CHINA GROVE — Handcrafted close to 179 years ago by a member of the McCorkle family, an antique high chair remains in the family and continues to be handed down from one generation to the next.

Made by Samuel Eusebius McCorkle approximately in 1845 for his oldest son, William Alexander McCorkle, this started a family tradition with the chair currently belonging to Jeff McCorkle, the sixth generation to possess it.

Unlike high chairs of today, this one doesn’t have a tray or any adjustable parts and is more like a small ladder-back chair that enables a child to be up closer to the table, said Jeff.

Many young children in the McCorkle family have used the chair as Jerry McCorkle, Jeff’s uncle, said, including himself.

He noted that his grandparents had 42 grandchildren and all of them “have eaten a meal out of that chair. I grew up sitting in that chair when I was a little one because I was the last of eight children. So I’ve sat in that chair many times,” Jerry said.

He said that the chair was made out of necessity because with him possibly being a farmer, back then they “had to make a lot of stuff of their own instead of going to the store and buying,” items such as this.

The chair “looks very well made like he would have had some skill,” Jeff said. “It’s not crude. It’s simple, but it looks like he had some good skills.”

Made from heart pine, which Jerry said is the hard, center portion of the pine tree, the chair remains functional, Jeff added. The webbing of the seat is made of either red or white oak saplings that are cut, peeled, dried and woven.

There is one part of the chair that is different from the rest, as both Jeff and Jerry pointed out — one arm was accidentally broken and had to be repaired.

Jeff said you can tell it is slightly different, and Jerry pointed out that one of the arms has rings around it noting it was made with a hand lathe while the other was cut and sanded and shaved so that it matches, but with no rings.

Another aspect of the chair that Jeff said he found interesting is the rung where so many children have placed their feet all these years is worn flat instead of being round like it was initially.

The chair has passed through multiple hands beginning with Samuel, who, it was shared, is the grandson of Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle, a minister at Thyatira Presbyterian Church and who was instrumental in starting the University of North Carolina. There is a historical marker on Hwy. 150 about him.

From Samuel, the chair was passed to son William, then to his oldest son, Henry Dewitt McCorkle, then to his oldest son, Clifford Revere McCorkle and then to Clifford Revere “Bill” McCorkle.

While Bill had children, three daughters, he had no sons, and because of family tradition of the chair being passed to the oldest son or grandson with the McCorkle name, the chair went from Bill to the oldest grandson, Jeff McCorkle.

Having seen the chair as he was growing up because it was in his Uncle Bill’s house during this time, Jeff said he was told that one day it would come to him.

“Being a kid, I didn’t care too much about it,” Jeff said. “It is not very exciting to look at, so I didn’t think much about it.”

However, now that he is grown and has the chair, Jeff said when you get older, “you learn to appreciate antiques and especially the story behind this one.”

He also noted that it means a lot to him and he is “glad to learn that my family, my son and daughter and that generation, seems to be interested in it and how it came about and I’m happy about that. It reminds me of the heritage with the family.”

In time, the chair will be passed to Jeff’s son Slater McCorkle, and then to his son, Memphis McCorkle, who will be the eighth generation to possess the chair.

Jeff said he received the chair in June of this year at a family get-together.

His uncle Bill had died several years ago, and his aunt Lois passed the chair to Jeff at the recent gathering in front of the rest of the family, he said.

There doesn’t seem to be any set rules as to when the owner of the chair can pass it to the next generation, Jeff said, noting that his uncle had the chair and his grandfather was still living. Therefore, he also wants to do the same and hand the chair down to his son while he is living and see it passed to him.

“But I want to own it for a little while,” he said with a laugh.

Because of Dr. McCorkle, Jeff said they have a good record of family history, and when he got the history about the chair from Jerry, he was familiar with the names.

“This kind of makes that real to me, that they were real folks and that they had a life and contributed and so I knew all those names and some of the things that they did along the way. But this kind of ties it all together for me and kind of puts it all in perspective.”

The McCorkle family has served the community in multiple ways through the years as Jeff said many in the past were farmers, Bill was big in the fire department in Enochville, his father and Bill are both veterans, his grandfather was in World War II, and he is a retired Rowan County deputy sheriff as well as serving on the board of the Price of Price of Freedom Museum in the Patterson School Building.

When asked about having this piece of history, Jerry said the chair has been protected and noted the importance of anything from family history.

Looking at the chair, Jeff said “you wouldn’t think a thing about it, but it’s definitely old and it has a story with it.”