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| 1870 section map of Sparta Township, Aaron Noble
Phelps' farm is located northeast of town in the highlighted section.
(Illustration from Atlas Map of Knox County, Illinois,
Andreas, Lyter & Company, Davenport, 1870, 91 pages. Scanned
by Todd Walter. Courtesy the Knox
County, Illinois Genealogy & History ILGENWEB project.)
(Larger image 230K) |
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"Premium
farm of A. N. Phelps Sec 8 Sparta Tp Knox Co ILL " (Larger
image 101K) |
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| The entire table set. The pieces
are silverplate, which has worn off in several locations, of slightly
varying styles, and appear to be from two manufacturers. |
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| The coffee server is engraved, "Table
Sett Awarded by the Illinois State Agricultural Society to Mrs.
A. N. Phelps 1871." Larger
image [40kb] |
The Best Farm in Knox County, Illinois
For many years, the silver coffee server with the elephant ear handles
and the delicate spout graced the top of the buffet
in my grandmother's formal dining room. Usually wrapped in plastic
to ward off tarnish, I never saw it used. My grandmother told me only
that it had been won as a prize at a fair. As a child, I could only
stare curiously and try to imagine the kind of county fair that would
give away an expensive silver service as a prize.
When first Grandpa and then Grandma Phelps passed
on, the silver service was passed to me by my father. Up close, I finally
read the engraving:
"Table Sett Awarded by the Illinois State Agricultural
Society to Mrs. A. N. Phelps 1871."
"A. N. Phelps?" I wondered. A quick check of my family history
files turned up Ronald
Aaron Noble Phelps, of Wataga,
Knox County, Illinois, my
fourth great-grandfather, and his wife, Sarah Jerusha Adams of
Painesville, Ohio. He was born in 1819 and they were married in 1847,
so we can assume Sarah was at least 44 years old at the time she received
the coffee set.
But why was this set a prize? What had my great-great-grandmother
done to earn a silver table set—of all things—from an agricultural
society? Further research led me to The History of Knox County,
where the circumstances were revealed.
Mr. Phelps was born in Westfield, Mass., September 8, 1819.
He came, with his mother and two sisters, to Galesburg [Illinois] in
1836. The amount of his worldly possessions at that time was enough
to buy a box stove and a cow, valued at $30. The eldest daughter [of
Col. Phelps, or Aaron's sister, Seraphina
Princess Phelps became Mrs. George
Avery, of Galesburg, and the youngest [Sybelana
Phelps] the wife of B. Killbourn, of Wisconsin. The mother died
at Galesburg, November 29, 1855.
The father, Aaron
Noble Phelps, had died previous to the family's moving west,
at Westfield, Mass., in March 1830. He and his wife (Miss Clarissa
Root Phelps) were married in 1814. Their only son, Ronald
A. N. Phelps and Mrs. Sarah J. Adams were married March 29, 1847,
and moved to their present home in 1856, which has since taken the
premiums already
mentioned." (2)
Section 8 also includes the premium farm owned by A. N. Phelps,
Esq., and contains 200 acres without a foot of waste land... As an
indication that Sparta [Township] is a rich agricultural locality,
capable of producing a great quantity as well as a great variety of
crops and having in it many enterprising stock-raisers, besides begin
well watered by natural streams and springs, may be noted the fact
that A. N. Phelps' two-hundred acre farm now owned by William Robson
on Section 8, took three
first prizes from the State Agricultural Society."(3) The
farm was ranked first in 1868, 1870, and "previously for five
successive years."
During World War II, many Californians feared they would be invaded
by the Japanese. This fear was so strong within our family that they
buried a treasured silver coffee and tea service at their
cabin in the mountains outside Los Angeles. The service remained hidden
there for a number of years until after the war, around 1953. My parents
were visiting my father's Aunt Helen. A single piece of the silver
service was in the house. My mother admired the piece, and Aunt Helen
told of the remaining pieces buried in the Los Angeles forest. She
told my mother, Annabeth, that they ought to be hers now.
My mother passed on this story to her mother-in-law, Betty Phelps.
The next year, as my parents prepared to visit Aunt Helen again, Betty
asked Annabeth to please do her a favor and pick up a box that Aunt
Helen wanted Betty to have. The box contained the silver service. Thus
it remained in my grandparent's home for the next 40 years, until they
both passed away and my father gave it to me.
Illinois State Agricultural Society Award to Mrs. A. N. Phelps
"Section
8 [of
Sparta Township, Illinois] also includes the premium
farm owned by A. N. Phelps, Esq., and contains 200 acres
without a foot of waste land. This farm was granted the first premium
by the Illinois State Agricultural Society in 1868, and again in 1870.
It had been awarded the first premium by the Knox County Agricultural
Society previously for five successive years."
"...As an indication that Sparta [Township — later Knox County — ]
is a rich agricultural locality, capable of producing a great quantity
as well as a great variety of crops and having in it many enterprising
stock-raisers, besides begin well watered by nattural streams and springs,
may be noted the fact that A. N. Phelps' two-hundred acre farm now owned
by William Robson on Section 8, took three first prizes from the State
Agricultural Society." (History of Knox County, p. 836) The
farm was ranked first in 1868, 1870, and "previously for five succesive
years."
"Hezekiah Buffum settled on Section 23, in 1834. Asay DeLong,
Lyman Field, and Wm. Heath, on Sec. 31, in 1836. Asay DeLong built
the first house between Henderson and Knoxville timber. First Supervisor
was Thomas H. Taylor; first Constable, M. P. DeLong; first Justices of
the Peace, Ransom Babcock and Mariam Booker. Coal is in abundance
on Sections 16, 17, 22 and 23. Over three quarters of the Township
is best of fine rolling prairie, with best of improvements, and the best
of citizens. J. M. Holyoke, chairman of the Board of Supervisors,
M. P. DeLong, President of Agricultural Society, Wm. Robson and W. S.
Patterson, extensive stock dealers, are from Sparta. Phelps'
celebrated farm, which took the first premium at State Fair, is on Section
8, and is certainly as fine a farm as we ever saw. ....."(4) (Atlas
Map of Knox County, Illinois, Andreas, Lyter & Co., Davenport,
Iowa, 1870, 91 pages. Emphasis added.)
"Mr. Phelps was born in Westfield, Mass., September 8, 1819. He
came, with his mother and two sisters, to Galesburg [Illinois] in 1836.
The amount of his worldly possessions at that time was enough to buy
a box stove and a cow, valued at $30. The eldest daughter [Seraphina
Princess Phelps] became Mrs. G. Avery, of Galesburg, and the youngest
[Sybelana Phelps] the wife of B. Killbourn, of Wisconsin. The mother
died at Galesburg, November 29, 1855. The father, Aaron Noble Phelps,
had died previous to the family's moving west, at Westfield, Mass., in
March 1830. He and his wife (Miss Clarissa Root) were married in 1814.
Their only son, A. N. Phelps and Mrs. Sarah J. Adams were married March
29, 1847, and moved to their present home in 1856, which has since taken
the premiums already mentioned." (History of Knox County,
p. 489)
About the Coffee and Tea Service
The service has been appraised as a "Monumental Victorian Egyptian
Revival Coffee and Tea Service Set." The fact that
the pieces were given as prizes and are silverplated suggests to me
that the pieces may have been manufactured in quantity. The engraving
says 1871.
The two stamps are:
- "Quadruple Plate Wilcox Silver Plate Co. 1881 W" encircling
crossed hammers
- "New Haven Conn. Rogers Smith & Co. 1881"
"1881" refers to the style number of the pattern. My research has found
that the service was manufactured after 1862
and before 1868, since the Rogers, Smith factory was moved from Hartford
to New Haven in 1862 and six years later to Meriden.
The coffee service has seven pieces, as illustrated above. Each is silver-plated;
the base metal appears to be nickel and lead, as it is visible on a
couple of pieces where the silver plate has worn away. Each piece is
engraved with a vine or ivy motif. The tops of the handles and legs
are decorated with what appears to be an Indian-head. The pieces are,
from left to right in the picture above:
- The coffee server, 15" tall, 11 1/2" across, with a spigot
and kerosene warmer
- A teapot, 8" tall and 5" across, with a spout and handle.
- A sugar bowl, 4 1/2" by 7".
- A creamer, 4 1/2" by 7", with a hinged lid.
- A covered sugar bowl, 6" tall and 5" across, with a lid
and handles.
- A sugar bowl, 6" tall and 5" across.
- A covered sweat meats bowl, 7" high and 9" across, with
a lid and handles.
- A large bowl 8" high and 10" across. This bowl is different
from the others in that there is no vine design on the bowl, and the
lid is engraved with clusters of leaves. The side of the bowl has what
appears to be a holder for the lid.
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