Cupboard believed owned by the Blennerhassetts donated to state park
From left, Superintendent Craig Pyles of the Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park, retired park historian Ray Swick and Stephen Gissy, chairman of the Blennerhassett Historical Foundation, admire the cupboard base built by Steve Arnold of Marietta. The top is believed to have been owned by Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett more than 200 years ago. (Photo by Jess Mancini)
The interior of the base of the cupboard was made by Steve Arnold of Marietta. Arnold was commissioned through the Blennerhassett Historical Foundation to recreate the base to match what would have been on the original cupboard believed to have been owned by Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett. (Photo by Jess Mancini)
The original top of the cupboard is believed to have been owned by Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett. The cupboard was donated to Blennerhassett Island State Park by Zoe Hall and her parents, James Jr. and Rosemary Merrill. (Photo by Jess Mancini)
From left, Ed Engle of Marietta and historian Ray Swick look at the recreated base of the cupboard Swick and Blennerhassett Island officials believe belonged to Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett. The piece was given to Blennerhassett Island State Park by Zoe Hall and her parents, James Jr. and Rosemary Merrill. Engle’s family donated artifacts to the museum in 2019. (Photo by Jess Mancini)
From left, James Merrill Jr.; his wife, Rosemary; and their daughter Zoe Hall, holding her 10-month-old daughter Elaina, are shown at the Blennerhassett Museum of Regional History where the cupboard believed to have been owned by Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett is on display. The piece will be moved to the mansion on the island before the start of the season in May. The base of the cupboard was recreated by Steve Arnold of Marietta. The original was lost in the 1913 flood. (Photo by Jess Mancini)
From left, Superintendent Craig Pyles of the Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park, retired park historian Ray Swick and Stephen Gissy, chairman of the Blennerhassett Historical Foundation, admire the cupboard base built by Steve Arnold of Marietta. The top is believed to have been owned by Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett more than 200 years ago. (Photo by Jess Mancini)
The interior of the base of the cupboard was made by Steve Arnold of Marietta. Arnold was commissioned through the Blennerhassett Historical Foundation to recreate the base to match what would have been on the original cupboard believed to have been owned by Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett. (Photo by Jess Mancini)
The original top of the cupboard is believed to have been owned by Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett. The cupboard was donated to Blennerhassett Island State Park by Zoe Hall and her parents, James Jr. and Rosemary Merrill. (Photo by Jess Mancini)
From left, Ed Engle of Marietta and historian Ray Swick look at the recreated base of the cupboard Swick and Blennerhassett Island officials believe belonged to Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett. The piece was given to Blennerhassett Island State Park by Zoe Hall and her parents, James Jr. and Rosemary Merrill. Engle’s family donated artifacts to the museum in 2019. (Photo by Jess Mancini)
From left, James Merrill Jr.; his wife, Rosemary; and their daughter Zoe Hall, holding her 10-month-old daughter Elaina, are shown at the Blennerhassett Museum of Regional History where the cupboard believed to have been owned by Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett is on display. The piece will be moved to the mansion on the island before the start of the season in May. The base of the cupboard was recreated by Steve Arnold of Marietta. The original was lost in the 1913 flood. (Photo by Jess Mancini)
Trending
PARKERSBURG -- A relic believed to be the cupboard of Margaret and Harman Blennerhassett more than two centuries ago has been donated to Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park.
The cherry cupboard was donated by Zoe Hall of Washington, W.Va., and her parents, James W. Jr. and Rosemary Merrill of Parkersburg.
The 7-foot-8-by-4-foot-6, two-piece cupboard is on display on the main floor of the Blennerhassett Regional Museum of History at Second and Juliana streets. It will be moved to the dining room of the reconstructed mansion in April prior to the May 1 opening of the season, park Superintendent Craig Pyles said.
Representatives of the island and the Blennerhassett Historical Foundation are appreciative of the gift.
"We're more than happy," Pyles said.
The foundation's part was arranging and financing the recreation of the base of the two-piece china cabinet, said Stephen Gissy, president of the foundation.
Steve Arnold, a cabinetmaker from Marietta, recreated the base with cherry.
"It's just beautiful what he did," Gissy said.
The original base was too damaged for further use after the flood of 1913, said Ray Swick, historian emeritus of the state park. The original piece may have been made by a cabinetmaker from the area when cherry was a predominant wood used in America, he said.
Although proof the cabinet was owned by the Blennerhassetts and who made it have not been confirmed by 18th century records, its ownership through more than 200 years and its history passed from heir to heir indicate it belonged to the family, Swick said.
"This is a major piece for the house," he said.
The piece was left to the Merrill family by Mary Margaret Campbell, James Merrill Sr.'s aunt by marriage, Rosemary Merrill said. The evidence that it belonged to the Blennerhassetts was oral from one generation to the next, she said.
"We don't have written proof," Rosemary Merrill said. "It was handed down through the generations."
The piece remained on a lower base because of the lower height of the ceiling at the Campbell home, she said.
No documentation exists to prove who owned the cabinet after the Blennerhassetts left the island in 1806, but it probably went to the Daniel Goodno family of Belpre who lived across from the island, according to Swick.
The Goodnos and Blennerhassetts had a close relationship, Swick said. Goodno's wife, Sally, was a close friend with Margaret and they often rode their horses together to Marietta.
The Goodnos also owned two other Blennerhassett artifacts, fireplace andirons and a backgammon board and pieces, which may have been acquired at an 1807 auction on the island after the Blennerhassetts departed.
The pieces remained in the Goodno family until 1972 when they were donated to the Belpre Historical Society, where they remain on display in the organization's museum. It's possible the cupboard may have been acquired by Goodno, too, according to Swick.
The cupboard was sold at an auction in Porterfield between 1870 and 1908. Its first recorded modern owner was Frederick Lewis, who built a farm and home in the early 1800s at Constitution north of Belpre. William Fullerton in 1875 bought the 300-acre Lewis farm and house and sold the house with the original cupboard and base in 1908 to his brother-in-law, George Prewett and his wife, Sophia.
After the 1913 flood, Sophia decided she wanted to live above the floodplain and in 1924 sold the property at Constitution with the cupboard, of which the base was damaged in the flood, to Robert B. White, who worked for Standard Oil in Venezuela. White and his wife, Maria Catalina Carabajal, and their only child, daughter Mary Margaret, born in 1927, left South America for Constitution. Maria died in 1939 and Robert in 1953.
Mary Margaret married Warren Campbell in 1947 and moved to the Constitution home in 1956. She had a new base made for the cupboard that was lower than the original. Warren died in 2010 and Mary Margaret in 2017.
The cupboard was willed to James Merrill Sr., Warren's nephew.
James Sr. gave the cupboard and old base to Zoe, his granddaughter. James Sr. died in 2020 and Zoe received his complete dining room suite, which left no room for the cupboard in her home.
The family then decided to donate the piece to the state park for it to be on permanent display.
Jess Mancini can be reached at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com.