There's an easily overlooked plaque in front of a church on Main St. in White Cloud. It's well worth seeking out because it tells the story of young Wilbur Chapman and his pig Pete.
In 1913 Wilbur heard a traveling missionary tell of the plight of lepers. He was so moved he sold his prized pig Pete and donated the money to help a boy with leprosy. Word got out about Wilbur's good deed. Mrs. Robert Randolph Harrison of Richmond, VA, who apparently didn't have a first name of her own, realized not every kid could raise and sell a pig. Instead she conceived the idea of distributing cast iron pig-shaped banks in which children could save their coins. By 1938 the American Mission to Lepers distributed had 100,000 of the "pig banks".
Lots of sources, including the beloved Roadside America, say these pig banks were the origin of piggy banks. The popularization of the name "piggy bank" may have stemmed from this but pig banks have been around for a long, long time.
Pig banks probably got their name from jars made from "pygg" clay that people in England during the Middle Ages used to store small items. By the 18th century pygg became corrupted to pig, and the makers of pig jars began making them in the shape of the animal that shared their name.
Roadside America, in that same link above, also claims that E. B. White named Wilbur the Pig in Charlotte's Web after Wilbur Chapman. Try as I might I could not find anyone else making this claim. Stlll, it makes for a good story. Anybody know if it is true?
I've read about the pygg version before.
Posted by: judy | 04 August 2010 at 09:52 AM