. First, because it is a pair and second, because they actually have marks on the inside of the ring.


My rings have somewhat simple ornamentation engraved around the entire outside. They are two toned--gold and silver. The marks inside are still a mystery to me, although I have tried to identify them. I have always thought that they were sterling since there is the capital "S"; however, I now wonder if that is the maker's mark instead.


The marks inside are--

Stamped inside:S308A

Then scratched inside:220 750

Perhaps a reader might direct me to the answer.

© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Treasure Chest Thursday--Hiser Creamer

This little white ceramic creamer (milk glass?) was a gift to my husband's mother, Helena Smith Hiser from her aunt, Leta Alolla Burkett Tate. Leta married Charles Ray Tate, Helena's maternal uncle, brother of her mother, Mildred Claudine Tate Smith.




Thankfully, Helena took the time to give a little family history on the bottom of the creamer. There are no maker's marks on the bottom. It may have been bought at a 5 & 10 store; however it is a treasure nonetheless.

Other Flipside Blogs regarding Charles Ray and Leta Burkett Tate:

Charles Ray and Leta Burkett Tate--Tombstone Tuesday

Aunt Leta's Clown--Treasure Chest Thursday

© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser