Where Have All the Charm Strings Gone?

History Corner--Where Have All the Charm Strings Gone?

by Terri Horton, CSBS Historian

As I looked through the California State Button Society (CSBS) scrapbooks last year, I noticed many wonderful newspaper articles and photographs about button collectors “back in the day”.  At first I wasn’t very interested in reading some of the “newer” scrapbooks such as those from the 1970’s and 1980’s because they are contemporary to my own life.  However, I soon realized that many contain stories about collectors who were born in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s and were the little girls who made charm strings and later grew up to be the pioneers of button collecting! 

Charm String, Heart String, Charm Necklace or simply Button Chain or Button String...I’d like to share some of the interesting scrapbook threads I unraveled from these books, and I hope that someday these clues might lead to “the rest of the story” about this special form of button collecting.

A 1943 Los Angeles Times article features a photo of Lillian Krigbaum wearing a charm string of 1000 buttons. The article tells us that “mothers used to start the strings for their daughters” and that, as we already know, these often became the start of a collection that grew well past the traditional 999.  Let’s see where some of these collections are identified in more detail.

A San Gabriel Valley area newspaper story from December 13, 1953 shows Mrs. Harry E. Walker, 80 years old, of San Dimas.  She is holding a “button string” estimated to be 100 years old.  Mrs. Walker told the reporter that some of her collection of over 5,000 buttons were from a charm string she had when she was a child. She was a member of the Helen B. Moody Button club of Santa Monica, Los Angeles Button club, California State Button Society and the National Button Society, and began collecting in 1942.  Another photo features Mr. and Mrs. Walker, married 61 years, holding the charm string.  The caption indicates that together they had over 10,000 buttons!  Also in the 1950’s scrapbook is an original photo given to the CSBS commemorating an August 19, 1956 Los Angeles Examiner article (see attached).  Mrs. Harry Walker is pictured among thousands of buttons and when you look closely you can see that one of her lamps is a adorned with a charm string!  Mrs. Walker was probably born in the 1870’s, and must have been a wonderful resource about button history.  It would be wonderful to know where the charm string is now…Are there stories recorded anywhere else?  Who is the new caretaker of the buttons? 

Mr. and Mrs. Walker

A wonderful uncredited clipping in the same book tells about former Corona mayor C. R. Miller who owned what is described as “the probable world record button charm string, which is over 50 feet long.”   The story goes on to tell about Mira Loma resident Mrs. Rosamond Watkins, seventy-nine, who gave the mayor a two foot long charm string that she made when she was 6-7 years old.  She said that “in those days…the girls used to sit on the “horse blocks” in front of their homes and trade buttons.  At that time, almost all of the little girls her age pursued the hobby”.   A photo shows the mayor and Mrs. Watkins with her charm string.  In the same scrap book, a January 18, 1953 article, perhaps from the LA Times, shows a photo of Mrs. Harry Ledig of Alta Loma and her “button chain”.  There is no further information about Mrs. Ledig, so we are also left to wonder about the history of her string.

Also in the 1950’s scrap book we learn that the National Button Show was held in Long Beach in 1953.  A photo included with that memorabilia is of a young woman named Vicki Heinzerling.  She is holding up a “heartstring of buttons found at Ft. Ticonderoga in 1870.  It recalls a maidenly 18^th century practice of stringing up to 999 buttons for the hope chest.  Button No. 1000 being added with the matrimonial conquest of a colonist.”  This is the first mention I have seen of the term “heartstring” or the claim that this was a practice as old as the 18^th century!  It is likely that there is some journalistic error in the caption, as all other references I know of link the start of this popular pastime of charm strings to the Victorian Era.

In a 1980 article about the Goleta Valley Button Club I learned that 74 year old Chris Munter had recently acquired a “prize possession”, “a button string, dating back to the days when everyone took the worth of a button for granted”.  Ms. Munter bought the string from a friend who found it in her attic.  Chris restrung it but “pulled the most exquisite buttons for her competition displays”.  Another article, from an unknown source in 1973, tells us that Bernyce Mahey from the Jacksonville area said her first “good find” was a string of over 200 buttons.  She later acquired a string of 400 buttons, but lamented that she took them both apart and that the value would have been greater if they were left intact. 

Other references tell us about Helen B. Moody of Santa Monica.  She was a member of the Los Angeles button club whose “hobby started when, as a Nebraska school teacher, her pupils rewarded her with “charm strings” of buttons.  She said, “I started to collect in earnest in 1912 when Dr. Moody and I built our Santa Monica home.”  Wouldn’t we all love to have a friend with a treasure like that in their attic?!   In a clipping from 11/11/66 we learn of Mrs. Ray Adams who “possesses a charm string of buttons, one of which is from a Confederate uniform of Civil War days”.  Finally, a more “recent” newspaper article from August 1991 says that “Members of the Sacramento Button Club really buttoned on to newcomer Kay Meier after she showed them the 7-foot-long button “charm strings” her husband brought home from an auction. Meier’s charm strings are about 100 years old”. 

The scrapbooks include some out-of-state newspaper articles that also have references to charm strings.  The Denver Post in 1956 (?) mentions Mrs. A. C. Swainson, who “started her collection about 10 years ago, using her grandmother’s charm necklace as the basis”.  And The Denver Post, 4/17/69 tells about Mrs. Louis B. Hough who “inherited a charm string from her sister.”  I wonder how many of us have plans for passing down our own special buttons.   Do those in our families know the history and importance of our collections or will our strings and boxes and frames of buttons be scattered and left unidentified and undervalued?

So, perhaps there are names here that are familiar to you.  Maybe you were a member of the Sacramento club in the 1990’s and have seen Kay’s charm string!  After all, the 1990’s weren’t THAT long ago!  Some of the CSBS button “history” is still actually fresh in our member’s minds.  However, do any of you know where the charm strings of the past are?  The 1940’s stories are now seventy years old!  I would like to challenge each of you to share photos and stories of the charm strings that you own.  We have enjoyed several recent stories in the Brief, but I am sure there are more out there.  This might even be a fun local club project.  Let’s publicly document this special piece of collecting history.   If you or your club would like to share a “charming” story, please submit it to the Button Brief editor.  We are looking forward to your help in untangling more button string stories.