A Great Wheel - A family heirloom
This is the story of a family heirloom that has a long history.
1965I wound up with my Great-Grandmother's spinning wheel that her Great-Grandfather made for her when she was a young girl. It is what is called a Great Wheel. It was supposed to go to my Grandmother when her mother walked on, as she was the youngest in the family and it was to be passed on to her. But, her older Sister would not allow her to take it for a reason I never really understood. However, many years later when they went with my parents back to Texas to visit her remaining family in their motor home, my Grandmother took the spinning wheel and put it in the motor home to take home with her. It caused quite the ruckus, as the older Sister had never had any children so she had no family of her own to leave it to, and my Grandmother knew that the others she would likely leave it to would just sell it, as at that time, 1965, it was over 300 years old and all hand made. So she brought it home with her to make sure it stayed in the family. Everyone was irate that she dared to take it, even though they knew it was rightfully her to take. And they stipulated that when she walked on the spinning wheel must be returned to the person the older Sister was going to leave it to. But, for the first time in her entire life, my Grandmother stood up to her family and told them to kick rocks! That it was hers pass on to whom she pleased, and that was my Father, who was her only child.
So it then went to my Father when she walked on, and was passed on to me when he walked on in 2010. So...when I walk on, it goes to my Granddaughter to pass on to one of her children. I know that she will never sell it, nor will either of the children. They have been raised to understand the importance of family and family treasures that can never be replaced. Not long after my Father walked on I got a letter from one of the family members in Texas, someone I had never heard of, who said they had heard that my Father had walked on and demanding that the spinning wheel be sent back to someone who had been declared the rightful heir. I, like my Grandmother, told them to kick rocks. They never pursued it as they knew they had no legal ground to stand on to try and sue me for it.
I am posting a picture of the spinning wheel, a picture of the thread spindle that sits at one end of the spinning wheel, and a picture of my Great-Grandmother with the spinning wheel standing behind her. She was 104 y/o when she walked on. The spindle still holds the last thread that was spun on the spinning wheel by my Great-Grandmother, and it is still strong even though it has yellowed over the many years. I also have the hand made wool combs that she used to comb the cleaned wool before she spun it.
The spinning wheel is all hand made of cherry wood, and all of the nails used to hold the outer wood band on the spokes are hand made. All the pieces of the spinning wheel are hand made and made to fit snuggly together without any glue or nails to hold them together. The wooden wheel band itself was soaked to make it pliable so that it could be bent to form the outer rim of the wheel around the spokes, and has a groove all around in the middle of it to hold and guide the thread at the wheel turned onto the spindle.
The Great Wheel is much bigger and different in shape than the type of spinning wheel many people are used to seeing, like the one Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on in the movie of the same name. My G-G-Grandfather who made it chose to make it in the design of the ones he had seen from other countries that were much different. It did not have the foot peddle like the smaller kind, as the wheel was turned by hand, as the wheel was much larger a greater amount of thread could be spun faster.
The Great Wheel spinning wheel...
The spindle.....
The picture of my Great-Grandmother with her dog Jasper...
I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures or the spinning wheel and spindle, but, the camera I took the pictures with at time belonged to a friend and the quality of the pictures it took was not very good.
I did not take the picture of my Great-Grandmother, but, I wanted to show the spinning wheel as it sat in her house while she was alive.
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