The Material Legacy

Bedroom Set

The set – bed, dresser, comode – was new when my parents (Gilbert and Lillie Cardinal) were married in 1901. The bed no longer exists. The set is made of cherry wood. The dresser originally had a mirror in a frame so that the mirror could be tilted. My mother removed the frame and hung the mirror on the wall in the 1920's. The frame is gone, but the mirror was left in attic at 132 S. Oneida St. until Carl Sippel gave it to me in 1985. The bevel-edge mirror has a broken-out section which my mother concealled with picture post cards.

Sewing Chair

This low wooden rocker belonged to my mother, Lillie Strahl Cardinal (1877- 1948). I don't know when or how it was acquired, but I remember it as an old chair when I was a child.

Originally, the chair was finished with a dark brown stain and had a brown cane seat (fragments of the cane are still there). In the late 1920's, Mother installed a dime store plywood replacement seat. At some time, one of the six back splints was broken; I removed the opposite one to maintain symmetry when I painted the chair gray in the 1950's.

Child Chairs

The four chairs have interesting histories.

The green straight chair was bought by her parents for my wife, Beatrice Ferslev, when she was four years old (in 1919). It was used specifically for her to sit on in the one-seated family automobile while her older sister sat between the parents and the younger sister sat on mother's lap.

The other three chairs were given to me after my *cousin's children outgrew them (about 1915). The training chair was a brown color – stain and varnish –; we never had the tray. The "kitchen" chair was red enamel. I remember the rocker as yellow – probably a stained or natural finish. When Uncle Abe Frei brought the training chair from Spokane, Washington, out to the ranch on Indian Prairie, he was embarassed; so he put it in a burlap bag. I named the chairs for ranch horses – Major (training chair), Queen (kitchen), and Flo (rocker) and drove them with string lines. The chair backs and rear legs still show the wear from being dragged across the floor. I still refer to them by name.

Shop Tools

Acquired by me during high school years (1927-31) or before.

• Work bench (made for me by my father)
• Vise
• Claw hammer (marked Alty on handle)
• Push drill (Mr. Punch)
• Auger bits for brace (6/16″, 8/16″, 10/16″)
• Countersink bit
• Twist bit (¼)
• Brace
• Marking guage
• Try square
• Large screw driver (square shank, wood handle) (bought for me by my Uncle Sam Cardinal)
• Screw driver set (3 in 1)
• Wooden handle containing may tools
• Jack plane
• Carpenter chisels (½″ ¾″)
• Spoke shave
• Hand cranked grinder