jigsaw puzzle: Where the Rumor Started

James T (Jim) Elliott was a farmer and puzzle maker from Roxbury, New York. His brother-in-law Alex Suter convinced him to try making wooden jigsaw puzzles. The men and their wives, who were sisters, had previously enjoyed assembling puzzles supplied from the Boston Picture Puzzle Exchange, a subscription service, until that facility closed in the 1920s. Like other puzzle makers at that time, Jim recycled printed images from the free paper calendars that retail establishments and banks gave away. He rigged up a jigsaw powered by a home-made water turbine, to run a saw in his kitchen. By diverting a nearby stream into--and then out of--his basement, the turbine-powered belt snaked through holes he drilled in his kitchen floor and up to his kitchen work space. He kept this home-made power system even after rural electrification happened around 1936. His wife Marion took care of the final sanding and finishing of the puzzle pieces, holding them against another of Jim's make-do inventions. He glued sandpaper on the rubber blades of a small kitchen fan, and she carefully sanded the pieces with this contraption. Her descendants marvel at her patience with this, along with her tolerance of holes in the kitchen floor. In all, the Elliotts probably finished well over 60 wooden puzzles. This puzzle was a donation from their granddaughter, niece, and great-niece.