More Family Treasures...

My Great-Grandmother Ruby's chaotic life has been chronicled in a prior entry.... And her chaotic life allowed few personal items to pass onto her descendants. Luckily, this Royal Sealy tea set did! While living in Minneapolis, Ruby's twin sister Ruth visited and this tea set was sent home with Ruth for Ruby's daughter, Betty (my Grandma). My Grandma always prominently displayed this set, which has special meaning, coming from the Mother she never really knew. Last year, this lovely little set became mine.


I've always liked black glass, and this bowl and cake plate that my Grandma always had in her china cabinet, was a favorite of mine. It belonged to Nelsine Bendina (Anderson) Nelson, my Great-Great Grandmother, who was my Grandpa Dale's Grandmother. Grandma Nelson died in 1950, two years before my Grandparents married, but eventually they were given a couple of things that were from the Nelson home. Unfortunately, I never asked my Great-Grandmother where her Mother obtained these two black pieces....... So the origins of them are unknown. After many years in Grandma's china cabinet, they've now become part of mine.

This corner cabinet was probably built in the 1930's or 1940's... the builder was Erwin Bruce, my Great-Great Uncle. Apparently he was quite the furniture maker as it isn't the only project of his to survive today.

Erwin made the cabinet for his sister Ruth Stoddard, the woman I knew as my Great-Grandma... Erwin and Ruth were very close, so it is no surprise he would build such a piece for her. And it remained in her Winnebago home for many decades untile the early 1980s, when she entered a nursing home and the household was broken up and the home sold. My Mother was given the cabinet and growing up in was always in our living room.... eventually my Mother obtained new dining room furniture and this fine cabinet was regailed to the basement. When I moved away from home, the cabinet came with me and now looks as if it belongs in my living room.