Friends of dd collins collinsville acquisitions

Dresser

Thank you, Paula!

Thelma's dresser

Mirror

Dresser ~ similar

Can you see the difference?

Thelma's dresser

1/3

The Friends of the D.D. Collins House has recently received a donation of a beautiful, mid-1800s antique dresser with three full-size drawers and two glove drawers. The glove drawers sit on a marble surface separated with a positional, rectangular-shaped mirror. The dresser is further enhanced with carved details including carved wood drawer pulls.

Paula’s connection with the dresser dates back to 1952 when she was ten years old. Her mother, Thelma Jones-Meyer, gave the dresser to Paula at that time and told Paula that the dresser was 100 years old in 1952.

AN INTERESTING PROVENANCE . . .

Thelma Jones -Meyer was the daughter of David Jones and Elizabeth Hadfield-Jones. Thelma lived with her parents as a child growing up at 311 North Hesperia.

When Thelma married her husband, Arno S. Meyer, they continued living in her childhood home with her father until her father’s death on April 9, 1949.

Thelma was the only child of David Jones and Elizabeth Hadfield-Jones, and she received the property and the contents of the house after her father’s death. The dresser was a part of the contents.

WHO WERE DAVID JONES AND

HIS BRIDE, ELIZABETH HADFIELD-JONES? . . .

David Jones moved to Collinsville, Illinois in about 1916. He had previously lived in Venice, Illinois where he had been a police officer. In 1906 David became the sheriff of Madison County. In the 1920s David served as the Chief of Police of Collinsville.

During the mid-1930s to mid-1940s, David operated Davey’s Restaurant at 222 West Main Street, which had been known previously as the Fairmont Restaurant operated by Cecil Larremore. In later years the property housed Lowe Electric and is currently the home to Hurricanes, a local bar and eatery.

David Jones’ family lived in various locations, but most of his family and his parents were residents of Taylorville, Illinois. Because his family lived out of area, it is unlikely that this dresser would have come from his family.

Elizabeth Hadfield-Jones, who was the daughter of Marie Bradley-Hadfield and John Hadfield, was born on February 25, 1878 and died April 2, 1933. Elizabeth’s father, John, died August 4, 1882.

In 1884, two years after her husband’s death, Marie married William Fletcher, who had also been widowed when his wife, Julia Ridgeway Fletcher, died on April 24, 1882.

Maria’s two children from her marriage to John were taken into the household of William Fletcher at the time of their marriage. Also, at the time of their marriage, Maria would have broken-up her her household furniture and effects and taken the items with her to her new household.

SOMETHING ABOUT WILLIAM FLETCHER . . .

William Fletcher was born in England in 1844. He came to Collinsville, Illinois in the mid-1860s and was active in the development of the coal mines in this area, both as a mine owner as well as a mine superintendent. In 1871 Mr. Fletcher and several partners invested their time and money into a new mine - the Bartlett Mine. The investors included: William Clayton, Daniel Needhamn, John Hadfield, and William Hadfield (who had also recently immigrated from England).

William Fletcher later became the owner and president of the First National Bank of Collinsville when the bank was created in 1902. At that time, the First National Bank of Collinsville purchased the bank and assets of the Bank of Collinsville, which James Dilliard (Irving Dilliard’s father) had help found. Ironically, 1902 is the same year that William Fletcher’s wife, Maria, died.

Elizabeth would have been 24 years old when her mother, Maria, died. Four years later on December 25, 1906 Elizabeth Hadfield married David Jones.

AND THE RESEARCH CONTINUES . . .

While the provenance of the dresser that Paula has donated to the Friends of the D.D. Collins House for use in the Collins House is known, our research continues as we try to identify more specifically the year the dresser was made.

Research has shown that a very similar dresser has been identified as an Antique Victorian Walnut Dresser with Marble Top and Ornate Wishbone Mirror; but that dresser, though similar, is different from the one we have.

Compare the mirrors, drawer pulls and legs - style similar; details different.

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