Two-spindle flax spinning wheel. Constructed with wooden dowels. Left bobbin and spindle are loose from the leather holder. Distaff is easily removedl. The treadle is not connected. The initials "SP" are burned in one edn of the lower platform of the wheel - possibly the intials of the maker? Likely Connecticut, 18th C.
This statement comes from several letters written by the donor of this object: "My great grandfather, Israel Beach, built his home at Stratford, Conn. in 1735. Some 30 years ago there was given me by the family that owns the farm, a two-spindle flax spinning wheel that had been left in the attic of the old house. The house had long been unoccupied. It was sided up as well as shingled, with chestnut shingles about two feet long, rived and shaved by hand. I have two of these shingles. My father moved from Stratford into this section in 1816. My grand father Israel Beach Jr. served in the Revolutionary War. I served four years in the First New York (Lincoln Cavalry.)
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