Travels of The Solid Walnut Dresser

From research it seems this dresser in Mom and Dad’s basement is an American Victorian walnut dresser from the late 19^th century. 

The dresser’s journey in our family probably started in Illinois with my great-grandfather, Gustaf “Gust” Hackerson (Håkansson in Sweden) and his wife Mathilda.  He came to America from Sweden in 1869.

The family, Gust and his wife, Mathilda (Peterson), and their two children, Minnie (my grandma) and Martin were living in Paxton, Illinois when their mother Mathilda (age 26) died of tuberculosis. It is probably during these years that the dresser came into their home.   After Mathilda died Gust wrote to Sweden asking for a housekeeper to come and help him with his children.  Maria Carlson came from Sweden where she had worked in a match factory.

Soon Gust decided to move to Laurens, Iowa where he would farm.  He loaded all their household goods (including the dresser), farm equipment, and animals on a railroad car. Gust rode the freight train with their possessions, and the children (Minnie and Martin) and Maria travelled by passenger train to Iowa. 

Gust and Maria married in Iowa.  They had two children Albert and Olga.   The family started their home with the dresser. They started in a one room house! (It must have taken up a lot of space in the one room!)  Nineteen years later they moved to Albert City, Iowa to join other Swedes from Paxton, IL and because there was a Swedish Mission Covenant Church there. 

When Minnie married, she and her husband Carl V. Samuelson first lived on a farm where they had three children, Vernon, Melvin (my dad) and Marian. In 1927 they bought an acreage on the edge of Albert City (part of the acreage now has a park and swimming pool!)  It was a big two story home with a barn.    Gust (Minnie’s father) died in Oct, of 1928. So sometime after that the dresser moved into Minnie and CV’s home in Albert City.

When CV died (my dad was only 9 years old) Minnie continued to live in the home.  Later she moved upstairs to her apartment.  This is where I first remember it.

When my grandma, Minnie died, Dad and Mom brought the dresser to their home in Linn Grove, then to Alta, and now to Storm Lake.  In Linn Grove it was in the dining area of our small two bedroom home.  In Alta it was in the upstairs hall and then the “south” bedroom.  In Storm Lake it has taken up life in the basement.

Brenda remembers climbing on it with Chris, using the drawers as steps and sitting on the glove drawers.  One time something happened causing it to tip, pinning Brenda between the dresser and the bed.  She remembers Hilda Johnson who was babysitting running up the stairs yelling in Swedish!  Luckily no was injured, and the dresser was righted.

 At some time Grandma Minnie stripped it of varnish and oiled it.  The drawer pulls were changed to glass knobs and currently it has no hardware.  The decorative top has had trouble staying on top and has been known to fall off!  It is extremely heavy. If only this dresser had kept a diary so it could share the stories of where it has lived! 

The Dresser

The top

My Big Green Bike

I was 5 ½ (1952) when I got my new bike.  It was the only bike I had until I was 24.  I truly grew into it.  When I first received it, I didn’t know how to ride a bike, had no training wheels and from the seat I couldn’t reach the pedals.  We lived in Linn Grove, Iowa and my dad and mom purchased the bike from the Minneapolis-Moline dealer, Lester Seifert. Dad thinks he paid $35 for it.   Mr. Seifert’s daughter Carolyn got the same bike.  We had no garage so the neighbor, Millie Evans, across the street gave me permission to keep it in her garage.  I rode mostly on the sidewalk never venturing too far from home. 

At the end of 3^rd grade we moved to Alta, Iowa with some paved streets.  As I grew up I explored most of the town on my big green (really chartreuse) bike.  The summer after 5^th grade I came down the path from the park and made the turn, wiping out on the paved street and taking most of the skin off my right leg.  I limped home, pushing my bike, and was cleaned up and bandaged by my mom.  When my dad got home and saw me he asked, “How’s the bike?”

 I loved that my bike had a light and a button horn (built-in not add-ons)….although keeping fresh batteries was problematic.  It also had a place to sit on the rear fender.  I rode my little sister there and one time her foot got caught in the spokes.  The kickstand was always loose…so in the garage it leaned on the wall or I laid it in the yard.  At one time I had big red Standard Oil valve caps on the tires.  I tried the usual…adding a card to the spokes and streamers.   It was decorated for a parade in Alta to campaign for a swimming pool.  At one time it had a front basket. 

When I left home and my parents moved to Storm Lake, my big green bike took up residence in a chicken coop until I moved to Storm Lake.  I brought it to our home, cleaned it up, put new tires on it and moved it into our sun porch.  While there it wore a wicker basket.  Sometimes the basket held a stuffed animal or the bike was decorated with Christmas lights.

Colleen Samuelson Last

September 28,2010

My Big Green Bike

Books Books Books

      Another volunteer job has been typing a data base for the nonfiction books in our church library.  When I arrive it seems there is always something interesting left out or in the room that houses the library.  Today there was a cute little baby dress…navy blue with white polka-dots.

      As I type I’ve been given “permission” to weed discretely.  At first it seemed easy.  I had some informal rules I was using:

• ·        The spine is broken
• ·        The pages are yellowed
• ·        No one or only one has checked it out in past five years
• ·        It has a copyright older than 1980 (I picked a date) I’ve since learned that some libraries use 10   or 5 years old.

     When I reached the reference works related to bible study, commentary, parallel scriptures the decisions became more difficult.   So I emailed my friend, Allison, a librarian and researched online for church libraries.  “Weeding” it seems can be fraught with potholes.  It is also recommended that church libraries have a committee of 3 to 5 to serve on the “weeding” committee!

     MUSTY is an acronym offered by Joseph Segal, in his book, Evaluating and Weeding the

Collection.  In addition to objective decisions MUSTY stands for Misleading, Ugly, Superseded, Trivial, and Your collection.

M – Misleading.  The book is factually inaccurate.

U – Ugly. The book is worn and beyond mending or rebinding.

S – Superceded.  There is a new edition available.

T – Trivial.  The book is of no discernible merit. 

Y – Your collection has not real need for this book. Duplicate books? Does the public library cover it better?

Years ago my mom helped in the church library, so as I look at each book, I often recognize her handwriting.  She was a librarian and I remember her taking the classes that led to her certification when I was in high school.  Later, she shared her skills in assigning Dewey numbers to the church library books.

This job also feeds me with more books I find to read!

In the library