The Life of a Desk
Last time I blogged, I told you the story of the farmhouse dining table that became my writing desk and is now at home in my oldest grandson’s bedroom. Today, as promised, I want to tell you the story of my “new” (but actually very old) writing desk.
The first history we know of this desk is when it was owned by Maude Berquist, wife of Arthur Berquist, who owned and operated Berquist Drugstore in Marquette, Kansas for many years. Mrs. Berquist was a sister to my husband Ken’s grandfather, Kenneth Raney. She gave the desk to Ken’s parents, Kenneth and Shirley A, Raney when they were remodeling an old house in Ellsworth, Kansas. My Ken (Kenneth W. Raney III) and his four younger siblings grew up in that wonderful house, and so did Ken and I, two years after our marriage, when Ken’s parents moved to Southern California. We lived in that house for eight years and brought three of our four children home from the hospital to the “big red barn” as we called it.
Ken’s mom, Shirley, tells the continuing story of the desk this way: “Our oldest son [Ken] was always drawing and so we put the desk in his room. He used it for years until he was married and our family moved to California and while we were there, refinished the desk. Sometime along the way, we gave the desk to Ken and Deb to be their own. It has been a treat to see it move from house to house and room to room all these years.”
Ken used the desk in his office after we bought our first home and he eventually launched his own graphic design and illustration business, Raney Day Creative, from that desk.
After we moved into our home in Wichita, Kansas, he needed a larger desk, so the Berquist-Raney desk was moved into our basement in storage. My sister was helping me paint at our house and when she saw the desk, she admired it and wondered why we didn’t have it in a room where it could be seen and enjoyed. Ken challenged me: “If you can sell that old rolltop desk in the living room, I’ll help you haul this one upstairs.” Within hours, I’d sold the rolltop on craigslist (for $50 more than we paid for it at a garage sale) and that night, the desk got moved upstairs to our living room where it lived happily for the next six years.
When my dad saw the desk in our living room, he reminded me that it has some history from my family as well, since Marquette is my dad’s hometown, and Daddy had spent many hours at the soda fountain in the tiny town’s popular drugstore. That store is still operating today as City Sundries and the Berquist name is still on the doorstep! Several years ago, my dad and sisters and I had lunch there on a little tour of Daddy’s hometown.
And then, when we moved to Missouri and my farmhouse table desk went to our screened porch and later to our oldest grandson’s room (that story is HERE) the Berquist-Raney desk moved into my office where it still lives today and will no doubt serve as my writing desk for the rest of my life.
As Ken’s mom said, “It is a treat to relive some of those early years of family members that have been gone for years… There are many many stories that stay with us as we go down this road of life. The desk has other stories, I am sure, and some we will never know or have the honor to remember.”
Yes, it’s only a piece of furniture, but it has served its purpose well and given delight to several owners. I’m so honored to be the current keeper of the desk!
Do you have a special piece of furniture or other heirloom that has played a special place in your family’s history? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
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I have several chests of drawers that belonged to my parents, and they provide wonderful storage. Another piece of furniture that I have is the wooden desk chair that my father used in his office. When he retired, his boss let him keep his chair, which he brought home. After my father died and my mother moved into a retirement facility, I inherited the handsome, comfortable chair that was my father’s desk chair. It looks just like the wooden chair with the flowered cushion in the first picture in today’s blog.
That chair is my desk chair now and it IS very comfortable. How neat that you have one too!
Yes, that desk was much too handsome to be sitting in a storeroom! It’s hard to pick one piece of furniture I have that has history and meaning because I have several. I remember Grandmother Reed talking on the telephone sitting at a small telephone bench that I now have. The brown and orange, velvet flowered seat and back cushion had to go, and it got a wood refresh as well. I’ve actually recovered it twice to go in two different homes.
I still have a chest of drawers we bought in an unfinished furniture store about 48 years ago. Made of pine, I painted it white to go in our daughter’s room when we bought her canopy bed. It is now painted blue and in our guest bedroom. Maybe one day she will have it again.
Love your stories of your furniture.
Oh, I also have a chair that was the first piece of furniture we ever bought so we would have an extra one to add to the furnished apartment we were renting in 1967. My mother, who lived 2 hours away came for a visit to re-upolster it in 1986. The day she went home, she left a note on the kitchen table saying, “Challenger exploded 11:39.” I still have the note and the chair, which we have treated very carefully.
Oh, wow! What a piece of history! Neat way to preserve a memory, sad though it is.
We have lots of family heirlooms here. One is a round mirror that used to be above my husband’s mother’s fireplace in her Kentucky home. After her dead we moved into the house and kept the mirror there it’ll we moved to our lake front house in Ohio. It was there on the front hallway for 33 years till we downsized and moved to our apartment in a seniors community. Now it hangs above our fireplace here .
That mirror sounds like a treasure. I bet it looks great above the fireplace!
I enjoyed your stories about the family desks. I love old desks! I recently inherited an old secretary that had been my grandparents, but was stored for years. It came with a lot of good memories too. They used to keep old photo albums in it, so we’ve enjoyed looking at those. Some Civil War era daguerotypes were stashed in there also. Treasures!
Treasures, indeed, Karen!
I think it is so wonderful that you keep and repurpose old pieces instead of just replacing them with new. I know so many people who just don’t value things unless they’re shiny and new and the latest trend. We have lots of antiques and heirlooms in my family, but one of my favorites is an antique green glass store window display bottle. My great-grandfather was a moonshiner in the Arkansas hills during prohibition. (We laugh about that tidbit a lot.) He collected and brought home whatever large containers he could find for storing his liquor, and one time he happened along when the general store in the nearest town was tossing out old displays and they gave him three giant bottles. One of them survived in my grandparents’ attic, complete with original rubber stopper, and my grandma gave it to me about 25 years ago. I bought a lamp kit and was able to convert it without altering the bottle at all. It sits in our living room and is quite a conversation piece when company comes over.
OH, that sounds wonderful! What a great way to preserve that memory! I love lamps, especially when they’re from a repurposed item!
We have a couple of things, namely children’s furniture made by my grandfather. We have a dressing table he made for my mother (now in my daughter’s room) and a pillow-sized doll crib he made for me. My parents refurbished it for our daughter’s Bitty Baby. My parents are also storing two child-sized upholstered rockers (with brass studs!) and another doll crib for whenever I am blessed with grandkids.
So very special, Janice!
In my mother’s family, we have a baby crib (bassinet) that “lives” at whoever’s house has a baby, specifically the firstborn child. This tradition continues to this day and I think at least three, if not four, generations have passed it around. It’s fun to see pictures of aunt’s/uncle’s, my cousin’s children, my brother, his oldest, etc. all pictures in the same bassinet.
That is so cool! I love when I recognize the same piece of furniture in photos taken years apart! That bassinet must be so special!
What a wonderful desk, Deb! Great story as always. I have a few of the family antiques – a rocker from my grandmother’s family and a lovely chest from my paternal great aunt. But my favorite is in my studio – a huge, heavy old-fashioned library table. My dad acquired it some how – many years ago – and used it to mat his watercolors (a piece of plywood protected the surface even though it already had a few dings). When I inherited my parent’s home and remodeled the basement, I created a studio for art and craft projects and Dad’s table became my work surface and centerpiece. I love it and all the memories attached! Just like that terrific desk of yours!
Oh, your library table sounds just wonderful, Lynne! How wonderful to have it as a centerpiece in your studio!
I love to write and Eversince I was eleven years old I wrote at our dining room table it doesn’t look as pretty as your desk but it’s helped me when I wake up in the morning grab my cup of coffee and sit at that table and write! That table means a lot to me.
I love to write and Ever since I was eleven years old I wrote at our dining room table it doesn’t look as pretty as your desk but it’s helped me when I wake up in the morning grab my cup of coffee and sit at that table and write! That table means a lot to me.
Wow! That’s really cool that you’ve had your table since you were a little girl!
Love all stories of old furniture. In our fairly old house. nothing aristocratic, just old, built in the early 17th century, we have a big coffer we found in a junk shop. Cracked panels in the base have been strengthened with Victorian newspaper, just pasted on..
The date x=carved on the side is 1695 – so the chest is from the reign of William III . Not William and Mary, because Mary had died of smallpox, choosing the closest she could get to self isolation, to protect others. It’s where we keep all the Christmas decorations.
What a treasure! It’s hard to imagine something that old! Wonderful that you are the keeper of such a piece!