March 1989 Bea Lines

"Bea Lines" is very proud this time to interview Don and Dora Harned of Chico, California. Since this issue marks the twentieth anniversary of Crown Jewels magazine, it is the perfect time to "talk" with the couple who got it all started. Not only are Don and Dora the very nicest of people, but they are pioneers in this hobby of insulator collecting, and they have given more time and energy to it than most of us can imagine.

Don is a Chico native, having been born there July 11, 1928, and he has lived there all of his life. He retired from the Delta-McLean Trucking Company in 1985, after being with them for thirty years. He started out as a driver, and retired as foreman-dispatcher.

Dora was born in Barre, Vermont, September 24, 1926. Her family left Vermont when she was seven, and settled in Mariposa, California, where she spent her school years. She moved to Sam Francisco around 1940 or 1941, then moved to Paradise, California, around 1943. That same year she met Don in Chico. They were married in Reno, Nevada, September 5, 1944.

Don and Dora have a daughter, Doreen, and two sons, Tom, and Don, Jr. They have four grandchildren. Doreen and husband Wes Conrad have one son, Greg. Tom has one son, Todd, and Don, Jr. has two daughters, Billijo (B. J.) and Kelli. Don and Dora are also great grandparents, as Greg and his wife Becky, who live in Italy, have a daughter named Alisha.

The Harneds got interested in insulators around 1967, but the story actually starts before that. Dora became interested in old bottles around 1961 after having dug some. But Don couldn't "see" bottles, and couldn't get interested in them. Dora helped form the Bidwell (Chico) Bottle Club in the early 1960s, and served a year and a half as vice president. Dora says it happened this way. "I talked my friend (and my daughter's mother-in-law) Irma Conrad into going to a bottle club meeting. At the end of the meeting, she told me that she didn't think she wanted to collect bottles, but she thought she would collect insulators, since her husband was a lineman. He'd bring them home, therefore she was more familiar with them. I went home and told Don that Irma was going to join the club, but that she was going to collect insulators, and we both laughed about it; like, what was there to collect about insulators? You'd get a dozen or so and have them all. That's really how we felt about them at the time, because we were ignorant about them and didn't realize how many varieties there were, or the different colors and shapes.

"Irma got written up in a womans' magazine on the crazy things people collect. As soon as it came out, she started getting calls and letters from people everywhere. Some even shipped insulators to her, mostly from the Midwest. When Don saw the cobalts and ambers, and the different styles, that's when he became interested in insulators, and I followed suit. I traded all of my bottles for insulators. This was about 1967 or 1968.

"We started out as general collectors, figuring that we could get them all, like many believe at first. I collected porcelain for a while; Don collected glass. We helped each other get pieces for our collections. After a few years we realized that we weren't going to get them all. Then around 1972 Don got his first threadless and his interest turned to them at that time. He still has his general collection, but he specializes in threadless, and has sixty-seven pieces. His main 'want' is an ERW threadless in any color. He prefers mint but will take anything.

"I gradually lost interest in the porcelain, and most of it has been sold by now. We ran out of room because the glass collection got so large. Plus, I didn't have the time for collecting once I got the magazine started."

Concerning the beginning of Crown Jewels Don says, "Around November of 1968 I was delivering freight, and took a printing press to a shop in Chico. The guy who was getting the press, Richard Scharffenberg, asked me if I had a hobby, because he wanted to get into printing hobby journals. When I told him that I collected insulators and that there was no magazine for them, he asked me if I wanted to become the editor of an insulator magazine. He said he'd do all of the research and furnish the reading material, if we'd furnish the contacts. I told him that I was definitely not interested, as I was very busy in the trucking business. He insisted that he wanted to come to the house and talk to us about it, so I gave him my name and address and figured that would be the end of it.

Some beauties from Don's threadless collection

Left to right: CD 790 glass teapot, blackglass; CD 736 NYERR, puce; CD 788 slash top, yellow green; sim. CD 740 (much shorter base) Tillotson 16 Broadway NY, emerald green; CD 735 Chester NY, pale aqua with a big amber swirl and bubbles

More beauties from the general collection

Left to right: CD 120 unembossed CEW, purple; CD 123 E. C. & M., cobalt blue; CD 130.1 Cal Elec Works, cobalt blue; CD 123 E. C. & M., olive amber; CD 120 embossed CEW, olive green amber

Part of the general and threadless collection

In the insulator room

Don and Dora at one of the
Chico shows c. 1975

"But sure enough, three days later he showed up. He talked Dora and Irma into starting the magazine, but before the first issue came out, Irma decided that she didn't want any part of it. So Dora got busy and sent out fliers to every collector whose name and address she had, and also got names from bottle magazine ads. Back then a lot of people advertised in the Antique Trader, so we got additional names and addresses that way."

One hundred sixty issues were sent out the first month. From then on, from word-of-mouth advertising and from answers to the fliers, subscriptions started coming back in with $4.00, the price of twelve issues when it first began in March of 1969. Dora continues, "The number of subscriptions continually grew, the average being between 1,000 and 1,300. We reached a peak of 1,853 (first and second class mail) when I took over the subscriptions from Cross Arms in August of 1975. From beginning to end, Crown Jewels was self-supporting. We didn't make a lot of money from it, but we never had to borrow to meet expenses. It was truly a labor of love."

As for production, ads and articles were sent to Dora, who was the editor, and she assembled the material in her home. At first she had the help of her mother Bertha, and Irma Conrad. But Irma passed away in 1972, and her mother in 1979, which put a greater burden on Dora. Don was in charge of the ads, and also did a second proofreading of each issue after Dora had done the first one. The Scharffenbergs, Richard and Myrtle, moved to Riverside, California, several years later, so then Dora had to send the material to them, they'd send it back, and from her home, Dora would put addresses on and sort the magazines for mailing. It was a full time job, because even before one issue was out, items were coming in for the next one. There was very little time for collecting, or for much of anything else.

In Don's right hand; New Jersey no name, little blackglass threadless hat, dark reddish amber. Left hand; little blackglass threadless hat, sim. CD 741.2. Dora is holding a little Pennsylvania glass block in aqua; her favorite insulator

Dora's second favorite insulator, a porcelain block and bracket (seen on page 9 of Collectible Porcelain Insulators Supp lement, by Gerald Brown)

Gradually Dora developed some problems with her health, mostly with her legs, which made it almost impossible to sit at a desk for hours, as the job required. So she started thinking about selling the magazine and retiring. It was a very difficult decision, because Crown Jewels had been "born" right in her home, and was like a child to her and Don. Selling it did not come easy. But in the spring of 1985 the magazine was sold to John and Carol McDougald, then of Cleveland, Ohio. Dora published the April-May combined issue and Carol began as editor with the June issue.

The Harneds published one hundred ninety-four issues of Crown Jewels, and owned it for sixteen years and two months. It was the very first magazine just for insulator collectors. In fact, on the cover of every issue were the words, "Dedicated to Insulator Collectors Everywhere". For a time (February of 1972 through July of 1975), another fine magazine on insulators called Cross Arms was printed. But after it was discontinued, Crown Jewels once again became the only "voice" for insulator collectors and has remained so until today. From its very inception, Crown Jewels has been the cohesive force in our hobby, keeping us together worldwide. It's where we meet to trade, sell, buy, advertise, inform, and tell about our shows and personal experiences.

The name of the magazine changed slightly when the McDougalds took over. Now it is called Crown Jewels of the Wire; Harneds called it Insulators Crown Jewels of the Wire. But how did it originally get its name? Dora says, "So many people have asked me how I came up with the name of the magazine. Not long before we began publishing it, we subscribed to Old Bottle Magazine for the insulator column that Frances Terrill wrote. She ran a contest and had collectors send in names for her column. I submitted "Insulators Crown Jewels of the Wire", which was apparently rejected. So when we started our magazine, I already had the name."

Don and Dora have contributed much more to the hobby besides Crown Jewels. They helped found the NIA and are charter members, and Don served on the first NIA Rules Committee. They have attended countless shows including almost every national.

They co-hosted the first western regional show in Oroville, California, August 24-25, 1974, plus several smaller shows there. They've helped put on other collectables shows in Chico and Reno, and Don was show chairman (host) at the Chico shows for about four years. Both Don and Dora co-hosted the ninth NIA national show in Reno, Nevada, in 1978. Don has also served as a judge for displays at many shows. He was appointed by the NIA board to serve out the term of a little over a year as western VP of the NIA when Pat Patocka became president in 1978. What a resumé of dedication and service to our hobby!

Although it could never really be possible to show the Harneds how much this hobby appreciates all that they've done, the NIA has given them the two highest awards it bestows. Dora comments, "The first honor I ever received in the hobby happened at the second national in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Jesse Moreland was the host. Around 2:00 in the afternoon they called me up on stage to the microphone, and presented me with a ribbon for 'exceptional service to the field'. Then they wanted me to say a few words, but I was so flabbergasted, all I could manage was 'thank you', and, 'it is a great honor'; and then I cried.

"But the real high point of my career was receiving the Outstanding Service Award. I got the award at the seventh NIA national show in 1976 in Berea, Ohio. I was very honored to get it, but more honored to be chosen as the first one. We also received lifetime memberships in the NIA at the national in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1982."

I wish we could go on and on with this interview, for there is so much more to tell. For instance, I'd like to relate some of the great stories they have told about the hobby, especially of the early years. The Harneds attended the very first national show (called a national swap meet for the first two years), and were in on the ground floor of the formation of this hobby. They are very interesting people to talk to, and both are wonderful storytellers. But Dora would be the first to understand about the limited amount of space in a magazine! So I will just have to conclude by saying that I have truly enjoyed doing this interview. It was an honor and a privilege to have been given the opportunity to do it for Crown Jewels. We have known the Harneds since 1972, and we have loved them both with all of our hearts since then. Better friends than Don and Dora have been to us would be impossible to find. Dora has had some very serious health problems for a while, and especially recently. We certainly hope that things improve for you, Dora, and we all wish you a speedy recovery, and a much healthier future!

All of us in this insulator hobby thank you both for everything you have given to it; your time, your efforts, your resources. You helped us get started, and you kept us together. Thank you for creating something we all love so much... Crown Jewels.