This room was Henry and Joanna Lane’s bedroom.
The baby cradle belonged to the Colonel Isaac and Maria Elston, Joanna’s parents. The Lanes had no children, but Joanna would often babysit her many nieces and nephews and used this cradle. All nine of the Elston children slept in the cradle, and sometimes their long gowns would get caught on the posts, so Mrs. Elson cut two of the posts off.
The two beds belonged to Henry and Joanna. Instead of springs, there were ropes to hold the mattress in place. At the end of the beds, there are what furniture-makers called “bugs.” The ropes were tied around the “bugs,” and often times while sleeping, people would get their toes or fingers pinched between the ropes and “bugs.” This is the origin of the saying “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
The two christening gowns belonged to Joanna and one of her sisters.
The two decorative paintings of the two girls are some of the first commercially available artwork.
Other
items of interest include:
• Sunbonnet. Belonged to Joanna and protected a lady from the sun.
• Leather trunk. This leather trunk would have been placed on the back of the buggy or wagon.
• The photo on the dresser is of Helen Elston Smith. She was the niece of Joanna, who came and lived here when Joanna was in her later years. Helen never married. She lived in the house until the 1930s and gave Lane Place to the Montgomery County Historical Society.