Artifacts

Rowley House Museum Artifacts

Spool Table

This table was made of wooden thread spools. It was then gilded to be a decorative parlor piece. Our early settlers used what they had to make what they needed. This was originally in the Vath house.

Wicker Basket with balls of fabric strips

Wicker ware has been popular and useful for a long time. It was woven of willow branches and willow strips by Mr. Priehn, who was a blacksmith by trade, but made baskets of all sizes for home use.

Worn-out clothing was washed and then torn or cut into strips. These cloth strips were joined together and rolled into balls as shown in the basket.

Sometimes the material was dyed to colors made from various plants or roots or even stones.

When time allowed, the strips where wound onto a shuttle and used on a loom to make “rag rugs” of various sizes. These strips were also crocheted together to make oval rugs.

Iron Collection
Examples of early electric iron used for home use.

The “tailor’s goose” is a very heavy iron of black wrought iron which was heated on a stove. It was then used by a tailor for pressings suits.

The two-piece crimping or fluting iron which was used on ruffles was made of wrought iron and was heated on the stove.

Solomon Freeman / Bedpost Candlesticks

Solomon Freeman was purchased as a slave by Abraham Bush for $10 when he was ten years old in 1825. He moved with the Bush family from Kentucky to Missouri, and then eventually, in 1847, to the free State of Wisconsin.

When the family arrived in Wisconsin, he took the last name of “Freedom” but soon changed it to “Freeman”.

Solomon spent the last years of his life in a little three-room house which he built on a lot given to him by the Bush family when they moved to California. This home was located where St. Bernard’s School now stands.

When he died, the person moving into his home did not want his furniture. It was moved into the yard and set afire.

Lillian Koberle, whose grandfather lived next door, was a child then who begged for the “pretties” she saw left in the debris. The finials of the bedposts were sawn of the charred walnut pieces and made into candlestick bookends.

Early Phonograph
The records used for this phonograph are very thick and heavy. Often they were cut on one side only.

Since there is no volume control on this phonograph, it has one sound level – LOUD.

The small wooden box next to the phonograph is divided into two sections. One side holds the good needles and the other side holds the old, used needles.

In the museum these items are on top of an antique trunk which is draped with an elaborately woven silk patterned “throw”.

Ringling Doll

This beautiful doll once belonged to Marjorie Ringling, the adopted daughter of Al Ringling.

When the doll was offered as a prize at a church raffle in Baraboo, it was won by a woman who had two sons.

Lilliam Koberle met this woman when she was giving a presentation about dolls in Baraboo. The woman offered to sell this doll for $10. Even back then, the price seemed so low that Mr. Koberle says, “it was practically a gift.” The doll came with baby clothes which had been worn by Marjorie Ringling. The Koberles called the doll “Marjorie” and gave her later to the Middleton Area Historical Society.

Marjorie is shown in an early child’s recliner chair. The seat does not move, but the back can be adjusted to three different angles by means of a bar which fits into the different slots.

Sleepy Eye Pitcher
The Sleepy Eye pitcher design was made and permitted to be used, to honor a highly respected Indian Chief by that name.

His tribe had a village in Minnesota in an area north and west of Minneapolis. This Sleepy Eye pitcher motif was used on pitchers of several sizes.

Mission Clock

In early 1700, Spanish Priest Junipero Sara traveled with a group of people from Mexico to Northern California. The route he took is a very famous road, called El Camino (The King’s highway.)

Along the route, he established missions. Today we know them as cities such as San Francisco and San Diego.

He left part of his own mission crew and converted people. Missions established were permanent. For a part of an income, he had them make clocks out of mission oak trees.

Dr. Charles Allen, an early Middleton doctor did his intern work in California, and returned with one of these clocks, which hung in his office for many years.

Mantle Clock

This mantle clock was carved from walnut. It is an eight-day clock which strikes on the hour. It was purchased in 1930 by the Kromrey family from an Iowa farmer who had purchased it in 1870. The clock was then inherited by Edward G. Kromery who brought it to Middleton when he came here to teach school.

Oak School Clock

The oak school clock has a pendulum and was believed that this key wound clock was used in the old stone Quarry School from 1855 to 1913. It was then used at Elm Lawn School from 1913 until 1946.

Carriage House

Built in 2001, it was designed to resemble what would have been typical for a doctor to have in the 1880s. It contains a authentic buggy, a large plastic horse matching the size of the buggy, and a wide assortment of agricultural, garden and miscellaneous tools. Dr. N. C. Rowley had a barn where a hired man kept a horse and buggy ready to make patient visits and emergency calls.

Victorian Doll House

The Barbara D. Ramsey Doll House was given to us in the 1990s by Ken & Joyce Niesen. It was put together in about 20 years. It is full of wonderful pieces of furniture (many of European production) and contains home-made curtains, rugs and bed spreads. It looks like a home preparing for Christmas, and is beautifully decorated. The outside has so many unique items that make the house look lived-in. The amount of items in the house are absolutely unbelievable and it is truly enjoyed by all who see it.