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del.icio.usPiggy banks got their start in Kansas town
BY BECCY TANNER
The Wichita Eagle
This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series' name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: "To the stars through difficulties."
Granted, people have been collecting coins and saving money for centuries.
During the Middle Ages, European families used clay jars and pots and sometimes stored their earnings in those. The orange clay used in making those dishes was known as Pygg clay.
But piggy banks, as we know them today, originated in a Kansas town.
It was the compassion of a 10-year-old Kansas boy at the turn of the 20th century that started a movement in which Christians throughout the world set aside coins in pig-shaped containers to help the poor and sick.
The town was White Cloud in the far northeastern corner of Kansas.
The year was 1910.
The boy was Wilbur Chapman.
His pig was named Pete.
Wilbur was inspired when a family friend, William Danner, then American secretary to the American Mission to Lepers, came to visit White Cloud and report about Christian missionaries in the Far East. Danner was visiting churches throughout the United States asking local volunteers to raise money.
He stayed with the Chapmans and 10-year-old Wilbur listened to the stories Danner told about lepers.
Wilbur's mother volunteered to raise $250, the price it would cost to take 10 lepers into a home for a year.
She fell short of her goal.
The family was close enough to Danner that they called him "Uncle Will."
"Uncle Will told the family about the dreadful disease of leprosy and how the victims were turned out of homes and forced to beg for a living," said Judy Woodruff, who at one time owned the White Cloud house where the Chapmans lived.
"Wilbur was so distressed about the lepers," Woodruff said. "He asked all kinds of questions about leprosy."
When Danner's visit to White Cloud ended, Wilbur walked Danner to the train station. Danner gave him $3 to spend any way he wanted.
Wilbur promised he'd buy a baby pig to grow and sell, then give the money to the lepers.
The boy kept his word.
Wilbur was so enthusiastic about raising Pete the Pig that his friends joined him in feeding Pete.
The pig was fed ears of corn and scraps of school lunches. As word spread of Pete's burgeoning size the entire town joined in the feeding process. Pails of swill were carried and fed to the pig.
When Pete was sold at market, he brought $25. The money was used to aid a leper named Ai-Sam.
Danner was inspired by Wilbur's generosity and published the story of what one boy could do in the Sunday School Times.
A "Pete the Pig" movement sprung up across America. "Pig Ladies" volunteered in churches. Brass piggy banks were made and distributed.
By 1927, the American Mission to Lepers raised $1.4 million. The momentum faltered during the Great Depression.
Today, in White Cloud near the Community Christian Church, there is a monument to Wilbur Chapman.
Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com.