“Notions and Fancy Goods”, Jobbers, and Heirlooms

This is me with my great-grandmother, Florence Mary
Stoddard Leach (c. 1973). I am called Lynn, but my first name
 is Mary, named after my mother, her grandmother,
and her great grandmother, Mary Bedell Stoddard.

In the fall, as I was cleaning one of my bureau drawers, I came across a small collection of heirloom pocket watches I have been entrusted to keep safe. They are all originally from either my great-grandmother, Florence Mary Stoddard Leach, or her parents, Henry Clay and Mary Bedell Stoddard.

Florence Stoddard, (unnamed seamstress), and her mother Mary Bedell Stoddard
in front of their home in Reed City, Michigan (c. 1905)

One week, after listening to a GenealogyGems Premium Podcast (199) Heirlooms–Capturing their stories and passing them on, I was inspired to really look at these watches. I gingerly figured out (with Jim’s help) how to open them—did you know that it kind of opens like a butterfly and has an inner cover that can be inscribed? Well, one of them is inscribed…it says “Mrs. H. C. Stoddard from Her Husband. Dec. 25th 83” (Obviously this is 1883, not 1983– they were married in 1872).

How sweet, I cried! I was overwhelmed with emotion as I held this pocket watch that was almost 140 years old my great-great grandfather, Henry Clay Stoddard, had given to my great-great grandmother! On the inside front cover was a photo of my great-great-grandmother, which I hypothesize my great-grandmother put inside so that she could have her own mother close to her heart after her mother passed away in 1909 (my great-grandmother lived until 1974!).

I have created a googleform to catalog the family heirlooms and I plan to catalog most of the family heirlooms this year. I would like a photo to go along with each description (of course!), so I asked for a ShotBox for Christmas so that I can take professional looking photographs with good lighting without shadows (hard to do in my Victorian House!). It wasn’t a beautifully inscribed pocket watch, but I love the fact that my husband shows his love for me by supporting me in this crazy hobby! Thanks, honey!

One thing that the special guest on GenealogyGems podcast shared was the importance of including background information, whatever you know and can find about the items. The companies that made the heirloom can be interesting in and of themselves! (I know, just one more thing to research, but the rabbit holes are fascinating.)

Pyrography of Gibson Girl by
Edward James Leach (bef. 1919)

This week, as I was packing something up in the guest bedroom, I looked to another heirloom hanging on the wall. It is a woodburned wooden plaque of a Gibson Girl, my grandmother identified as something her father EJ Leach (Florence's husband)

Edward James Leach

had made. It was not my intent to sit down and catalog this heirloom at that very moment, but I was intrigued. Because my grandmother had written “Gibson Girl” and “woodburning tool” on the back, I started by googling those words. 

Saturday Evening Post Advertisement

• I learned that woodburning is actually a craft called “pyrography” (maybe you already knew that?!) and have done some of your own during the 1970s craze. 
• I learned that the Flemish Art Company in New York held the market on creating pyrography kits

and that they tool all forms, wooden boxes, wall hangings and even leather items. In my search,
I came across an article about a 91-year old collector of Gibson Girl pyrography she’s found in antique stores and e-bay. 

• It also took me down the path of Charles Dan Gibson, the creator of the images of a Gibson Girl and to an exhibit on the Library of Congress page (an amazing resource for me on my journey for other reasons).

• In my search of a Catalogue of the choices of kits, I came across advertisements by the Flemish Art Co. in the Saturday Evening Post and also a fascinating magazine called “Fabrics, Fancy Goods and Notions: A Journal of Information for Jobbers and Retailers of Dry Goods, Fancy Goods and Notions”.

(Thanks to Google Books)  Okay, it took me a moment to figure out what this meant and who the audience for this journal would be! Maybe you ready know what a “Jobber” is? Or maybe you know the contemporary meaning? But in 1903, a “Jobber” would be a wholesaler or distributor. Learn something new every day!

1904 Issue of Notions and Fancy Goods

I think my great-grandfather did a great job with this project and I appreciate that I have learned something more about him and the craft of pyrography. I know this was a “kit” and I can not yet be certain that it was put together by the Flemish Art Co, but I’m tracking down leads and imagine someday I might even find a picture of the kit in some catalogue for Jobbers that has been digitized!