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Serial #0015

Ballinger Bureau 

Planted in a scrap pile on the Brown place near Ballinger, Texas, the ‘30’s-era coal-burning heater had not been bothered for years. But this winter it went on quite a journey before becoming the main inspiration for the Ballinger Bureau. Roy Brown and his dad figured I needed that stove. So Roy hauled it to his home near Ruidoso, New Mexico, and on to Taos where we rendezvoused with him. We then took the stove back to our place up in the corner of the Texas Panhandle. (Mind you, this was not a lightweight stove, and every loading and unloading carried the potential for lasting bodily harm.) Roundabout journey complete, the stove sat by my own scrap pile and seemed to stare at me. Time to take up the cutting torch. The Bureau was underway.

Ironically, the interior portion of the stove, with the narrow firebox on the bottom and the larger top heat chamber, was takeoff point for the design of the bureau. From the stove’s exterior cabinet, the top grill became the bureau’s base, the bottom heat grill--with the addition of green mica--became the tray support, and the center stoke door was given new hinges and a place on the bureau’s front. Tin heat shields on the back of the stove are now door panels.

White and yellow case wood is cut from door and base trim from the old Jones house in Higgins, Texas. It is said that the house is haunted. If true, the ghost(s) must be an easy-going sort, because no mishaps occurred during the salvage runs. We did discover a mostly full bottle of “internal liniment” stashed between the doorjamb and stud at the top of the basement stairs.

Wood for doors, drawer fronts, and side panels on the bureau comes from salvage trim in the old Springer house on Boggy Creek northwest of Canadian, Texas. Mr. Springer and a business partner are buried a few yards from the house. About 1878, soldiers--angry over a card game that didn’t turn out to their liking--shot them to death.