The Workings of an Old Stove (contributed by Anna Catherine Dreiling)

From my earliest memories, this is the stove that was in the kitchen of our farm house. It was a wood burning stove which we used for cooking. I can't remember when we got a later model that burned gas. I know we had one other gas or kerosene burning stove before we got the one that you remember Grandma frying chicken with.

So back to the stove that is in the picture. It is the one Dorothy talked about using to make the potato snacks and heating the irons. At one time there was a wall seperating the kitchen and dining room. This stove sat with its back against that wall. The pipe vented through the wall and I suppose into a chimney. It also had an upper chamber that looked kind of like an oven. I can't remember what that was used for--possibly to keep food warm? I can't remember for sure, but I think we may have put the wood in through a place that opened in the left front. The door you and Doug? are standing on is the oven door. On the side of the stove facing the front of the picture, there used to be a water resivoir attached. We always kept it filled. The water would not boil but it was pretty hot. Also, Grandma Emma Patzner(Georgias mother-in-law) would set her bowl of milk on the top of the resivoir to clabber( to sour and curdle) to make cottage cheese. The cottage cheese will be another story.

I think I've pretty much covered the stove. As you can imagine it was a very hot job cooking on that stove during Kansas summers as wood and fire privided the heat to cook year round.

I think the building that the stove is setting next to in the picture is the old outside toilet. I'm not sure when we got indoor plumbing and a bathroom in the house. Maybe your Mom can remember that.

This is probably more than you wanted to know but your questions opened a lot of memories. The stove description is to the best of my memory--It has been a long time since then.