Stencil Bedroom
Look closely at the picture to the right. The pioneers couldn’t buy lots of wallpaper when Worthington was very new. Ladies could stencil patterns with paint though to decorate their homes. This room earned its nickname as the “stencil” bedroom because it has an example of this art around the top.
Can you guess what this item might have been used for by pioneers in early Worthington?
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This is called a “Rope Wrench” or a “Bedkey”. The pioneers often used rope beds. Instead of metal or wood supports we have today, the straw mattress was held up by a grid of ropes! The rope wrench could be used to tighten the ropes so the bed didn’t sag.
The sampler to the left was completed by Harriet Aldridge in 1834. She signed the sampler under the poem she embroidered and included her age, just 9 years old!
