Gum’s Gift From Gumps

This ring was purchased by my mother Barbara F. Humphrey (1928-2021) at Gumps Department Store in San Francisco in the mid 1970s. While it is a wonderful token of my mother that I wear every day, the story behind it reveals that sometimes these small family heirlooms can hide interesting tales. If the stories are not passed down, future generations simply think “huh, mom’s ring; not sure it’s my style” and off it goes to some resale location. Mind you, I am ok with that process as no one should need to “keep” every darn thing that is important to prior generations, but the stories are important and should be understood before the treasures wander off.

My paternal great grandmother, Margaret LeBoutille Strong (1874-1905) suffered depression after her 4th child, Katharine (1904-1987), was born. Katharine was my grandmother, and while her family called her Kat, her grandchildren called her Gum. There are no first-hand accounts about Margaret’s postpartum depression, though it was known she spent time in a Sanatorium in Atlantic City after the birth. Unfortunately, at some point after her return to their home, she shot herself when my grandmother was only 5 months old. Sadly, soon after their mother’s death, one of the boys contracted whooping cough, which was fatal to their 3-year-old sister Peggy. During all this, the children resided with a neighbor, and my grandmother was sent to live at a hospital to avoid the illness. Not a great way to begin life sadly.

Margaret with Katharine and Peggy c. 1904

Ben Strong remarried in 1907 when he was 35 and Kat was three. While they had two daughters, it was not a happy union. His bride, Katharine Converse, was only 18, and the couple was mismatched in many ways.  Not least because his new wife was from a very wealthy banking family, and her father strongly opposed Ben Strong going into public service. Ben choose to accept a job building the Federal Reserve, though this did not provide income in the style his wife Katharine was accustomed. They had to give up their lavish apartment on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, and at her father’s urging, she took her two young daughters, Elizabeth and Barbara, with her and left for California in 1916. Ben, it should be noted, had contracted tuberculosis that year, and struggled the remainder of his life with the illness, and the use of morphine to manage the pain. Katharine eventually filed for divorce in 1921, which devastated my great grandfather. He died in 1928, from complications of surgery when he was only 55.

I don’t believe my grandmother kept in touch with her step mother, though she may have communicated with her half-sisters. Growing up, I was completely unaware of their existence. I understood from my mother that Gum was bitter about her step-mother, both for leaving her father as well as herself, as she too was abandoned -again- as a young girl of 12, losing 2 young sisters in the process. Having gone through all my grandmother’s family photos, I only found one photo which included all Ben’s children, with the two half-sisters around age 2 and 4. There is also one set of photos of the girls as young women, likely sent to Gum later as when Ben died, those girls would only have been 12 or so. I suspect Gum got rid of all the others, including any photo of the ex-stepmother. And she did not keep any correspondence with Elizabeth and Barbara, so the state of their relationship remains a mystery.

However, Ben had created a trust for his ex-wife after she left him, which was not really necessary as Katharine Converse’s father was very wealthy. It was not until the ex-stepmother died in the 1970s that my grandmother inherited some of the proceeds from that trust. Mom said Gum decided to gift the funds to her three sons’ wives, as it was money she was bitter about receiving.

My Mom always said this jade ring from Gumps Department Store was a treat she bought herself in honor of Gum. The ring is 18K gold and is set with a cabochon apple jade stone, also known as Imperial Jade. My mother, as was very typical of her, gave the ring to one of her daughters. In this case, my eldest sister, sometime in the 1980s. That sister is 8 years older than I am, and had gone to both boarding school and college, so I had not grown up with her at home. During high school and college, I would visit her in NYC. She was always generous to me, gifting me with lovely “hand-me-downs”, as well as bringing me to many wonderful art shows in New York City. At some point, the Gumps ring was gifted to me.

Here’s where things get complicated. Mom always joked that with 4 daughters, who often passed things around, she could never recall which daughter had what heirloom. In typical fashion, another sister wanted the Gumps ring, and in 2010 I swapped it for a ring with a huge cabochon sapphire. Unfortunately, that ring was more a “statement” ring, not one you could wear daily, as the sapphire was large and the ring not exactly attractive. It also had a tale associated with it that irked me no end. Back in the 1980s, in cleaning out boxes of family heirlooms, Mom came across a gold stick pin marked Tiffany’s which belonged to my great grandfather Ben Strong (1872 -1928). Realizing the stone was likely not glass, she brought it to a local jeweler in Pittsburgh. That jeweler created the large sapphire ring for mom, “melting down” the stick pin and a few other gold heirlooms Mom brought him. I suspect he did NOT melt the Tiffany pin and it was always remarkably sad to me that the sapphire was separated from the original Tiffany item, along with other gold heirlooms lost in the “melting” process. 

In Spring of 2013 husband, daughter and I took a trip to San Francisco, and I thought to see if I could simply buy another jade ring at the Gumps Department Store. Well dang. I soon learned there was a prohibition in place (from 2008 to 2016) blocking the import of Imperial Jade from Myanmar due to the political issues in that country. Myanmar is the main producer of the high-quality Imperial jade. As such, the rings for sale at Gumps were prohibitively expensive (well over $5,000). While at the store, my young daughter said she missed the jade ring. So, how to get it back?!

Unfortunately after my father had died in 2010, there was a bit of drama among my siblings, and I had fractured relationships with a number of them. Jade ring sister included. After some negotiations, a brother coordinated a swap, where I returned the darn sapphire ring and got the jade ring back. I wear it every day, and while it is a simple ring, the tale behind it, of my grandmother and her sisters, reminds me each day that “simple” things can have complicated stories. People often compliment the ring, as its hip 1970s vibe is popular these days. I smile and acknowledge it was my mother’s ring from Gumps. And in my heart, treasure Gum’s Gumps ring.