The Monterey Depot Museum officially acquired a historic spinning wheel originally owned by Mary York, the mother of Alvin C. York.
Historian Dale Welch said the artifact arrived at the facility after being passed down through four generations of the Livesay and Todd families. Mike Todd chose to donate the piece to the local collection because the item had remained in Monterey for a longer period of time than it had been kept in Pall Mall.
“I think it’s important that we have the artifacts like that to show where people come from, and it wasn’t such an easy life. Now you can just go to Walmart and buy clothes that was made in Malaysia or Philippines or whatever. But back then they were doing it thread by thread,” Welch said.
Mary York used the wheel to create clothing for her 11 children. Welch said the original owner gifted the equipment to a young woman she met through a Fentress County sewing circle.
“Mike Todd decided to donate it here. He was gonna take it up to the Alvin C. York historical site but he decided it belonged here,,” Welch said.
The item is a large walking wheel that functions without a foot pedal, Welch described. The operator stands and spins the wheel by hand to produce thread.
“Even though it belonged to Mary York first, it belonged to great-grandma and grandma and mama and on and on. It’s a piece of their past too,” Welch said.
Welch said the Todd family wanted the artifact to be housed in a location where their relatives could easily visit it.
“Come see us. We’re grateful to Mike Todd and all of his family for getting it here to us,” Welch said. “In the Sergeant York movie you just see a brother and a sister you don’t see all the 11 of them.”
Admission to the museum is free to the public.
