When Antiques Tell Your Family Stories

This is a piece you will not find for sale on Franktiques, but it is in our home and part of Toryn's family history.

The Kesco sign is a remnant of a long-gone business from the days of family farms and traveling salesmen. My grandfather, Richard Jones, had a company called Kent Supply Company, or Kesco for short, based in Kent, Connecticut. In the 1950s and 60s, he traveled around the Northeast to sell his product to dairy farmers as a more efficient way of storing the milk and making it ready for market. He also did demos at fairs, such as the Big E in Springfield, Massachusetts and Danbury Fair, in Danbury, Connecticut, back when it was a fair, not a mall. My grandfather retired before I was born, so the company was sold off to someone else, eventually new technology was developed, and Kesco was pretty much lost to history.

Recently I looked up Kesco to see if any references to this old, obscure company can be found on the internet. An antique dealer from New Jersey was selling on eBay what could possibly be the last remaining artifact from Kesco. This is a metal sign that would have been on the barn of a Kesco customer. When it arrived, it was in pretty rough shape, probably from hanging on an outside barn wall for many decades. There was rust, the edges were worn, and it was very fragile.

Frank decided the best way to preserve and display it would be to have it framed so we could hang it on the wall, indooors where it now belongs. The spinning wheel? That's a story for another day.

What is the story behind your favorite family heirloom? Share your story in the comments below!