BYBEE, Willliam - Putnam

“Antiques in Hoosier Homes” by Agnes McCulloch Hanna – We have mentioned in this series of articles the Deerfield Mass “courting chair” with its two rigid backs placed at right angles to each other, dating from the early part of the 18th century and the “courting nooks” of formal New England drawing rooms where young couples might have a degree of privacy for their lovemaking, behind the curtains of a recessed window seat where they might talk within earshot of the girl’s family, yet be somewhat withdrawn from observation. Such arrangements were not unknown at the time of the struggle between our colonists and their English overlords.  But the chairs which belong to today’s story might be called “announcement chairs,” for they were ordered by properly affianced young people from William Bybee or Bibey of Mt. Meridian in our own state.  William Bybee was born in 1802 in Kentucky and came with his parents to Indiana to what is now Belle Union where a log cabin was built for the family, which consisted of the brother William and two sisters, Sally and Jemima, both older than William.

Williams’ father had been a cabinetmaker and made his own tools, so that when the time came for his son to take over the family trade, he had been trained from early childhood to select wood as it grew, see to its cutting, drying and preparation for use in the many forms needed for domestic furniture. Where, oh where are the tools the Bybees made? Who knows? So skillful was William Bybee in making furniture that inhabitants of the neighborhood eagerly contracted for the output of his shop and therefore when a local youth and his young lady pledged their private troths, they went to William Bibey or properly Bybee to ask him to start work on some chairs and other pieces of household gear for their future home. So, you see, such chairs as these were an announcement to fellow townswomen that a marriage had been arranged. Now about this pair of chairs, once the property of a Mt. Meridian woman and her long-ago husband, Mr. and Mrs. Lee Burns of our city wer ein Mt. Meridian with their son David on a sentimental pilgrimage: David wanted to sleep in the room in the Mt. Meridian tavern where Lincoln had slept, David and his parents being ardent Lincoln admirers. After such arrangements had been made they went out to see the town, which lies along what is now Rt. 40. Under a tree in the yard of the house next to the tavern were some elderly women stirring apple butter in a large kettle over an open fire. Mrs. Burns stopped to admire such domestic activity and saw the chair on which one of the women was sitting … it was one of these which she now owns, and has allowed me to discuss. Inquiries as to whether others were available for purchase brought out the story of William Bibey, as he was known locally, and his place in the heart affairs of the neighborhood. “But,” the old lady said mysterious, “none of my family must know I’ve sold two of these chairs but I could use a little cash money. Come back again and I’ll see about selling some of the rest of them.”  After the visit was over, the chairs were taken to Indianapolis and have been kept intact, but, alas, when the Burns family went back again in search of the others of the set the tavernkeeper had bought them after the old lady was dead and a price out of all reason had been put upon them… “A NY dealer had said they were valuable…” And so they are, as a memento of a good local craftsman who chose durable material of local maple wood for a comfortable lightweight chair with a seat of woven hickory strips, well fitted to the needs of women in their homes. Dr. E. Hawkins of Greencastle, after he had read the story our Mrs. Kate Rabb wrote about William Bibey some years ago, wrote her that William Bybee had died at the age of 80 that he had been born in 1802 and had lived in Belle Union in Putnam County where he, Dr. Hawkins, had practiced medicine. No descendants with the Bybee name were living to his knowledge, but cousins owned the cabin.