This machine is a Ruby made by New Home. The machine dates to 1916. Based on what I know of family history if this machine was bought new it was bought at the company store. That's right, my great grandfather was a coal miner. There would have been three kids in the family at that point. My great aunt Getty, my grandma and her twin brother Marion. There would be two more boys added to the family after the sewing machine was purchased. They weren't a well off family by any means, coal mining wasn't a get rich job. My grandmother didn't even graduate high school, she only made it through 8th grade.
This machine was used a lot! There are places where there is no longer paint. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of thread that has passed through the guides or the fabric that went across the bed. She sewed for herself and her own family. She also sewed for others, my great grandfather passed in 1933 she was a widow for 34 years. Her youngest child at that time was 10 and her oldest at home was my grandma, she was 22. My grandma didn't get married until 1940. She had over twenty grandchildren and great grandchildren by the time of her death.
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Where great grandma's had wore the paint away. |
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Bed medallion where the paint wore away from the fabric |
Some of the wood on the cabinet is all but gone, it will have to be replaced at some point. My husband describes the sound she makes as "She's about to throw a rod." But she makes some of the prettiest stitches out of all of our machines.
There aren't words to describe how happy I am to be the caretaker of this machine. I haven't made anything on it yet. It took a little bit to figure where she would live. Our living room is where the treadle machines live and it already had 6 machines. With a little creativity hubby got it worked in so she can be used.
Here's proof that she works. Taking her first stitches in 2015, almost 50 years after my great grandmother died.
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She's beautiful!! How nice to be able to use a sewing machine that so many members of your family used so long ago.
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