According to museum records, the original owner, Levi Morton Dewey born in Pomfret, New York, September 20, 1818, traveled to Michigan at age eighteen to bring one thousand dollars to a family member. Along his way he stopped in various towns and taught spelling. After arriving in Michigan, he decided to remain and purchased a farm in Barry County. He occasionally received the newspaper from Pomfret, New York to stay abreast of news from that town. In one such issue of this paper, he learned that the communion set from the church where he worshiped as a young boy was available. The set was sent to him directly and used in a Congregational church in Barry County. The set remained in the church until the church was torn down where the set then returned to Levi Morton Dewey.

Timothy Brigden, born in Middletown, Connecticut, is listed working in Albany, New York in 1813 as a silversmith. He is listed in the Albany Directory as a pewterer starting in 1816 until his sudden death in 1819. The resemblance of his mark to Peter Young, a pewterer working in Albany from 1783-1800, is as similar as the work of the two men. Both pewterers, on some pieces have Spencer Stafford's accompanying mark indicating that they both created pewter for the retailer Stafford.

Spencer Stafford, a successful merchant, in Albany, recruited such pewters as Timothy Brigden and Peter Young from 1794 until his retirement in 1827.