The Early American Rocking Chair
The rocking chair is a purely America idea. We have had them since 1774, whereas the earliest known foreign rocker was made in 1840. The word "rocker" did not mean a chair until a later time, but it did refer to those curved pieces of wood beneath cradles. Originally rocking chairs were called rocker chairs.
The step from cradle to rocking chair is lost in the complexity of American inventiveness that flourished between 1750 and 1775. There was once a combination cradle and settee known as a "rockee" or rocking "settee" that might have been the missing link between the two pieces of furniture.
Almost all the early straight-backed rocking chairs are converted chairs with rockers added. Benjamin Franklin had experimented with an iron rocker to fasten to any chair. He also had a most remarkable "chair with rockers, and a large fan placed over it with which he fanned himself, keeping flies off, etc., while he sat reading, with only a small motion of his foot."
President John F. Kennedy, who had a chronic back problem all of his adult life, openly used a rocking chair during his tenure in office, and did much to bring the rocking chair back into fashion for the younger set. Rocking chairs have always popular for older adults.
As the great western migration swept across 18th century America, the self-reliant pioneer spirit embodied popular virtues of rugged individualism, harsh self-discipline, and austere functionality. In conquering the untamed wilderness and translating ambitious dreams into permanent settlements, comfort and leisure ranked as afterthoughts amidst the endless cycle of dawn-to-dusk labor required for survival. Yet even among the uncompromising cultures of utility that defined the frontier, experiencing simple furnishing managed to carve out an enduring source of domestic serenity - the iconic rocking chair.
These gently swaying seats of repose carried more unburdened significance than their humble construction from rough-hewn logs and woven hickory strips suggested. Yes, the rocking chair's hickory runners allowing smooth, soothing back and forth movements served obvious roles in soothing fussy infants and relieving weary bodies after grueling days of tilling, chopping, mending and cobbling. However, its true importance transcended just basic functions of childcare and rest. In those salt-of-the-earth pioneer abodes where multi-tasking represented a cultural apex, the rocking chair stood as the single station specifically dedicated to simply being.
Within the tight-quartered log cabins and sod houses leaving few places for casual rest, the rocking chair's subtle gliding rhythm created a tranquil pocket outside of the home's ceaseless hum of activity. Whether a mother calming restless young ones through the soothing cadence of a familiar lullaby or hardscrabble fathers savoring a fleeting respite from brutal agrarian marathons, the chair's sway lulled life's frenzy into temporary submission. It signaled a scant time not obligated to chores, repairs, maintenance, or the perpetual daily bench strokes of sustaining hearth and homestead.
Those peaceful rocking moments provided colonists their sole opportunities to simply pause and be, whether for an hour's needlepoint or a evening's storytelling unwinding from the incessant pressures of frontier subsistence living. In a culture where even sliced bread represented an unthinkable luxury sacrificed for the rigors of baking from scratch and grinding one's own flour, the rocking chair stood out as permissible indulgence. It enabled stolen minutes of repose amidst the endless labor converting raw wilderness into permanent civilized homesteads
For the frontier matriarch determinedly straining each sinew in that multigenerational struggle for foothold on each new patch of annexed landscape, a reprieve spent sesa that rocking chair was a deserved oasis from the conflict between human sovereignty and omnipresent nature. For the patriarch, it symbolized an embodiment of his personal domain - a long-sought respite from wrestle elemental forces into sustained subsides. While certainly primitive in construction, the rocking process it enabled was a luxurious reminder of ambitions fulfilled in successfully transplanting domestic tranquility from Europe.
So while the rocking chair stood for humble comfort in physical form, its predominant significance resonated in sustaining pioneer perseverance mentally and emotionally. Those rare interludes gently swaying within its confines provided life's vital oxygenated moments - allowing settlers to briefly lay down their existential burdens while drawing fortifying breaths to tackle tomorrow's inexhaustible workload. In this capacity, the rocking chair fueled the sustained efforts propelling Western expansion as effectively as any stack of cordwood or barrel of salted pork. Human being's innate need for occasional sanctuary despite circumstances ultimately empowered that insular handmade furniture's meaning. For it was within those momentary rocking shelter that frontier trailblazers reaffirmed their unwavering campaign to reshape unforgiving wilderness into permanent mastered environments of home, family and lasting legacies. One gentle rock at a time, the rocking chair, enabled the emotional stamina to persist in conquering and cultivating a continental nation.
As the great western migration swept across 18th century America, the self-reliant pioneer spirit embodied popular virtues of rugged individualism, harsh self-discipline, and austere functionality. In conquering the untamed wilderness and translating ambitious dreams into permanent settlements, comfort and leisure ranked as afterthoughts amidst the endless cycle of dawn-to-dusk labor required for survival. Yet even among the uncompromising cultures of utility that defined the frontier, experiencing simple furnishing managed to carve out an enduring source of domestic serenity - the iconic rocking chair.
These gently swaying seats of repose carried more unburdened significance than their humble construction from rough-hewn logs and woven hickory strips suggested. Yes, the rocking chair's hickory runners allowing smooth, soothing back and forth movements served obvious roles in soothing fussy infants and relieving weary bodies after grueling days of tilling, chopping, mending and cobbling. However, its true importance transcended just basic functions of childcare and rest. In those salt-of-the-earth pioneer abodes where multi-tasking represented a cultural apex, the rocking chair stood as the single station specifically dedicated to simply being.
Within the tight-quartered log cabins and sod houses leaving few places for casual rest, the rocking chair's subtle gliding rhythm created a tranquil pocket outside of the home's ceaseless hum of activity. Whether a mother calming restless young ones through the soothing cadence of a familiar lullaby or hardscrabble fathers savoring a fleeting respite from brutal agrarian marathons, the chair's sway lulled life's frenzy into temporary submission. It signaled a scant time not obligated to chores, repairs, maintenance, or the perpetual daily bench strokes of sustaining hearth and homestead.
Those peaceful rocking moments provided colonists their sole opportunities to simply pause and be, whether for an hour's needlepoint or a evening's storytelling unwinding from the incessant pressures of frontier subsistence living. In a culture where even sliced bread represented an unthinkable luxury sacrificed for the rigors of baking from scratch and grinding one's own flour, the rocking chair stood out as permissible indulgence. It enabled stolen minutes of repose amidst the endless labor converting raw wilderness into permanent civilized homesteads
For the frontier matriarch determinedly straining each sinew in that multigenerational struggle for foothold on each new patch of annexed landscape, a reprieve spent sesa that rocking chair was a deserved oasis from the conflict between human sovereignty and omnipresent nature. For the patriarch, it symbolized an embodiment of his personal domain - a long-sought respite from wrestle elemental forces into sustained subsides. While certainly primitive in construction, the rocking process it enabled was a luxurious reminder of ambitions fulfilled in successfully transplanting domestic tranquility from Europe.
So while the rocking chair stood for humble comfort in physical form, its predominant significance resonated in sustaining pioneer perseverance mentally and emotionally. Those rare interludes gently swaying within its confines provided life's vital oxygenated moments - allowing settlers to briefly lay down their existential burdens while drawing fortifying breaths to tackle tomorrow's inexhaustible workload. In this capacity, the rocking chair fueled the sustained efforts propelling Western expansion as effectively as any stack of cordwood or barrel of salted pork. Human being's innate need for occasional sanctuary despite circumstances ultimately empowered that insular handmade furniture's meaning. For it was within those momentary rocking shelter that frontier trailblazers reaffirmed their unwavering campaign to reshape unforgiving wilderness into permanent mastered environments of home, family and lasting legacies. One gentle rock at a time, the rocking chair, enabled the emotional stamina to persist in conquering and cultivating a continental nation.
All
proceeds from the sale of the "House of the Messenger" support the
Joseph Greer Chapter and the Tennessee Society, Sons of the American
Revolution. The funds will be allocated to historical and educational
programs dedicated to the founding principles of the republic and the
Constitution of the United States.
