The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-10-18
Presents Pewter Tea Set to
State Historical Society.
WRITES A STORY ABOUT IT
1t Had Been i'm His Family
Nearly a Century.
Had Many Narrow Escapes
From Loss or Destruction.

society, mas written parIlaI history
of the pewter ware and this along
with the set Is being preserved by the
society.
The young man, who resides with
his parents at 1928 Buchanan street,
has taken a deep interest in the his
torical society for the past two years.
1t was because of this interest that he
presented to the society the set which
had been carefully kept by his family
for almost a century.
LAS an instance of how the His
torical society helps young people, we
have the example of John L. Bagby,
Jr., 1928 Buchanan street, Topeka"
says Secretary W. E. Connelley.
has taken an interest in the Historical
society for two years past. He con-
suits the library frequently and has
formed a personal friendship with the
secretary
HE is interested IN the museum of
the library, and has donated an old
pewter teaset- Pewter ware is some
what rare and the society has not
many pieces of it
The set donated by young Bagby
has many romantic things connected
with it. In donating the teaset, he
wrote out these things. 1t is Il good
story and when it is considered that it
is written by a boy FOURTEEN years of
age. it is a somewhat remarkable pro-
duction."
The secretary of the society says he
would like to form other friendships
with the young people generally of the
state of Kansas and interest them in
the work of the Historical society.
The Boys Story.
Young Bagby's story follows:
All my life my mother has told me
stories, stores of real things and real
times. The greatest favor we ever
asked was, Tell US story about
when you were a little girl in Ohio
In imagination we explored the big
log barn, the cliffs back of the house.
camped in the big pine grove, picked
wild strawberries on the slope below
1.-The old Lane spring" or climbed to
her favorite place on the big lime
stone cliffs and watched the beautiful
Ohio shining between us and the blue
hills of kentucky, that somehow were
related to the Detachable mountains.
The tinkle of the sheep bells in a
nearby pasture was very musical and
very real to me as my mother told her
lovely memories of her childhood.
She had the faculty of amusing her
self and making much of her treas
ures- One thing or group of things
she priced very highly. She always
called it great grandmother's old
pewter teaSet." 1t may not be beau
tiful to see. but Aladdin's lamp never
these old relics. One tale linked
with them is this:
Years and years ago near the close
of the Revolutionary war little boy
and for years his people mourned for
him as dead. But he had been taken
to Canada and treated very kindly.
He was brought up as an Indian in
the home of an Indian chief. One day
some white traders recognized him as
a white boy and learned all he knew
of himself. They bought him from
the Indians and together they trav-
eled down across the northwest ter
ritory until they reached a place near
where Brush creek empties into the
Ohio river, in what is now Adams
county. 1t was a beautiful place, a
lovely meadow bordered by trees and
watered by a stream fed by a big
spring. The boy, John Collier, now
about seventeen, said that this place
should be his home. He marked the
site and soon afterward parted with
his good friends who had given him
his freedom, they going on down the
river and he setting his face toward
home made his way eastward crossing
the Alleghanies, and at last reaching
his home and his people who had
given him up as dead. He told them
of the lovely valley and of his wish to
return there to live. In time, some
of his relatives and friends grew in
tereSted and his parents and three
other families decided to emigrate
out west" These four families, the
Golfers, Prathers, Burkets and
Wheelers, Joined in the trip, loaded all
their belongings and in time reached
the very place the young man had
marked for his own.
John Collier loved Margaret Burket
and they were married. Margaret's
mother, Polly Wheeler Burket, gave
them her much priced teaset and IL
home. Their house was solidly built
of logs and in later years an addition
was built to it and it became one CT
the "show places in the settlement.
One day three Indians came to the
house and looked the place over. The
teaset puzzled them but they did not
hurt 1t. The young wife with a wee
baby in her arms was SO frightened
near by and hastened in. He spoke
to the Indians in their own language
and treated them kindly. He went up
the ladder and got ham and cut it
and fed the hungry hunters. These
Indians were won by his kindness and
they told him of an approaching In
dian raid, and told him to take his
wife and baby to a place of safety, for
some one who did not know about him
might do him harm. In a great hur-
ry they took what few clothes they
could carry and went to the block
house at Manchester where they
stayed during the trouble. AS they
shut the door the young mother looked
back at her few treasures she was
leaving and said, Goodbye. my home.
goodbye" But when she returned
everything was as she left it, and
theirs was the only home left unhurt.
This man John Collier was my
mothers grandfather. His father was
a. colonel in the war of 1912, but John
Collier was never in any of the Indian
wars He and the Indians were
friends and he was able to keep harm
from his friends, too. When his wife
died all his children were grown up
and he came to live with my mothers
parents This was many years before
nv mother was born He brought
with him the old pewter teaset that
his wife had priced so highly and gave
If to nv mothers mother and later
she gave it tc my mother. 1t has had
many adventures. 1t has been twice