Story by Richard of Amish stories.......Since i had at one time a pot belly stove, i wanted to do a brief story on them. I had first bought mine around 1996 at a flea market in Florida. Half the market was a flea market, while the other part sold antiques. I remember going there one day not really having much of an agenda other than getting some fresh air and do some people watching. So while i was walking around outside i had walked over to where the antiques were, now the outside part where these were sold were in what you would call "the cheap seat section". Everything outside was mostly pretty old, and would by some be considered to be antiques of sorts. these items were not protected and were exposed to the outside elements. as i was almost past this area i spotted a pot belly stove, and id say it was about 3 1/2 feet tall so not a large one but perfect for what i had wanted it for. I lived in a apartment and almost every square inch had been spoken for, but i really wanted this so i bought it and made the room for it. When i finally did get it loaded in my truck, i somehow did find a spot for it, it looked great in my living room, i even had some wood on the side of it to add to the ambiance. I really loved that old pot belly stove, and after i had bought a house a few years later i still loved it, only this time sadly that old pot belly stove was not in my living room, but inside a shed in the back. As time was passing on i was known to tell a few stories that "one day i would restore her" and put her inside my home, a much more dignified place to be of something so special. Fast forward 8 years to late 2010, i was preparing to move to Pennsylvania and since i was taking a lot of my stuff with me, space had become a premium and i really had to take only the really necessary items with me. In the end i didn't take that old stove with me, i left it outside for someone to take. I only hope it had found a good home, someone who had restored it and was able to put her where she belonged, and that was inside their home. That's my pot belly stove story, and heres a little more information that i had found about them, and i think its pretty interesting. The pot belly stove was made around the mid 19th century as it was an improvement over some older designs like the Franklin stove before it.They had many uses and could be found in homes, rail cars, railroad stations, school houses, and general stores . They came in generally 3 sizes small--med-- large and could burn a fire anywhere from 6 to 8 hours for a small stove, to 8-14 hours for a large one. Most pot belly stoves featured cook tops in which you could make coffee or make your eggs for breakfast if you wanted. these stoves were very popular with schools because school children could make a hot lunch on them, or the teacher could make a cup of tea.The rings in the center of the stove helped prevent someone from bumping into the belly part , preventing someone from getting burned. these stoves were very flexible in what you could use to keep the fires going, so wood as well as coal was used and even natural gas if you had chosen to use it. Another great thing about these stoves was that you could move them pretty much anywhere you wanted, in any room where heat was needed. And when you wanted to buy a new stove all you had to do was go to your local hardware or general store that sold stoves and you could purchase one. And then you could do what a lot of folks were doing in the late 1880s and send away for one from a Montgomery wards or sears and Roebuck catalog. Among some of the companies that were making pot belly stoves at that time were names like Glenwood, Crawford, jewel, Kalamazoo, and acme. Even sears got into the act by making their own pot belly stoves called "the wehrlestove, this stove was made in Newark, Ohio and was billed as the worlds largest stove factory at the time. In its day, the pot belly stove was one of the most popular ways to heat your home, its versatility went unmatched for many years, until the mid 20 th century when most homes were getting central heat and other updated ways to heat your home. Today the pot belly stove lives on, in museums or used as a quant prop in someone's home, or in a few cases doing what they were made to do by keeping someone warm on a chilly day, or maybe heating up a cup of soup. The pot belly stove lives on, even after its owners have left, remiders of our history and of a more simple time . Story by Richard from Amish stories. Pictures credits- bevnorton from flickr(railroad car)---------mity oak stove by Katie Inglis from flickr---------plain pot belly by Adamieja from flickr--------- country store in 1935 by Abbott Bernenice-------------- stove with stone back ground by Peregine blue from flickr. Sources for pot belly stove history- Good time store company. and from Antiques/lovetoknow.com
