 Unlike most women her age,
Mrs. Daisy Siegfried, 84, Ferris, is handier with
a pair of knitting needles.
Spending
much of her spare time in a small workshop
adjoining her kitchen, Mrs. Siegfried produces
small wooden chests, vanities, trunks, tables,
and chairs for her four children, 10
grandchildren and 36 great grandchildren.
The
workshop, which is lines with pegs holding
hammers, saws, planes, pliers, clamps, screw
drivers, a leveler, a putty knife and numerous
other tools, is a cozy retreat for Mrs. Siegfried
who has been working at her craft since the mid
1940’s.
Working
day in and day out as the postmistress in Ferris,
Mrs. Siegfried began her hobby in order to quiet
her nerves after each busy work day was over. Her
first project was a miniature walnut table with
hinges providing for mobility of built-in table
leaves.
Mrs.
Siegfried also has used hinges on many of her
other projects to allow for swinging doors and
similar moving parts. Along with the hinges she
uses nails and screws.
Following
her mother’s advice of “Never say you
can’t do it until you’ve tried
it,” Mrs. Siegfried has proven herself. An
old orange crate can, with Mrs. Siegfried’s
talent, become a dainty jewelry box for a
granddaughter or a man’s vanity for a
grandson. Much of her work is done on fruit boxes
or scraps of lumber, and goes through quite a
process before being completed.
 The first step often involves
soaking off a manufacturer’s label and then
sanding the wood with an electric sander equipped
with various grades of sandpaper. Saws, exacto
knives and other carving and cutting equipment is
then set to work to fashion the latest creation.
Finishing
touches often involve rubbing linseed oil over a
newly-created walnut chest of drawers, lining a
miniature chest with cloth and polishing a tiny,
rotating mirror attached to a vanity.
Mrs.
Siegfried, who was the only telephone operator in
Ferris for three years, gave up that job in the
mid 1930’s to take the postmistress
position.
She
was born an a farm northwest of Ferris and for
many years “canned everything under the
sun.” She and her late husband, Lee, were
parents of four children, three of whom live in
Hancock County: Mrs. Phines (Lela) Murphy of
rural Carthage; Carroll Siegfried of LaHarpe, and
Mrs. Raymond (Irene) Whewell of Ferris. A
daughter, Mrs. Laura Fleming, lives in Peoria.
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