[or-roots] Meier & Frank and the lost needle, found!

[Anne Comer]

I have found it!  Google wins my vote.   I guess I didn't learn about 
the needle story from one of you or-roots list members at all, but from 
a quilting discussion group that I used to haunt several years ago.   It 
seems it was printed in "Women's Voices from the Oregon Trail" by Susan 
G. Butruille and retold in "Pioneer Sampler" by Eleanor Burns. It also 
was printed in The Oregonian in 1967.   Since it is a colorful story 
from Oregon history I think it belongs here.  Whether it is completely 
true or only partly true I don't know but it is still a great story.  It 
certainly is plausible because Frank did start his career as a pedlar.

 From the Oregon Blue Book History web page I found the following:
http://bluebook.state.or.us/cultural/history/history13.htm

> Aaron Meier, a Jewish emigrant from Germany, worked his way north in 
> the mid-1850s from the Sierra gold fields to new mines in the Rogue 
> River Valley. He carried needles, thread, buttons, and bolts of cloth 
> in his traveling dry goods business. He worked hard, saved, and in 1857 
> opened a small retail store in Portland, then a town of 1,300 
> residents. The city's boom during the 1860s with opening of new mining 
> fields in the interior and the flow of capital through the emerging 
> city gave him the chance to expand his business. In time Sigmund Frank, 
> his son-in-law, joined him. Meier & Frank Department Store was on its 
> way to becoming one of the nation's largest retail outlets.

...and the needle story in the quilting discussion group:
http://www.quilthistory.com/98312.htm

> Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 15:17:36 -0800
> From: "August, Rachel" <papillon at alaskalife.net>
> To: "List--QHL" <QHL at cuenet.com>
> Subject: QHL: The Missing Needle--Long
> The Crazy Quilt List is having a discussion re needles and needlecases. 
> I sent the following message to them and want to share it with you 
> folks as well...
> **********************************************

> With all this talk of needles, I think it's appropriate to share a 
> story with you. The following is quoted from Quilt in a Day's "Pioneer 
> Sampler" by
> Eleanor Burns. Eleanor provides the following reference...Pioneer 
> folklore from Women's Voices from the Oregon Train, pp. 134-135; Susan 
> G. Butruille, Tamarack Books, Inc., Boise, ID, 1993.

> The Missing Needle
>
> The year was 1853 and Grandmother Drain owned the only darning needle 
> in Pass Creek Canyon, Oregon. It was the most cared-for-possession in 
> the small community of fifteen families! When clothing needed to be 
> patched and mended, everyone knew Grandmother Drain would lend it out.
>
> Sharing the needle went well--until the day eight year old Jimmy 
> Chitwood was to take it back to its owner. Mrs. Chitwood put a long red 
> raveling through the eye of the needle, knotted the raveling, put the 
> needle into a potato, and sent Jimmy off to Grandmother Drain's cabin.
>
> The small animals on the trail did not distract Jimmy from his 
> important mission--until a mother bear with her two cubs came into 
> sight! He quickly hid behind a stump under a bush until the bears left, 
> and then he went on.  Oh, yes, as you guessed! The worst happened to 
> poor Jimmy! Imagine his horror to discover the only needle in town was 
> lost while under his care.
>
> All of the neighbors joined in the search--a search which seemed 
> futile. Suddenly Jimmy disappeared into the bushes. When he reappeared, 
> he had the needle--still stuck in the potato. Jimmy had finally 
> recalled the stump where he had hidden when frightened by the bears. 
> The whole town shared the joy of finding the needle.
>
> One day in the fall of 1855, the head of the needle broke off as 
> Grandmother Drain was sewing. All of the ladies in Pass Creek Canyon 
> hoped that a needle would soon be provided.
>
> It was around Thanksgiving when a peddler rode into Pass Creek on a 
> mule. One of the ladies bought a comb, two bought dress goods, another 
> one bought a doll head. Then, they remembered the need for a needle, 
> and shared their story. Being a generous man, the peddler gave a 
> "Christmas present" to each of the families of Pass Creek Canyon.
>
> The peddler was Aaron Meier. After several years of peddling his wares 
> across Oregon, he opened his own store in Portland in 1857. With the 
> help of his family, he developed the Meier and Frank company into one 
> of America's great family-owned department stores.
>
> "The Oregonian" ran a full-page ad on January 1, 1967. The headline 
> read "Have you ever heard the story of 'The Potato and and Darning 
> Needle'?" At the end was an invitation: "We still want every woman to 
> have a darning needle of her own. Come into our Fabric Center at any 
> one of our three stores Tuesday and get yours, free."


Anne Hudelson Comer
******************************************
Descended from these Oregon/Washington Territory Pioneers and Early 
Settlers:
- Dela Fletcher  and Phoebe (Flanary) CRABTREE,  arrived 1846, Linn 
County
- James W. and Elizabeth (Empson) PEEK,  arrived 1847,  Lane County
- William Martin and Mary "Polly" (Dealy) PRINE,  arrived 1850, 
Linn>Lake>Linn Counties
- Rev. Joab and Anna (Beeler) POWELL,  arrived 1852, Linn County
- William Moore and Sarah (Scott) RUTLEDGE, arrived 1852, 
Thurston>Lewis>Baker>Linn Counties
- Thomas C. SMITH, arrived before 1860, Lane>Thurston>Benton Counties
- John Benjamin and Nancy Jane (Hamilton) HUDELSON, arrived 1876,  
Polk>Linn Counties