Favorite Family Heirlooms

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I have a sampler also that my great grandmother made in 1874 before she emigrated from Holland.

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like_A_pike said:
I remember my grandfather selling all of his rifles for next to nothing. He was a preacher in Appalachia and times got tough every now and then. Me living with them prolly didn’t help. I always wanted to find the guy that bought them to see if he still had any and what he would want for it/them. I’d give an arm and maybe a leg to be able to pass one to my kid.

My other grandpa was a preacher too. There isn’t much but things were not important to either of them.

My father had a Belgium Browning Sweet Sixteen that I really wanted however. I offered pop what he paid for it several times over the years but dad was nowhere near ready to part with it. One evening he calls me and explains that he lost his last dollars gambling with colleagues in Dallas and needed some dough to get back home. Well, and not let my stepmother know. I made a deal for that gun for $250. My kid will at least get that one and a story to boot!
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I have my grandfathers sweet sixteen, they are nice guns.
My most cherished thing is the land and property my grandparents left me, it has really made my life easy.

My dad who is 80 was preparing his will and asked me what I wanted, I said nothing just for him to be healthy for another 80 years, he just laughed and said that my whole life I did not ask him for anything, and my 2 sisters always did new cars, houses etc. So I have a feeling my sisters might be a little disappointed when he passes.
 
gunbunny said:
I have a .20 ga Stevens shot gun my grandfather gave me.
He told me that the day he came home from WWII, he got to the train station early. Across the street there was a hardware store, and since he had time to kill, he went in.
He saw the shot gun and figured he'd need dinner, so he bought for $12.
Said when he got to his final stop, his mother was there, ad already had pork chops waiting.
He said the next morning he went squirrel hunting. Said it was the 1st time in a long while he was walking in the woods and looking for a "damned Nazi".
Then he clammed up, handed me the the Stevens, and told me he's never shot it. I was hoping he'd tell me more about his time in France, but he never did.
When he passed away, we requested his service records to get him a grave marker. That's when we found out he landed in Normandy, D Day plus three. Later he would be part of Pattons army during the Battle of the Bulge.
I'll make sure that my son get that Stevens. What he does with it is up to him, but I trust him to keep it in the family and tell its story.
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My grandpa and his brothers were in the Pacific. My dad said he never heard a single one talk about anything they did in the war. I got a couple of his medals from his time over there.
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S'cuder said:
I have a sampler my great, great grandmother embroiderd in 1859 as a young bride in Prussia before she immigrated.
I have my great, great grandfather's (not the one married to the aforementioned gggm) army discharge from 1865. I also have a photo of him in uniform from 1863-64, and his G.A.R. badge. Also a New York Gettysburg Veteran medal from when he attended the dedication of the New York monument there.

*Edit - photos added.

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Take a good look at your sampler.
If you haven't noticed this yet, there are two mistakes.
They aren't accidental. This was a common practice with young ladies who completed these as part of a "finishing" school.
This could have been a formal school or just a couple of ladies with some younger girls learning how to properly sew, cook, clean and how to be a wife.
The reason for the mistake is that "only god is perfect, man will make a mistake".
BTW, the mistakes are that the upper case letter I is missing and the letter Z is out of place.
Also, this is a very American thing, European samplers may not have this.
 
This is the coolest thing left to me by my Mom. Before and after.....

cuda apart mid-90's.jpg


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"Things that only you appreciate 101"

From rare n highly valuable...to "eww in the trashcan with that"

One day at a yardsale...
" yeah these were my dad's.. he was really into them. I've just been storing them all these years. I dont really have a use for them..." ...-20 bucks? ..."sounds good".
 
I had my fathers 1888 Elgin gold watch. it was given to him by his father. I don't know how my grandfather came into it, because he didn't come here until '31 and he had it before then. I gave it to my oldest brother, after our dad died, as I had to go through his personal belongings. He had it serviced, and gave it back to me on my 50th birthday. I kept it, and in turn gave it to his oldest son after my brother passed last year. I have a daughter, and granddaughters, so better to be with the boys. I know it's monetary value is a few grand, but to think it will remain with my nephew and then his oldest son, and beyond, is kind of cool.
 
gunbunny said:
Take a good look at your sampler.
If you haven't noticed this yet, there are two mistakes.
They aren't accidental. This was a common practice with young ladies who completed these as part of a "finishing" school.
This could have been a formal school or just a couple of ladies with some younger girls learning how to properly sew, cook, clean and how to be a wife.
The reason for the mistake is that "only god is perfect, man will make a mistake".
BTW, the mistakes are that the upper case letter I is missing and the letter Z is out of place.
Also, this is a very American thing, European samplers may not have this.
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Thanks for weighing in sharing your knowledge on samplers.
I had noticed the out of place Z and the missing "I"s. The only i on the whole thing is in her name Ernstine.
No reason was ever given to me why these letters were missing or out of place. My grandmother didn't know. Her grandmother made it, but she'd died before my grandmother was born.
I know in the 19th century religion was in the forefront of people's daily lives much more than today. I also know that the thought that only God is perfect would cause one to make deliberate small mistakes. I just never considered it in this instance.
The sampler is probably European, made by my great, great grandmother when she was in her late twenties. Her grave marker shows her birthdate as 1831, with the sampler date 1859. They show up in the U.S. on the 1880 census with her son, my great grandfather, as 11 years old having been born in Prussia. His death record says the same. I know I have some immigration information somewhere, but I remember their hometown was Prenzlau, Prussia. Now, Prenzlau, Brandenburg, Germany.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.


Ernstine Rosenthal with her husband Ferdinand Rüetz circa 1890.

Ferdinand Rüetz & Ernstine Rosenthal.jpg
 
S'cuder said:
Thanks for weighing in sharing your knowledge on samplers.
I had noticed the out of place Z and the missing "I"s. The only i on the whole thing is in her name Ernstine.
No reason was ever given to me why these letters were missing or out of place. My grandmother didn't know. Her grandmother made it, but she'd died before my grandmother was born.
I know in the 19th century religion was in the forefront of people's daily lives much more than today. I also know that the thought that only God is perfect would cause one to make deliberate small mistakes. I just never considered it in this instance.
The sampler is probably European, made by my great, great grandmother when she was in her late twenties. Her grave marker shows her birthdate as 1831, with the sampler date 1859. They show up in the U.S. on the 1880 census with her son, my great grandfather, as 11 years old having been born in Prussia. His death record says the same. I know I have some immigration information somewhere, but I remember their hometown was Prenzlau, Prussia. Now, Prenzlau, Brandenburg, Germany.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.


Ernstine Rosenthal with her husband Ferdinand Rüetz circa 1890.

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She was 28 when she made this? This is interesting. She has all of her alphabet in an "English" style and not Prussian or Germanic.
Good chance she knew she was coming to America and was learning English.
The mistakes are not always there, but a mistake is seldom just that.
Regardless, preserve it. Keep it out of direct sunlight and on a acid free board.
 
My grandpa worked for Kendall Oil his entire career, so anything Kendall related is high on my save list. There is one item in particular tho, that I will cherish for the rest of my life. See, my grandma loved squirrels, and had a squirrel friend that she called Chucky. He would come up to her door every day, she would open the door and he would hop up on the sill and she would give him a peanut butter cracker. He would sit there and eat it, then give a “Chuck Chuck” noise and take off. When my artist friend heard about her love for squirrels, she made my grandma this squirrel made from pipe cleaners. That was her medium, and she was a master artist with them. We call him Chucky in honor of my grandma, and he lives on the dashboard of my Roadrunner, and for 25 years lived on the dash of my GTX. It just doesn’t feel right driving without him, and the Roadrunner didn’t feel like my car until Chucky was safe at home in there. My brother also has a squirrel in his car for the same reason.

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gunbunny said:
She was 28 when she made this? This is interesting. She has all of her alphabet in an "English" style and not Prussian or Germanic.
Good chance she knew she was coming to America and was learning English.
The mistakes are not always there, but a mistake is seldom just that.
Regardless, preserve it. Keep it out of direct sunlight and on a acid free board.
Click to expand...
Thanks for all of this. It makes me re-examine what are facts and what I thought were facts based on assumptions.
I know Ernstine's birth and death dates and places. I know when and where her children were born. Knowing her children's birth information gives me a window in time in which I can assume she emigrated. The elder child, my great grandfather, born in Prussia, was age 11 on the 1880 census. His younger sister was 5, born in New York. That makes emigration between 1869-1875 or thereabouts, ten years after the date on the sampler.
So, if in fact this was made in America as the style of the lettering suggests, possibly it commemorates a significant event in her life that took place in 1859. Possibly he marriage or religious conversion. The cross is prominently displayed, but so is a goblet. And my grandmother told me she was Jewish. So, an anniversary piece made later in life? Maybe. Most likely I'll never know for certain, but it's fun to guess what the true story is.
Thanks for your insights, and yes, it is archivally preserved.


Ernstine standing with Ferdinand at their home in Niagara County, New York. The property only recently left the family.
Mounted on the horse is my Uncle Frank and standing on the right with the great moustache in my great grandfather William. Circa 1895.
Rietz Human Rd CA 1895.jpg
 
I have a 410 single shot rifle my grandpa bought when he was 11 or 12. His friend wanted to go hunt squirrels so my grandpa bought it at a hardware store and the guy wrapped it up in newspaper so he wouldn’t get into trouble on the way home. My grandpa said he couldn’t afford ammo for it so it sat in his closet for another 2 years before he actually shot it! I can’t remember what year but it was during the 1940’s
 
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