Collectors, collected

Ronald Pile of Lowell held up a small piece of stone crockery. His mother-in-law, Olive Swank, handed the piece to her daughter, Helen Pile, when Helen was a young teen. "(Helen) said, 'I don't know why I would want this ugly, old thing,'" Pike related his wife's story.

But the salt-glazed piece with a feathery design of imported blue cobalt truly is a treasure. It was made and autographed for Olive Swank by her uncle Jacob Swank, and it dates to 1874. Jacob was the head of Swank Pottery in Johnstown, Pa., which produced salt-glazed stoneware for home and farm use during the 19th century. The beautiful crockery was used for everyday food storage, and today these crocks are valued highly by collectors.

"They preserved just about everything they made," Pike said of the pioneers living in the 19th century. He listed sauerkraut and butter. "They never store-bought anything."

Pieces from the Piles' collection of Swank pottery -- all made before 1900 -- will be on display Saturday during the collectors' fair at the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History's Cabin Fever Reliever open house.

Ronald Pile also will display a collection of "sad irons." These irons featured a heavy iron base heated on the stove and removable handles that stayed cool for use. When one iron cooled, the handle was moved to pull a hot one off the stove.

The "sad" in sad iron (or sadiron) is an old word for "solid," and in some contexts, this name suggests something bigger and heavier than a flat iron.

"My wife just fell in love with these in an antique store," Pile said. "But after we got about 22 or 23 of them, she said, 'That's enough. We're not getting anymore.'"

The Piles' collection of sad irons includes irons dated to 1900 as well as salesmen's samples, a child's toy and perhaps a military-issue iron. "I'm going to talk to some of the old vets," Pile said. "It's got a metal box that was designed for it, and it's military color ..."

"These guys love to talk about their 'stuff'," said Susan Young, outreach coordinator for the museum.

Harry Christen, also of Lowell, unpacked a box of old tools at the museum.

"I still use this in the shop," he said, as he placed draw knives on the table in front of him. "I used this one just this morning," he added as he unloaded a hand drill.

Other treasures included a 1920 Chevrolet hubcap, a wagon hub and his grandfather's cast-iron level.

Christen said he got many of the items from a trash pile on some land he bought in Saline County. A cast-iron door latch with a thumb bolt came from a rotted door on his father-in-law's barn in Roland.

"They didn't lock their doors back then," Christen noted. "But they had to keep it latched to keep it from blowing open in the wind."

Christen also plans to bring a box telephone, a cast-iron toy soldier and a "buggy boogie." Christen's father was a blacksmith, he explained, and someone brought a buggy to repair. The buggy featured a wooden door with leather adornment, but the blacksmith had to remove the leather to fix the door. Inside, he found the "boogie" -- a cast-iron hammer with a pointed end to press the leather into the wooden door panels.

Along with his wood-working tools, Gale Hairston of Springdale will give visitors a tour of the town. Hairston's father, Loy Walker, was a carpenter and contractor, building custom homes in Springdale for 50 years. Gale followed in his footsteps and remembers using some of these tools.

One of Hairston's items was a complicated-looking moulding plane. He explained it might be used to put a groove in a cabinet door. "It's the way the old carpenters made good-looking cabinets," he said. "It was a slow process and cost too much money. Today, we'd use a router."

Most of Hairston's old tools on display were used before World War I. After the war, contractors carried gasoline to job sites to power the modern tools of the day. After World War II, even the folks who lived in the country had access to electric power for the tools, Hairston said.

Hairston's collection today is built from tools spotted in flea markets and antique stores. "I've seen lots of tools I'd like to have, but I didn't have the pocketbook," he said.

"I think it's great to save these old things," Young said. "They're fun to look at. But the joy comes when you get to talk to the collectors. They have such knowledge and enthusiasm. And what's a museum but a collection of collections?"