Vigo County Historical Society

Historical Treasure Article

Historic Treasure of the Week - January 26, 1986
By Deborah Curtis
Vigo County Historical Society

Marbles, anyone?
For `funsies' or keepsies,' it was great fun

In a typical early American one-room schoolhouse, a motley collection of children's toys and games could have been seen on a shelf waiting for the recess bell to ring.

Odds are great that included among these treasures would have been a few leather bags filled with marbles, ready for a hot game of "Ringers" as soon as the books and slates could be set aside.

The players would have been easy to spot: their clothes dusty, knuckles grubby and pants worn threadbare at the knees.

Marble games reached America after a long historical voyage. Evidence shows that marbles were played in the ancient civilization of the Nile Valley and Tigris and Euphrates valley.

On the other side of the world, artifacts of the Aztecs and Mound Builder Indians of Mississippi suggest that both groups played forms of marbles.

Americans inherited marble games from the English, who learned the games from the Romans. Out earliest American leaders, including Washington, Jefferson and John Quincy Adams, were known to have played the game. Lincoln is said to have been quite skilled at the game called "Old Bowler."

The most common form of the game is the one called "Ringers." Thirteen target marbles are arranged in a cross at the center of a circle 10 feet in diameter. Players try to knock the target marbles out of the circle with their special marbles designated as "shooters."

Shooting is performed from outside the circle and is accomplished by holding the shooter between thumb and forefinger and pushing it forward with a snapping motion of the thumb. A player continues shooting until he fails to knock a target marble out of the ring, at which time he passes his turn (just as in billiards).

The first player to knock seven marbles out of the ring is the winner. The game can be for "funsies"--players retrieve their own marbles after the game, or for "keepsies" --players claim the marbles they knock from the circle. Marbles come in a variety of sizes, colors and materials. Their names reflect their appearance. It is easy to imagine the looks of "glassies," milkies," "swirlies," "aggies" (marbles made of polished agate stone), "steelies," "peewees" and "moonies" (oversized marbles).

The treasure of the week, a fine collection of old marbles in a homemade leather pouch, probably dates from around 1900. It is on display in the schoolroom in the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, along with a variety of other antique toys.

The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday.