To the Editor:

Jim Andrews’ article about Andes 19th century heating devices reminded me of a semi-annual rite mentioned by my Grandmother Stuart and my Andes Great-grandfather James Bruce.

In her letters from Corbettsville in the 1890s, Nettie Stuart noted the farm hands helping her dismantle the stoves every spring and put them up in the fall.  James Bruce (who owned the house I now live in) wrote in his meticulously kept journals starting on October 17, 1890: “put coal stove up in sitting room”, and “took stove down” in early May.

Worthy of mention every year, it must have been a terribly heavy, sooty job!  I hope Jim will publish more Andes history in the Gazette.

Buffy Calvert