Wednesday Treasures: Discovering Hidden Treasures -Updated AGAIN!

Okay! I hope you will indulge me tonight!  I made another amazing discovery today regarding this old chest of drawers, lovingly known as "Aunt Dode's Dresser".  

Today my hubby and I were watching some interesting YouTube videos from "The History Underground", in particular 

"The Home & Deathbed of an Underrated President | History Traveler Episode 116"

which is about our 23rd President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison. (1833-1901)  (President from 1889-1893) This is a tour of his home in Indianapolis, IN.  

Go to  scene 17:21/24.30 "Mary's Room" to see what I want you to see.

If you look very quickly at the chest of drawers just inside the door of "Mary's Room" in this section of the video, you will see a chest of drawers remarkably like the one I have above. Specifically look at the front legs design.  You will see that it has almost the exact same curvature as "Aunt Dode's Dresser".

(sorry, our chest of drawers is missing a front wheel, so that block of wood is holding up that leg. One of those "projects" that needs to be done.)

I was so shocked to see that chest of drawers in this video, which according to the curator of the home most every piece of furniture in the home is original to the home, which dates from the 1870's.   If you continue on to read my original post about "Aunt Dode's Dresser" below, you will see that I figured this chest of drawers could be as old as the 1860's or thereabouts.  Now that I see this very similar design of chest of drawers in the President Benjamin Harrison home, I think perhaps the date could be more like in the 1870's...but still VERY OLD, don't you agree?  I just thought this little bit of new enlightenment was so interesting that I wanted to share it with you!

Previous Update, 10/21/2020:

This post was originally written back in 2011, not long after my father had passed away and we had sold our family home and taken home special things we "inherited" from my parents' estate. Today I would love to share with you the history of this beautiful chest of drawers, which now stands in our master bedroom, and as you can see, it is decorated with some of my other special treasures, some of which I have already told you about in other times and places.  So today's focus will be upon this chest of drawers and why it is so significant:

Originally written May 20, 2011

Have you ever been on a "treasure hunt"?  I remember having such fun with my classmates years and years ago searching for treasure as we discovered clues in secret places and followed the instructions written on the notes hidden therein.  Sometimes the instructions told us to walk so many paces to a certain tree and look for the next clue, or to go to the next spot and look up or down or all around and find another clue stashed some clever place.  Then there would be a mad dash to the next destination to see who would be the first one to discover the hidden treasure.  What a thrill to be the one who found it...no matter how insignificant the treasure, it became a a grand prize in the hands of the discoverer!

I loved those exciting events and enjoyed the searching for the mysterious prize almost as much as finding the treasure.  The thrill of the hunt...the challenge of the competition to get there first...and laughter and glee of all my friends running about seeking the treasure...kind of like an Easter Egg Hunt...such happy memories. 

Recently I've been on another kind of treasure hunt as my siblings and I have been seeking out the "treasures" left behind by our parents in our family home upon the departure of our father on his journey to heaven, where he joined our mother who was eagerly awaiting his arrival.  My parents' home was quite a menagerie of collections of so many interesting things that it was almost mind boggling to even know where to begin to sort it all out.  My parents' idea that all their earthly goods should be sold and the proceeds divided equally between their four children sounded good on paper, but in reality it became a complicated problem for us to fairly decipher when there were so many special memories tied up in all of their "earthly goods".  I mean, how can you just out and out sell to strangers the family heirlooms, no matter how "valuable" or lacking in monetary value but precious to our sentimental feelings...things that have our family history inscribed in the nicks, chips and scratches on dishes and furniture, and worn pages and signatures, faded pictures and scribbled notes on old letters, books, diaries...so many memories...

There was one particular piece of furniture in the house that I had always admired, and I kept thinking in my mind that I really would like to have it, but I just wasn't sure if I would have room for it, or if it's "assigned value" might make it cost prohibitive for me to add to my "list" of things I wanted to keep.  But I knew that it really shouldn't be sold out of the family because my mother had told me that it had belonged to one of her ancestors and had even perhaps been built by a family member years and years ago.  Although I wasn't certain from which ancestor this beautiful chest of drawers had originated, I knew that I just couldn't let it slip away from our family.  So I finally made the decision to take it home with me, with the blessings of my other siblings. 



Can you see the handwritten signatures which I found on the side of one of the drawers of this chest?   Written in pencil, and yet still there over 100 years later!! A little to the right and above their signatures is a note engraved by my father, stating, "Refinished by William F. Mursch, July 1968", which explains why the chest is still in such beautiful condition.

As we removed the drawers from the chest to make it easier to transport into our house, I began to search for any hidden clues that could help identify the origins of this wonderful old antique.  I knew that sometimes people used to write their names on the undersides or insides of their furnishings to identify them, so I scanned each and every surface of the dresser for an answer.  Lo and behold! There it was, written upside down on one of the sides of one of the drawers was the treasure I was seeking!  Scrawled in the old fashioned script of yesteryear, written in pencil, were the names of two significant people:  Dora Johnston and Flora B. Johnston.*  Now, I know that probably doesn't mean much to you, but those two names solved the riddle.  I originally thought that Dora and Flora were sisters,* (see below for corrections to this) born in 1860 and 1857 respectively.  I assumed that *Flora Belle Johnston married John B. Sheets, and she then became the mother of my grandmother, *Flora E. Sheets Tedlie, the mother of my Mother, Dorothea May Tedlie Mursch!

*BIG UPDATE TO THIS, 5/7/2020:     Now I have to make a huge correction to this information! I have recently been doing some genealogy research, and I have discovered that I had this all wrong!   Flora and Dora Johnston were NOT sisters, but they were mother and daughter!  Flora B. Johnston was actually Dora Johnston (Gorseline)'s mother.  This is her picture below. Her maiden name was Flora Elson.  She was born in 1826 and died on February 19, 1900.  She married Joseph Johnston on March 25, 1848.  So this would make her my Great-Great Grandmother. 

So then, who was my Great-Grandmother? That was a bit confusing to me.

I assumed my Great-Grandmother was named "Flora Belle" Johnston, but no,

her name was "Lela Belle" Johnston, and she went by the name of Belle.  She was the older sister to Dora, and was born on April 19, 1857, and died on December 28, 1911.

She married my Great Grandfather John B. Sheets on July 4, 1878.

In this picture below (taken around 1903) we see my Grandmother, Flora Sheets Tedlie, standing on the back left. 

Next to her is her Aunt Dora Johnston (Gorseline).

Seated is my Great Grandmother Belle Johnston Sheets, sitting next to my Great Grandfather, 

John Benjamin Sheets.

So this beautiful chest of drawers that I somehow just couldn't leave behind for strangers, belonged to my maternal Great Great Grandmother, and probably dates back very possibly to before 1860.   I believe the piece was actually in the home of my Great-Great Aunt Dora** Johnston Gorseline, and she left it to my Grandmother when she willed her home and all it's furnishings to her upon her death in 1932.  (**Aunt Dora was affectionately known as Aunt "Dode" to my mother and her siblings. And my mother, Dorothea, was named after her and another great aunt on her father's side, Althea, so you have Dorothea as a combination of the two names!)

(Current Update:  You may have noticed these interesting tiles (below) in Pamela's Victorian Cottage, which have become the hearth and interior of the fireplace in the living room. Well, those little tiles actually came from "Aunt Dode's house", and were literally a part of the fireplace in her home. My mother had saved them and they were found in the drawer of the dresser when I started cleaning it out to search for "treasures".  What better place to use them than in another old fashioned house!)

Although I still don't know who actually built the chest of drawers, that doesn't really matter as much as who used it and filled it with their own precious treasures, lingerie, dainty hankies, gloves, jewelry and maybe even their secret diaries.  I can imagine that both sisters Belle and Dora may have used this dresser.  Oh, if those drawers could talk, I'll bet they could tell me the dreams of first, a young bride, and then of her two young daughters who never in their wildest dreams knew that one day, some 160 years later, their great-great grand daughter, great granddaughter, and great great niece would be sitting here writing about this on a computer for all the world to see!  Wow! That even excites me and gets my imagination flowing!  Could be the start of that book I keep wanting to write...hmmm...I'll just have to think about that!

What a treasure!  Oh, by the way, when I finally got this chest of drawers set up in my guest room, (which I call "The Grandma Room"), I know I heard some giggles and sighs and hand clapping from somewhere up in heaven...and I could definitely feel my mother smiling down at me and heard her whisper, "Thank you, Pam, for carrying on the family heritage and finding the treasure hidden therein." 

You are welcome, Mama...and I'm so glad you kept nudging me on to not give up on it!
Good night!  Sleep Tight!

The Chest of Drawers as it looked in my guest room in a previous home.

The Chest of Drawers that belonged to my Great Great Grandmother Flora Elson Johnston and her daughters, Belle Johnston Sheets and  Dora Johnston Gorseline, passed down to my Grandmother Flora E. Sheets Tedlie, and then to my mother, Dorothea May Tedlie Mursch, and now to me, Pamela Anne Mursch Steiner. I wonder where it will go from here?  Time will tell...

The Buster Brown Tea Set on top of the dresser belonged to my Aunt Margaret Tedlie Moss, and my mother remembers playing with it when she was a child.  The two pictures are: Flora Sheets Tedlie, my grandmother as a little girl about 5 or 6 years old, and the other is a picture of my Great Great Grandmother, Flora E. Johnston, the mother of Dora and Lela Belle Johnston!  The doll is a doll that I gave my mother as a birthday present on her 85th birthday.  The books are from my mother's collection of old books, including a very old edition of Little Women, wrapped in plastic because it is literally falling apart and beyond restoration.  I am looking forward to placing more "treasures" in and on this chest of drawer as I discover them...!

Back to the present:  I hope you enjoyed this little walk back through history and down memory lane. This discovery today (9/8/2021) has only made the significance of "Aunt Dode's  Dresser"  even more interesting and entertaining, don't you agree?  Now I will always think of it as "Aunt Dode's President Harrison Dresser!"   LOL. 

   

I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.  It is pouring down rain here right now.  Tomorrow I go see the neurosurgeon about my neck issues. I will update you when I know something worth sharing.  All thoughts and prayers are welcome!!  God bless you all!!  Good Night!