Heirloom Investigation: Where Did This Cutlery Set Come From? Part 1

My father-in-law recently gave me a box of goodies that has me very excited! He gave me an old set of cutlery - five knives and four forks, and I've been on the hunt for who the set might have belonged to. 

It's time for an heirloom investigation! I'm going to draw on some lessons I learned in a material culture class I took a few years ago to do so.

 

Description

First, let's look at what we have and describe it. This process slows me down to really look at the items as a whole and at each individual piece to find every clue possible. (Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

 

The Box 

• The set was in an old paperboard box which was very brown with stains and age. The box had been sealed with brown tape, possibly gummed tape. 
• The box measures 10" long x 3-7/8" wide x 2" deep.
• The box bears a typed mailing label addressed to Mrs. Harold Casey, Box 307, Crescent, Oklahoma. Another postal label covers the zip code. 
• The return address states:

After 10 days return to
Coupon Service
of General Mills, Inc.
Box 5000
Minneapolis, MN 

 

Merchandise: 4th class mail-

Postmaster-this package

may be opened for postal

inspection if necessary. re-

turn postage guaranteed.

 

NOTICE TO CUSTOMER: If 

it is necessary to write

to us concerning this or-

der, please return this address label.

 

Below the typed address are numbers and capital letters:

 

4 F; 4 SK; 4 TS; 6 S

 

A postal stamp label is pasted next to the typed address. It's nearly impossible to read, but I snapped a photo so that I could enlarge it. It appears that the package was postmarked "Mar 3 ' 49." I can make out a faint S to the left of the circle and a faint R above the date, but nothing else.

 

 

The postal stamp bears the date "MAR 3 '49."

Inside the Box

  

The cutlery as it appears in the box.

The box was lined with a folded paper towel.

 

• The inside of the box is lined with a sheet of paper toweling measuring 13" x 11" printed with hearts and bears in blue and pink on one side. The back of the towel is plain. It was a single sheet folded into quarters on the long side.
• The towel had gray and brown staining. The gray was possibly where the hilts of the knives were pressing against the towel over time.

 

The Cutlery 

• There are nine pieces of cutlery: four forks and five knives. 
• All pieces appear to be made of silver or pewter and are heavily tarnished.
• All pieces have brown handles with some striations that look like wood grain.
• All pieces have similar inlaid silver markings on the handle: a Y shape topped with a cross shape on either end of the handle and a single round pin in the center of the handle.
• Forks 
• The forks measure between 7-3/16" - 7-1/8" and have three tines. There is some slight variation in length as the tines have uneven wear. 
• Knives
• The knives are 9" long. They are rounded at the end and bear the same markings as the forks.
• The inscription "Wyoming Cutlery Co" is stamped on one side of the knife.

One fork and knife pair.

Detail of the handles

Wyoming Cutlery Co is stamped on one side of each knife.

Provenance 

According to my father-in-law these "...were handed down from G'ma Kelso - G'ma Hall & my mom." That translates to: 

Clarissa Blackman Kelso > Edna Kelso Hall > Claretta Hall Casey > FIL > me

If the name Blackman rings a bell, reader, keen eyes! Clarissa Blackman (1857-1951) was the daughter of Dewitt Samuel Blackman who I recently wrote about. It could be that Clarissa purchased these utensils or she herself inherited them from her parents, Dewitt and Elizabeth Butler Blackman. If that's the case, the cutlery set could be Civil War era!

My father-in-law also told me that he recalls his grandmother Edna Kelso Hall using the cutlery. 

 

Thoughts so far...

• The box the cutlery came in appears to not be original to the set. The set certainly appears older than from 1949, the year the box was postmarked. I assume that the owner just grabbed a suitable-sized box to store the pieces in and lined it with a handy paper towel.
• The typed label addressed to Mrs. Harold Casey fits with the provenance given to me by my father-in-law. She is Claretta Hall Casey, his mother. 
• I'm guessing that the notation 4 F; 4 SK; 4 TS; 6 S on the box means: 4 forks, 4 steak knives, 4 teaspoons, and 6 spoons. This does not fit the cutlery set, as there five knives and they are not serrated like a steak knife. While there are four forks, there are no teaspoons or spoons in the set.
• The Wyoming Cutlery Co. inscription is a great hint to follow. I can see when the company was in business, where and how they sold their goods, and whether those align with the locations where the women in the line of provenance lived, which includes Oklahoma, Kansas, and Ohio. If Clarissa inherited the set from her parents, New York also comes into play.

 

Image: rawpixel

 

Time for more research! I'll update you soon.

Until next time...