Lincoln-style Walnut Bed
A new exhibit was put together at Window on the Plains Museum. It features a 1870s - 1880s Lincoln-style walnut bed. The bed is a gift of Ken and Diane Schmidtman of Amarillo.
The ornately carved headboard is nine feet tall and has a matching footboard. The Schmidtmans have owned the bed for about forty years and decided to donate it to the Museum so others can enjoy its unusual style and beauty. The Schmidtmans added a marble top table of the same era to the display and a painting by a friend, Jim Goudie.
Ken's interest in antiques began as a child living on a dairy farm in eastern Wisconsin. His mother added unusual antique items to her home and Ken became interested in learning about them. The dairy farm was homesteaded by Ken's family in 1848 and was owned by the Schmidtman family until 1972.
The bed came from the Borger area, but Ken first found it in an antique shop in Amarillo. He did not purchase the bed, but knew it was moved to a house in the Amarillo College area. Later, Ken heard about an estate sale for furnishings in that house. Hoping that the bed might be one of the items in the sale, Ken made sure he was one of the first in the door on the first day of the 3-day sale. The bed was in the auction and Ken purchased it.
The ornately carved headboard is nine feet tall and has a matching footboard. The Schmidtmans have owned the bed for about forty years and decided to donate it to the Museum so others can enjoy its unusual style and beauty. The Schmidtmans added a marble top table of the same era to the display and a painting by a friend, Jim Goudie.
Ken's interest in antiques began as a child living on a dairy farm in eastern Wisconsin. His mother added unusual antique items to her home and Ken became interested in learning about them. The dairy farm was homesteaded by Ken's family in 1848 and was owned by the Schmidtman family until 1972.
The bed came from the Borger area, but Ken first found it in an antique shop in Amarillo. He did not purchase the bed, but knew it was moved to a house in the Amarillo College area. Later, Ken heard about an estate sale for furnishings in that house. Hoping that the bed might be one of the items in the sale, Ken made sure he was one of the first in the door on the first day of the 3-day sale. The bed was in the auction and Ken purchased it.
Ken has some interesting stories about some of his purchases. One marble top table he purchased in Colorado was loaded in his car. He was completing the sale in the store and returned to his car to realize that someone had stolen the marble top from the table, but didn't take the base.
He remembers one of his earliest purchases that was too large to fit in his car, had to be tied to the top to carry it home. Not all of his antiques were large items. One collection is of alarm clocks, which he collected as he traveled in his work as a geologist. He worked for Santa Fe Railroad and worked in Montana, North Dakota, Colorado, and Wyoming. He later worked for State of Texas Commission of Environmental Quality. His work with TCEQ covered all 26 counties of the Panhandle. Since the Schmidtmans have owned the bed, it has traveled with them. First to Amarillo, then to Midland, then to Denver and then back to Amarillo. Now the bed is in place in Dumas and other decorative items have been added to complete the display. Stop by and see it! |