1921: A KITCHEN COAL AND WOOD BURNING STOVE

Ours was a "Wincroft," but much the same as the "Baron" in the engraving above. You have piled on the years if you remember this beast with cast iron legs and body. Our Wincroft didn't always burn coal as it was built to do. During the Glover years of poverty, we had the dead wood from Kuser Farm to substitute for our normal ton of chestnut coal from Henry Liedtka. To those of my visitors who are not familiar with that old relic, you will notice that there are circular lines on the top of the stove. They were lifted off with a special tool and the coal or wood was dropped into the furnace. I remember lifting one of the lids, putting a fork on a piece of bread and toasting it over the fire. Our mothers and grandmothers had to be very ingenious to learn how much time to leave that turkey or bread, or other oven-baked meals in that oven on the lower right. There were not electronic timers back then. What is not shown in the engraving is the galvanized chimney pipe which was fitted on the back of the stove and vented into the house's chimney. Right up to the 1940's I remember coming home from school on a cold winter day, sit at the kitchen table and smell the delightful aroma of a pot of Mom Glover's home made chicken soup.