The Kline Family Schrank, Rockingham Co. Va., c. 1780, walnut with southern yellow pine secondary, untouched condition retaining an original dry surface and rat-tail hinges. This extremely rare Shenandoah Valley example has never passed out of the Kline family. Full provenance available. Close up photos available Additional photos available
	The family of John H. and Mary Kline in front of the Trout house purchased by his great grandfather in 1828. Ira Kline, second from left, later moved the schrank to Augusta County. (Photo c. 1910) John H. and Mary Kline pose by the Trout house, home of the Kline family and the schrank. (Photo c. 1900) Description Rare and important Shenandoah Valley schrank, c. 1780. Descended through the Kline family of Rockingham County, and has never been out of the family. Walnut with yellow pine secondary 86 1/2" high, 72" wide at case, 82" wide at cornice 6 1/4" four step double ogee molded cornice Case having two double raised panel thumbnail-lipped doors hung on rattail hinges, doors are divided and flanked by narrow double recessed ogee molded panels, quarter column corners, double raised panel ends Lower section steps out slightly with heavy applied double molding at top, three lower thumbnail-lipped drawers, heavy applied ogee molding at base Missing original ball-style feet, remnants of original drawer hardware Interior with three shelves on left side and one shelf with hanging pegs below on right side Back consists of two sections, each having four raised panels, closely resembling house doors of the period Disassembles completely With the exception of changed locks and the aforementioned losses, this piece is in a remarkable original state of preservation, including its original untouched dry surface. Provenance The "family" history of the Kline schrank begins in the late eighteenth century in Rockingham County, Virginia. In 1780 George Klein, Jr. (1740- 1795), who had married Elizabeth Altaffer (1740-1825) in Berks County, Pennsylvania, arrived in Virginia, settling in what later became the Broadway area of present day northern Rockingham County. (1) Upon their arrival in the Shenandoah Valley, Klein obtained several hundred acres along Linville Creek and the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. Demonstrating the family's prosperity, their original log home, no longer standing, gave way to a larger, two-story log house in 1804, which later gave way to a large brick house. (2) Along with his agricultural skills, Klein may have possessed a knowledge of wood working, since his father George Klein, Sr. (1715-1783) was a carpenter and turner. (3) The community into which the Kleins moved was rural; the town of Broadway did not yet exist, and their home, while in close proximity to a north/south route in the valley, lay several miles to the west of the Great Wagon Road. Still, as Robert Mitchell has noted, "Rockingham County had become one of the most thriving industrial counties west of the Blue Ridge by the turn of the century . . . ." He points out, however, that the county also "remained one of the least urbanized in the valley." (4) This dichotomy served the Klein family well, for each of the children became landowners and farmers, while at least one, Frederick, was also a woodworker. Frederick Kline, the fourth son of George and Elizabeth, grew to rely on the dual nature of life in late eighteenth-century Rockingham County. He farmed 427 acres along the north fork of the Shenandoah River, and later operated a mill in Rifetown (later Dayton) some 20 miles to the south. (5) His connections to the agricultural economy of the county are obvious. Less clear, however, are his contributions to the craft community of which Mitchell writes. Well-known chroniclers of Pennsylvania German culture in the Shenandoah Valley, Elmer Smith and John Stewart, note that few cabinetmakers or joiners could make a living from their craft alone during this period of valley history. They suggest that "skilled cabinetmakers became primarily farmers and worked their trade as a second occupation," pointing to Frederick Kline as an example. (6) They continue their discussion, noting: "Many of the early pieces of furniture in the Valley are of the one-of-a-kind variety, made to order for a customer by a craftsman or by a member of the household for a specific purpose." (7) This may have been the case with the Kline family schrank. Built in the late eighteenth century, this testament to one family's Germanic heritage and appreciation of skilled craftsmanship has remained in the family for more than two hundred years. All but one of George and Elizabeth Klein's children either migrated with the family to Virginia or were born here; however, Klein's first son, John Kline (1763-1844), remained in Pennsylvania, eventually moving his family from Berks County to a farm adjoining his father's. The last to arrive, he became the only Kline to remain in the northern Rockingham County community where his father had settled thirty years earlier. (8) In 1815 John purchased his brother Frederick's lands along the Shenandoah, as the younger brother moved south to assume operation of the Rifetown mill. (9) Frederick, who had no children, may have passed the family's large walnut and yellow pine schrank along to his brother John and his wife, Mary Hershey (1770-1852), and family of four children, including John Kline, Jr., who later gained recognition as a Thomsonian doctor and leader of the pacifist religious group known as Dunkers. The second son of this marriage, George Kline (1800-1858), eventually obtained the schrank and moved it to a farm purchased by his father in 1828. A holding of 162 acres, the tract also contained a large stone house built by Michael Trout in 1800, probably as an addition to an existing two-story log home. George and his wife Susan Beahm (1804-1878) raised a family that produced another John Kline, passing the schrank on to him. John B. Kline (1830-1906), second son of this marriage, received the Trout lands from his parents, adding a solid brick house on a portion of the land around 1860. John married Magdalena Harshbarger (1833-1861), a marriage that produced three sons. The second son of this marriage, John H. Kline (1858-1939)-- and the first to marry--took as his wife Mary Hoover (1861-1934) in 1882. Their family lived on the Trout farm that his great grandfather had purchased, keeping the schrank on the same property. The third son of this family, Ira C. Kline (1891-1950) married Lena M. Houff (1894- 1989) in 1918, and moved to the Houff farm on Middle River in Augusta County. The family schrank moved with them. The current owner, one of Ira and Lena's sons, acquired this farm and the schrank. The Kline schrank represents one of the most important "finds" of eighteenth-century Shenandoah Valley furniture. The form, well-represented in Pennsylvania, is nearly unknown in this region, and the condition of the piece along with the craftsmanship it exhibits certainly raise it to the level of a masterpiece of Shenandoah Valley furniture. Bibliography Paul G. Kline, Cline-Kline Family (Salem, Mass.: Higginson Book Company, 1971), 4-5. Agnes Kline, "Kline Settlement at Broadway," Tms, p. 1, Harrisonburg/Rockingham Historical Society, Dayton, Virginia. Paul G. Kline, xii. Robert D. Mitchell, Commercialism and Frontier: Perspectives on the Early Shenandoah Valley (Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1977), 201. Agnes Kline, 1. Elmer Lewis Smith, John G. Stewart, M. Ellsworth Kyger. The Pennsylvania Germans of the Shenandoah Valley (Allentown, Pa.: Schlecter's, 1962), 221. Ibid. Agnes Kline, 2. Agnes Kline, 1-2. Copyright 2001, Green Valley Auctions, Inc.