200 year old family rocking chair: a true "antique treasure!"

I want to tell a story that reminds me once again why I have such a deep love for history and antique items.  I have always felt connected to the past for some reason, often feeling as though I was born in the wrong century (though if I lived in another century it would probably not seem so special, just normal.  Haha) Really what hits me the most is how people centuries ago did many of the same things we attempt to do in contemporary times, but they put more time, energy, and love into it.  Furniture is just one example.  Nowadays we try to find the quickest and easiest way to do anything, the way that saves us the most amount of work- usually involving some kind of machinery (thanks alot, Industrial Revolution!)  People used to have to make things using...*gasp!*...their hands!  I have so much respect for people who built things like the pyramids of Egypt (no, it wasn't aliens,) or the coliseum in Rome, or pretty much any castle (or Stonehenge) in Britain, as well as the artists who painted walls and ceilings of 18th century French chateaus, and any person who nursed his or her finger blisters on a cold night after building a Louis IVX chair from scratch in a dimly lit uninsulated workshop-shack.  This is why I will not use spray paint ever again, or an electric sander.  I want to do it the old way, and I want to see the brush strokes in the paint and remember that a PERSON, not a machine, made it and that it took time and sweat and blisters and backaches to make these things that are often taken for granted.  It connects me to those people of the past in a profound way, especially when I take out the same nails that they used, and reuse them in the same way in a piece of furniture.  I feel a true connection with them.  We often forget these days, what it means to feel proud of something we have created with our own two hands.  And not to mention, most of the items we tend to buy come from factories and have no personal story to tell.  This brings me to a special story about my family, and a rocking chair.

This story is actually pretty short, mostly because between the two of them my grandparents could not even remember all of the details or people's names.  It started when my mom and I were over at their house cleaning and visiting them the other day, and letting my kids see their great-grandparents.  I was sure we had located every antique in the place, just to make sure we knew where the good things are when the time may come for us to need to know (you know what I mean, my grandparents are in their mid-80's and barely remember what is even in their house.)  However, if you find an item and bring it to my grandmother, she can usually tell you exactly where it came from and when.  Well, this day when we were there I happened to be in the guest bedroom looking for something in the closet, when I knocked a pile of jackets off of a small rocking chair that had been in the corner of that room probably for 50 years.  To my knowledge, I could not remember EVER noticing it, but then, I didn't always have an eye for old things like I do now.  Also, it looked like nothing under the coats that were on it.  But when I took a good look at it, I could easily tell that it was hand made at LEAST in the late 1800's.  I figured that it came from the old farm house which my grandmother lived in as a child (built Civil War-era) and had been torn down in the 1980's.  She retained many items from that old house, including a Civil War-era mirror which I have on my wall at home.  However, when we asked my grandfather, he just quipped, "Oh yeah, that was made by my great-great grandfather for my great grandmother.  He whittled it with his pocket knife."  This seemed like an every day occurrence to him, and he didn't even raise an eyebrow.  Also, I am assuming that since he knew a relative had made it, the amount of age associated with it didn't carry the same weight with him as it did with my mom (who was probably wondering what was the quickest way to contact Antiques Roadshow) and myself, who wanted more details about my family members!  First we tried to calculate the "greats" to figure out just when this thing was made.  My grandfather said "He'd be 200 now if he was alive." After figuring and counting and moving back in time through the generations of Wanchese, NC Tilletts and Parrons, we figured out that the chair must have been made between 1810-1830-ish.  It was the oldest family heirloom to be found yet, and I am positive the oldest one that will be found.  I am amazed that it lasted this long, with all the generations of family and children it has gone through.  This chair met relatives of mine that I have never even heard of!  I sat down and rocked in it, and aside from being made with no arms, it is as sturdy and clean as the day it was made...small and functional, just what would have been needed.  The only details my grandfather really had at the moment were that it was made by his great great grandfather for his daughter (my grandfather's great grandmother) because she needed a chair to rock her children.  Well, no one understands that need more than me, a mother whose first child required rocking to fall asleep for the first year of his life.  This chair was made lovingly and painstakingly (a pocket-knife?!?!) for the ever-present service of soothing the children.  It made me realize that I was closer to these relatives of mine than I thought.  When we eliminate the distractions of technology and "modernity" we come to see that the basic elements of life, in fact, have not changed much over the centuries.

Note: The seat is one heavy block of wood, all of the pieces were whittled, sanded, then put together.