Early Board Games Gave Instruction In Morals

Board games became a popular pastime in the 1800s. Both children and parents enjoyed them as a way of spending some quiet hours.

The earliest ones were made of cardboard and wood. Even more appealing to today's collectors than the games are the beautifully chromo lithographed boxes, also of wood and cardboard, in which the games were packaged.

Often the games served a double purpose - they were to instruct as well as entertain. Especially, they were intended to teach moral lessons. The Ives Company, in 1844, produced “Pope and Pagan, or the Missionary Campaign; or the Siege of the Stronghold of Satan by the Christian Army.” A child should certainly know which side of that game he’d better be on!

Ives was also the maker of the early and popular “The Mansion of Happiness,” first sold in the United States in 1843. (It was a modification of an earlier game invented in England in 1800.)

McLoughlin Bros. were another major producer of games with beautiful lithographed boxes. Among their early games were “Bo-Peep,” “Bang” and “Tri-Bang,” and “Battles or Fun for Boys.” This last used lithographed cut-out soldiers as playing pieces. McLoughlin Bros. also had some rather bizarre games, including “A Frog He Would A Wooing Go.”

Another well-known games maker in this country was Milton Bradley. He is said to have begun manufacturing games almost accidentally, as a way to use a lithographic press he had purchased. His first game was “The Check ered Game of Life,” produced in 1860. He tended to favor entertaining games rather than moralistic ones.

Parker Bros. remains probably the best known name in the board games business, with the enduring popularity of its “Monopoly.” This company’s production of games was varied and vast, with most tending to be educational. George Parker’s first game was “The Game of Banking,” in 1883. “The Grocery Store” was another of his early games, and used cards with grocery commodities. “The Doctors and the Quack” also used cards, with such characters as Clairvoyant Dr. Humbug.

Packaging of board games changed drastically in about 1910. After that time, instead of the multishaded lithography, boxes tended to have strong black outlines with flat colors filled in.

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Fanciful Tureens Popular Items In 18th
Century Pottery Production

Tureens were among the most popular pieces of the fanciful dishes of pottery and porcelain that began to be produced in the 18th century. The covers were an integral part of the fruit, vegetable, bird or animal which was represented in this colorful ware.

The lidded pieces came in several sizes. The smallest were shaped like little lemons. Other small melon-shaped pieces were used for serving jam and preserves. The cauliflower and asparagus shapes were favorites. There were also squash, artichoke and romaine lettuce tureens.

Some potteries, Chelsea, for example, used soft-paste porcelain and were content to stick with the natural coloring of the vegetable. Others, such as Worcester, added moths and butterflies, transfer printed in black.

The melon tureens came in many variations of decoration, coloring and design. However, the basic oval melon usually rested on a leaf-shaped platter.

Also from ‘Chelsea came a tureen consisting of a sunflower with yellow petals edging the rim of the dish and a dark brown center forming a rounded cover. The factory also produced a rabbit sitting on a cabbage leaf; he is munching on a piece of cabbage.

Tureens shaped like birds originated at Meissen in Germany and several English potteries followed this idea. Soon there were pieces shaped like partridges, hens, cocks, ducks, swans and pigeons. Tureens shaped like ducks also came from China.

An adaptation of this type of serving piece was the trussed fowl made of Pratt ware, in which game pies were served. (Pratt ware was an earthenware made in England’s Staffordshire district.)

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‘The Mountain’ Oblivious To Controversy
Over Its Name

Rivalry was fierce in the early days of Washington and nowhere did it surface more strongly than in the debate over the official naming of “The Mountain.”

The dispute developed gradually. In 1792, George Vancouver, whose expedition was the first white group to see the peak, named it Mt. Rainier after a naval friend, Peter Rainier. The name was accepted by both English and American mapmakers.

Early settlers, however, frequently used some variation of the Indian name, Tacoma. For a long time, there was no argument.

Tacoma and Rainier were used interchangeably by settlers in both communities.
It wasn’t until 1883, that the Northern Pacific Railroad touched off the spark that started the feud. Their publication of March of that year announced: “The Indian name Tacoma will hereafter be used in the guide books and other publications... instead of Rainier.”

Seattleites rose up in protest, recognizing how much publicity this would give to their rival city to the south. Seattle papers accused Tacoma of a historical robbery, citing the right of discoverers to name things. Tacomans wanted to know who Rainier was, anyway.

Seattle said that if the people of Tacoma thought they could change the name of a mountain, next they’d try to rename the territory. A great idea, thought Tacoma, and in the next session of Congress they had Territorial Repre sentative Thomas Brents submit a bill to rename Washington Territory Tacoma if it became a state.

A Tacoma Academy of Science was created to gather unfavorable data about the name, career and personality of Peter Rainier and affidavits supporting the Indian use of Tacoma or Tahoma or Tacoba for the mountain.

The debate continued to rage through the formation of a national park encompassing the mountain. Senator Watson Squire’s bill proposing the park included, diplomatically, “Mount Rainier, often called Mount Tacoma.” Tacomans agreed the park could be called Mount Rainier National Park - but the mountain would still be Mount Tacoma.

Other good politicians were also careful to handle the matter tactfully. A prime example was the U.S. Vice President, speaking during President Grover Cleveland’s term of office in both Seattle and Tacoma in 1894. In all speeches, he concluded with “Ladies and gentlemen, there is no doubt in my mind what The Mountain should be called.”

Repeatedly, the issue was thrown to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. Each time, it ruled in favor of Rainier. In the 1916 hearing, geologist C.H. Marriman pointed out that The Mountain was also know to Indian tribes as Stiquak and Puskehouse but nobody was pushing those Indian names.

The final hearing (to date) was in 1978, when the state Board on Geographic Names again reconsidered the recommendation to rename the mountain Mt. Tacoma. It remains Rainier.

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