The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
by Rita Ferguson, Stronghurst
...Christmas Past
This year, the Stronghurst Booster Club inspired an Old Fashioned Christmas Walk to be held this Friday evening.
I used some of those precious things we all have around the house that have been handed down from generation to generation along with the stories we have inherited with them. Sometimes it takes some inspiration from folks, like the Booster Club, who are busy making special memories for the children of our Village this year. They will carry our present into the future with them.
I rummaged through my treasures and thought it might be fun to share how I ended up with some of them that you can see in the Post Office window on Broadway Street in the Village of Stronghurst.
The oldest heirloom in the window is my Great Grandmother Emma Wood Landakar's child rocking chair. She lived to be over 100 years old in Dallas City, pictured with my dad and I at her 100th birthday and with her first husband, Professor E. D. Wood at his Musical Conservatory in Aledo.
(If you type in "Who is Professor E. D. Wood" you can find an interesting story about the "Professor" like I did several years ago....ah, the information available at our fingertips these days!"
I was able to provide history to my Aunt Vesta Dickey in Baltimore that even my Grandmother Myrtle Roe longed to hear, but never did as Professor Wood died unexpectedly around the age of 50. So the little rocker has been handed down from Emma to her daughters, Vesta Wood and Myrtle (Wood) Roe.
Since Vesta had no children, it was then handed down to Myrtle's daughter, Vesta (Roe) Dickey who then handed it down to me, Rita (Roe) Ferguson.
I will someday hand the little oak rocker to Emma's great great-great granddaughter, Bailie Danielle Ferguson, our first granddaughter, daughter of Brad and Stacie Ferguson.
Tradition has it that Emma's rocker goes to the first daughter of each generation of her family.
Another little chair is one that Alan and I gave Brad the Christmas we spent in Misawa, Japan, when Alan was in the Navy in 1973.
It was purchased at one of the bazaars held at the base.
The Japanese would bring in their wares to sell to the service men, women and families.
The doll sitting in it is my Christmas doll dressed in a Sailor suit that I purchased at Napa, California, when Brad was born during Alan's assignment at Skaggs Island in 1970.
All the family babies have pictures in the suit even the newest, Bailie, (girls can go Navy too you know!)
I got the doll one Christmas on the farm. I remember coming downstairs one morning and mom was sewing this little outfit-navy blue slacks and a little plaid shirt.
And to my surprise on Christmas morning, lo and behold, my Betsy doll had the same little outfit.
My mother's little wicker chair was given to her for Christmas, we think the early 1920's. It was part of a set of two chairs and a couch but a boy cousin sat in the couch and broke it!
We have various pictures of Grandma Pearl Leinbach's children sitting in it also.
I know I had a picture sitting in it with a house cat that got rabies and my parents, grandparents, myself and anyone who came into contact with that cat...Doc Prendergast our vet, then in Stronghurst, had to have the shots even on Christmas Day!
The little hutch was made by my dad, Hugh Roe for his sisters, Bess and Vesta when they lived in Dallas City with their Grandma Emma and Auntie Vesta. They used to make "mud pies" in it!
Dad went to Dallas City and brought it to me to put in my "Play House" that he got from one of Marion Evan's tenant houses west of our farm, that was located outside of town, down the road from the Maple Grove School.
I went to for several years with the Malcolm boys, the Fox's, the White's, the Long's, the Powell's, the Shunick's (the original Shunick Curve Family!) the Shaner's, just to mention a few us.
I went to Dallas City and back to Stronghurst with me and from one house on Logan Street, around the world and back, to it's present location, our Logan Street dining room.
The Santa and reindeer, in the window, is a gift from my husband.