A History of Collin County, Texas Page: 32
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A History of Collin County, Texas
from their old homes but most of it was homemade and consisted of
stools, benches, chairs, tables, shelves, and beds. Chair bottoms were
of wood or cowhide. Beds were built high off the floor and some had
only one post. Holes were bored or chiseled in this post and at the same
elevation on the log w-alls. End and side pieces of the bed were fitted
into these holes. There were no slats, springs, or mattresses. Holes were
bored into the side and end rails and rawhide strips or ropes were
stretched across one way and interlaced the other way. Over this was
placed the "bed tick," which was a sack filled with straw or feathers
and which served as a mattress. Space was conserved by the use of
small trundleo beds" which were low enough to be pushed under the
larger ones during the daytime. At night they were pulled out for use
by children. This type of bed was still in use as late as the I9oos.
During the early days of Texas history, kitchen equipment was sim-
ple. Cook stoves were rare. Addison Wilson brought the first one to
the Ash Grove-Chambersville community in 1849 and it was such a
curiosity that the neighbors came in to see it. Judge R. L. Waddill had
one in McKinney in 1856. Mrs. Jacob R. Stambaugh, in writing of her
family's coming to Collin County in 1858, stated that they had a "little
number 6 cook stove" but she preferred to cook on the fireplace. L. D.
Davidson, who lived five miles northwest of McKinney, bought a cook
stove in I864. People came to see how it was operated. Some claimed
that food so cooked was not so good as that cooked in the old way,
over an open fire. Every home had a large fireplace, four to six feet
wide and two to six feet deep, with an arched piece of iron at the top
to hold the stone or brick in place. To this iron were attached cranes
and pothooks from which cooking utensils could be hung. Tableware
consisted of tin plates and cups or plain stoneware. Knives and forks
were of steel or iron and spoons were of pewter. These were kept on
corner shelves in the kitchen, which room also served as a dining room
and sometimes as a bedroom. Gourds were used as dippers, food con-
tainers, milk pails, and water buckets.13
There were few clocks and watches among the early settlers of Col-
lin County. Instead, they constructed for themselves a unique type of
sundial. At the spring or fall equinox three or four stakes would be
"MS., Brown Papers, pp. 42, 64, 130, 224-226; John A. Hart, Pioneer Days in
the Southwest from 1850 to 1879 (Guthrie, Oklahoma, 1909), p. 250; Boyer and
Thurman, The Annals of Elder Horn, p. Io.
32
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Stambaugh, J. Lee, b. 1889; Stambaugh, Lillian J., b. 1888 & Carroll, H. Bailey. A History of Collin County, Texas, book, 1958; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth61096/m1/44/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .