CLEBURNE TEXAS Carnegie Library Antique hand painted souvenir china J.W. PITTMAN

Description

Rare early 1900s item.  Couldn't find another just like it.  Great for collector of antique Texas items.  CLEBURNE TEXAS, THE Carnegie Library Antique hand painted top hat souvenir from J.W. PITTMAN, use as holder for matches or pens and pencils,
The Carnegie Library was begun in 1901 under the direction of the local women’s club. In 1902 members of the organization met with New York industrialist and benefactor Andrew S. Carnegie to secure funds for a building. His gift was matched by local contributions and the structure was completed in 1905. The building functioned as a library until 1978 when it was converted to the Layland Museum.
Cleburne is a city in and the county seat of Johnson County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 29,337. The city is named in honor of Patrick Cleburne, a Confederate general in the US Civil War. Lake Pat Cleburne, the reservoir that provides water to the city and surrounding area, is also named after him.
The Layland Museum is a local history museum in Cleburne, Texas.The museum features a range of exhibits related to Cleburne and the surrounding area, including pictures, clothing and artifacts.
Carnegie Library, housing the Layland Museum
The museum is housed in the old Carnegie Library, built in 1904. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The location is now a museum established in 1963, when local businessman William J. Layland’s collection was offered to the City of Cleburne by his heirs. Initially the museum was housed on the second floor of Cleburne’s Carnegie Library, which was the towns main Public library at the time. In 1978 the library moved to a new location and the museum was given access to the entire building
INFORMATION ON PITTMAN:  “Lula” Pittman must have been surprised when her husband gave her a piece of paper for her anniversary gift in August 1899 — it was the deed to 6.5 acres of land on North Main Street, next door to where they were living.
Then he told her she could build the house of her dreams.
It was not just another pretty house. The home at 719 N. Main St., known as the Pittman mansion, was unequalled locally in design and cost.
Marcus Monroe Pittman was born in Georgia, the son of M. M. Pittman, a distinguished attorney and judge.
He graduated from Jefferson College and completed his education at the University of Georgia. Pittman married a Georgia southern belle, Lucretia “Lula” Elizabeth Stark, Aug. 13, 1882. They founded a private school in Longview in 1882 where he served as director until 1886.
Next they moved to Midland and operated a grocery and ranch supply store which sustained fire damages in January 1887.
Mrs. Pittman, barely 5 feet tall, oversaw every step of the process to build the house. She did not want sharp corners in the structure so most walls in the 16 rooms were curved. To insulate against the weather, they were built five times thicker than normal.
The 12-foot high ceilings, transoms above each door and a large attic fan helped keep the house naturally cool.
Cleburne contractor and carpenter, Jim Green, was hired to design and lead the construction of the massive home, including seven coal-burning fireplaces with hand carved mantels, polished hardwood floors and pine doors.
The living room fireplace was made of birds eye maple. Each of the fireplaces were constructed so the ashes would fall through a grate underneath the house into a collection room that only had to be cleaned out once a year.
Baseburners were used to heat the dining room and upstairs bedrooms.
Cleburne mason, H. D. McCoy, came out of retirement to build the fireplaces and install the windows for the three-story home. A graceful rounded cupola with colored glass windows and a metal roof. Other windows, many of them curved, were ordered from Pittsburg and installed by McCoy.
A hand-carved oak bed with a seven-foot headboard and feather mattress was in the master bedroom along with a large circular shaped high-boy. Other elaborate furniture included a large china cabinet and carved oak hat rack chair with a mirror on the chair back.
Many of the furniture pieces came from Mrs. Pittman’s family’s Georgia plantation, including a pre-Civil war spinning wheel.
Pittman house by Jim West 1959
This image was taken by photographer Jim West in 1959. By 1961, the Cleburne Shopping Center would occupy the block.
Valuable artwork and expensive furniture filled the 16 rooms. One painting of Christ with a sinner kneeling at his feet was purchased from a local doctor. Originally it had been brought to Texas on an ox-cart and given to the doctor as payment for services.
On a trip to purchase a dress in Dallas, Mrs. Pittman returned to a museum where she had seen a painting of fruit that she wanted to purchase but the price was higher than she wanted to pay. On this trip she discovered the museum had experienced a fire and a corner of the canvas had been damaged.
She paid 0 and returned home with the oil painting instead of the dress.
Because they entertained often, she included two large, second-floor salons and a small foyer for the orchestra, as well as two glassed in porches. Elaborate seven-course dinner parties for invited guest were fairly common. One gathering included 400 friends and business associates.
At the top of the elaborate staircase was a room, added later, that took the place of the space where orchestras once played for social gatherings and dances held on the floor below. The third floor was intended to be a ballroom and bedrooms for each of their three daughters but was never completely finished.
The Pittmans had live-in help over the years including Willie Petty, and Leslie and Irene Sands.
The Pittman daughters also took turn washing dishes and keeping house.
Flower shows and Christmas pilgrimages brought hundreds of guests into the home. Members of the Shakespeare Club held meetings there for many years to enact the comedies and tragedies of the famous writer.
Every door in the home had brass doorknobs and hinges. The original tapestry-like wallpaper hung by the father of local decorator “Top” Ganong, lighting fixtures including the lamp on the staircase newel post, and furniture were all still in use when the house was sold in 1959.
Pittman was a successful entrepreneur, being listed as a capitalist in early city directories. M&M Pittman Roller Mills was established it in 1900 at 402 S. Mill St. The mill could process about 100 barrels of flour daily and the grain elevators had a capacity of 45,000 bushels.
1904 Cleburne Sanborn Map
This page from the 1904 Sanborn map of North Main Street in Cleburne shows the location and size of the Pittman mansion.
“Big P” and “Nutrina” flour were two of the brands produced.
His other business ventures included founding a cotton seed mill, helping to start Citizen’s National Bank in Cleburne in 1903 and serving as president, owning Cleburne Bottling Works, a steam laundry, two cotton gins, a drug store and a 13,000-acre ranch in Kaufman County. He also served as a director of Farmers and Merchants State Bank.
They purchased 2.5 acres behind their home and built a large carriage house that also served as a barn. There were four horse stalls, three cow stalls and room for about 500 chickens to roam.
Two boys were smoking corn silk in the building when sparks flew and started a fire that destroyed the structure, the two-story home next door and a nearby barn.
Burning debris blew across the north end of town, fueled by a southern wind, igniting roofs as far away as Wilhite Street.
Mrs. Archer, who was a Cleburne High School teacher at the time, told the Cleburne Times Review that three of her students — Byron Rhome, Lucian Joseph and Henry Lichte — climbed into the attic, poking a hole in the roof and fought the blaze with fire extinguishers. They saved the mansion.
Mrs. Archer was tipped off that one of the local banks was going to close its doors at the end of the day. It was in the 1920’s and the depression was just beginning. She telephoned her father to warn him.
Rather than take his money out, he deposited more and ask his friends do the same to help save the bank. The bank closed and their money was lost. He died in 1933.
Ruth Pittman Archer’s daughter, Beth Archer, married George R. Bradbury. They were well known in town. She worked for the Cleburne Times-Review as society editor and proofreader.
“Buster” was part of the family that ran Bradbury’s Clothing Company for decades.
Cleburne physician Dr. R.W. Kimbro, and businessman Jimmy Young purchased the property, including the house in 1959.
On April 1 1961, another real estate transaction of 0,000 gave ownership of the property to a group of Fort Worth businessmen.
A March 1961 Fort Worth Star-Telegram article reported “Eleven firms have leased space in the Cleburne (shopping) center. They are Sears, Roebuck & Company, J. C. Penney, Wrigley’s Food Store, Ben Franklin Variety Store, Top Value Shop, Fabric Store, Roof Drug, Normalee Dress Shop, Holly’s Dress Shop, a barber shop and a laundromat.”
George and Beth Bradbury, and her mother Mrs. Archer, built a home east of Cleburne, moving some of the treasures with them.
John Pittman Bradbury, son of George and Beth, still enjoys a few of those pieces and lots of precious memories.
Chip on hat edge as seen with mostly under the rim so not easily seen when displayed, the rest is super with no cracks or issues and wonderful details.  2 1/4" tall, 3" across, 2 3/4" deep.  See detail photos.
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