The Lamb Loom

 Located in the Historical Museum at 124 East Carlisle Street, are many interesting and historical item from pioneer days of Crittenden  County.  Here is the interesting history of the "Lamb Loom."

THE LAMB LOOM

Historic loom dates back to 1796.

By Miss Ruby Dean

If inanimate objects could only speak, the old Lamb loom at the Crittenden County Historical Society's Museum could tell us everything about itself we wish to know, as well as some hair-raising tales of pioneer days. One such tale might involve an Indian scalping which is suppose to have occurred near the very house which held this loom.

Since it can't speak for itself, we'll have to rely upon memory hearsay and a few sketchy notes left by J. N. Dean, which do not concern the loom itself but which do date the house that contained it.

 

When Era DeBoe fell heir to this loom, she always referred to it as the Lamb loom, although it came to her through her aunt, Mrs. Dora Wilson.

 

Era's “Aunt Dora” was the widow of Quincy Wilson, whose mother was Malinda Lamb before her marriage to Dr. Lysander Wilson. Dr. Wilson's early death brought her and her young son Quincy back to her father's home, where both of them lived the remainder of their lives. Malinda's father was James Lamb from whose home this loom came. Thus, “the Lamb Loom.”

 

James Lamb's father was John Lamb, who came to Crittenden County in 1796 from South Carolina. He had previously had three stints of service in the American Revolution. He built a log house just west of the famed spring of limestone water known as Sugar Grove Spring.

 

Later, about 1820, his son James built a log house a little father west. It was to this home, known for many years as the Quincy Wilson place, that Aunt Dora came as a bride about 1884. 

 

The loom, I have been told, was there at that time and had probably been there since the house was built. What pioneer family could survive without one?

 

Whether this loom served the family of James Lamb's father also, we do not know. But we would venture a guess that it did. John's family moved to Illinois about 1820, and could easily have left the loom. It would, indeed, have been very cumbersome to move. If such is the case, we can dump it right into the eighteenth century, which will make it nigh on to 200 years old. 

 

This log house from which the loom came stood on the old Quincy Wilson place, formerly the James Lamb homestead.

 

Now, let's use our imaginations and take a peek at some of those sturdy pioneer women who made use of this loom between the years 1796 and 1979: Comfort Bellah Lamb and her daughters, Catherine, Jenny, Elizabeth, Mary and Nancy; Polly Clark Lamb and her daughters, Malinda, Salina, Hulda and Betsy; Malinda Lamb Wilson and her daughter-in-law Dora Pickens Wilson.

 

By the early 1950's the old Jamb Lamb house was closed part of the year, especially in winter. So the loom was moved to the J. N. Dean store at Deanwood for safekeeping. While there, it was used by Joseph Gates Dean and Dorothy Dean Cook.

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