Dixie King Stove

By Jubilee P. Reid

In the days before central heating systems, a potbelly stove was an integral part of many homes, schools, and businesses. Potbelly stoves were made of cast iron and burned wood or coal. These were cylindrical units and derived their name from the fact that their largest circumference was in the middle.

The potbelly stove, like many historic items, was not “invented” by a particular person on an exact date. Instead, it was an improved version of the Franklin stove, a design invented by Benjamin Franklin around 1740. This was a small, versatile woodburning stove which could be used in a fireplace or as a freestanding unit. The Franklin stove was designed to heat rooms rather than be a device for cooking. In the early 1800s, the popular Franklin stove morphed into what became known as the potbelly stove, a device which would be used well into the 20^th century.

The potbelly stove was a common sight in the typical one room schoolhouse of rural America as well as in residences, general stores and public buildings such as railroad stations and meeting halls. Although these stoves were quite heavy, they could be moved if the stovepipes were disassembled.

In the General Store Exhibit of the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum is a large potbelly stove which was manufactured in the early 1920s by the Dixie Foundry Company of Cleveland, Tennessee. The museum’s stove is the “Dixie King” model, standing nearly four feet tall and is two feet wide at the base. The number 16 is stamped on the top. This stove has a flat top with an opening to attach a flue (the pipe used to remove smoke from the dwelling). The top of the stove also has a spot to heat water or roast nuts in the fall. The small door on the front of the unit features the manufacturer’s name and location and is used to add wood or coal which burns on a grate. Another even smaller door is at the base of the stove, just above the four iron feet. This door is for the removal of ashes. Donated in March of 1982, this stove was one of the museum’s first artifacts.   

The Dixie Foundry Co. was founded by Stephen Bradford Rymer Sr. (1879 – 1959), a native of Polk County, Tennessee. According to his obituary, Rymer’s childhood “was spent in logging and sawmilling in the Polk County mountains, and in hauling garden and farm produce to Cleveland in a covered wagon.” Rymer’s eldest daughter, Zola Rymer Graf, authored a book on the family titled A Family Chronicle of S. Bradford Rymer. According to her, Rymer attended a one-room schoolhouse as a boy, and it was his job to chop wood for the potbelly stove which heated the school that was only in operation during the winter.

Stephen Rymer married Clara LaDosky Gee in 1902 and moved to Oklahoma. Farming on the prairie turned out to be a financial loss and only 15 months later they returned to Tennessee, settling in Bradley County. Rymer founded the Cleveland Coal & Feed Co., with his brother, before he started the foundry in 1916.

Beginning as a small family operated foundry on the south side of Cleveland, the Dixie Foundry Co. rose to be one of the four largest appliance producers in the U.S. under the name, Magic Chef. Starting out, the foundry produced a variety of small implements for kitchen use. They began producing heaters such as the Dixie King in 1919, and coal and woodburning stove cooking ranges in 1921. Stoves became the foundry’s main line of manufacturing and throughout the years they expanded to include gas ranges in 1929 and electric ranges in 1952. The Dixie Foundry went through difficult years, surviving a fire in 1929, the Great Depression, and a strike in 1937. At the beginning of World War II, the War Production Board added the Dixie Foundry to a list of companies which were to provide stoves for the military during the war. During this time women were employed for the first time at Dixie, as was common during the war due to the shortage of men in the workforce.

All of Rymer’s seven children were heavily involved with the operations of the company and the family acquired subsidiaries as the corporation grew, becoming Dixie Products Inc. Several decades later in 1986, the organization merged into the Maytag Corporation.

Displayed in the corner of the museum’s General Store Exhibit, this stove is amongst the items that would likely have surrounded it in a small country store in the mid-20^th century. Perhaps people used to gather around this stove on cold winter days to play checkers, roast nuts, or to discuss the latest news, politics or the success of crops.

Although central heating systems emerged in the early- to mid-1900s, potbelly stoves continued to be used throughout rural America for many years.