Otto’s Plate

 Otto Hardesty married Lillie Arvilla Gaddy.  They had a store at Coin, AR. In the the teens of the 1900’s.  In 1916, Arvilla was appointed postmistress of Coin.  In 1914, they gifted these plates to customers of their store.  One has surfaced and the owner, Dexter Combs wants me to have it.  I told him to take it to Sister Fleta.  He said he would.  Arvilla’s death certificate has she died of nervous disease. She passed in 1942.  Otto passed in 1955.  I think they rest at Denver Cemetery.

The Spinning Wheel Still Spins Its Tale

 The Journey of the Spinning Wheel

It all started with a question. “What do you know about the spinning wheel?” My son Chris asked me this just before Christmas. Actually, it started well before this – When Chris was in the 2nd grade, he was fascinated by the spinning wheel and all things old/antique. He borrowed the spinning wheel from my mother who had inherited it from a long line of her ancestors.  He wanted to take it to show and tell.  It was then she determined that Chris would be in line to receive the spinning wheel, but I told her it had to go through me first.

This past Fall, it was time to pass it on to Chris. He and his wife, Colynn, had a friend over. The friend asked Chris the question – “What do you know about the spinning wheel?” Chris answered, “Not much. All I know is that it came across in a wagon and it survived a fire.” The wagon is folklore and the fire was at my mother’s house.  Chris then posed this question to me. Like him, I did not know anything. I told him I would start researching after Christmas.

I called Uncle Aaron. He told me the spinning wheel, best he could remember, belonged to Grandma Josie’s mother Mary Ann (Cash) Jameson. We discussed the folklore of it coming across on a wagon and if that were the case it had to belong to Mary Ann’s mother, Elizabeth “Betsy” (Holmes) Cash. This is based on the fact that Mary Ann was born in Arkansas. However, after further consideration, Betsy, born in Tennessee, was just a young girl when the Holmes family relocated from Tennessee to Arkansas. My thoughts now are that it must have belonged to Betsy’s mother, Mary Polly (Denton) Holmes because I don’t think a young girl had any need for owning a spinning wheel. If anyone has information to the contrary, please let me know. We really want to know its history.

If the facts plus folklore is correct, the spinning wheel would be circa 1820ish.

Uncle Aaron told me another story about a beautiful wool indigo blue and white hand-spun, hand-woven throw. He said, as told to him by Grandma Josie, Betsy owned the sheep, sheared them, spun the wool into yarn/thread, then hand-wove the throw on a loom. Uncle Aaron said that he thought maybe Uncle John might have received the throw, or maybe Aunt Myrtle’s daughter Dorothy Vescovo had it. I’ve tried to contact Dorothy but have not been successful. If anyone has an address for her or her children, please let me know.   Is it still in the family?  If the throw is still out there, I would like to see it even if it is by way of a photograph.

Josie and Arthur

My investigations led me to do an internet search. This is how I came up with my facts – people, places, and dates. Clicking and reading, clicking and reading, clicking and reading… I did a search for Levi and Elizabeth Betsy Holmes Cash and came across a Facebook group called, Snowball, AR, Pictures. A woman, Betty Renfroe, who is somewhat of an expert on genealogy had a very interesting and informative post dated 2-11-20 in which she “would talk about the family of Levi C. and Elizabeth Betsy Holmes Cash family…” 

Another search led me to Find-A-Grave site for Elizabeth Holmes Cash. Someone had posted a comment on this page, and I had a question about it. I emailed this person via Find-A-Grave which became quite the ordeal so she suggested that we communicate via text and so we did. She was able to answer my question regarding the name of Scott vs Denton. Low and behold, turns out my Find-A-Grave woman was the one and only Betty Renfroe, my genealogy expert from the Snowball group.

Back to the Snowball group – this is where it gets interesting. Betty’s post was full of names, dates, and places. She even had several photos. At the time two photos caught my attention.

See the spinning wheel in the top, right background… This James & Martha (Grandma & Pa Rea) are sister and brother-in-law to Mary Ann Cash Jameson, my mother’s paternal Great-Grandmother. I felt as though I hit the jackpot – a picture of the spinning wheel… Is this one ours? Maybe, maybe not – if it’s not then it is very similar and belongs to the same family.

Martha Cash And James Rea—spinning wheel in background!

The other photo that caught my attention was one of Betsy, Mary Ann’s mother.  There should be a correction to the above photo regarding Levi Cash died “dueling”. The lady (Mary Watts, I think) who posted it says that the picture cut off and it should actually state – “Levi Cash died during the Civil War.”  A private in the Union Army, he was out on patrol and was shot. He died three days later. This photo is also posted on her Find-A-Grave site. Additionally, note the throw on the back of her chair.  Could this be the one Uncle Aaron told me about? I sent it to him, and he replied, “Yes the pattern is what I remember; my young and small eyes thought it to be a little larger.” And then, “I think if this throw isn’t the one Grandma Josie had, I’ll bet it was made on the same wheel and loom!”

If anyone has any information regarding the spinning wheel or throw, please let me know. Or, if any of my information is incorrect, please let me know. We just want to put a history on the spinning wheel before it’s too late.

Story Written by Lanell🤍