Ruth Krieser and her baby brother Carl Jr.

Ruthie was a great help to her mother after Carl was born.  Years later, Esther remarked, “She would rock Carl Junior so hard in his cradle that he almost went flying out of it.”  The cradle was a family heirloom that was handed down on Esther’s side of the family.  All of the Ruth children slept in it as babies.  Carl and Esther’s children were both raised in it, all of their grand children used it and most of the great-grandchildren used it either as their first crib or they at least slept in it at one time or another when they visited Carl Junior’s home in later years.  Before their grandchildren were born, Esther had Carl Sr. convert it from a cradle to a crib.  This was probably inspired by Ruth’s overly ambitious rocking style.  When it was a cradle, it did not have rockers on the bottom but it had the same wooden legs and frame.  Between the legs and the crib bed there was some type of apparatus that it hung from.  It somehow hung from hooks.  The next page shows what it looks like as a crib.  There are no known photographs of it as a cradle but it must have been quite quaint.  It still maintains it’s Victorian charm well.

Two of Carl and Esther’s great-grandchildren play with the crib in 1997 in their Stansbury Park, Utah home.  Maria (Crapo) Krieser hand-painted the lovely ivy on the walls, and the cedar chest in the lower left corner came from the Glassnap side of the family  Seth and Abra Krieser are the children shown.