old cast iron stove

This is an example of a cast iron stove, which would burn either wood or coal.

The "burners" were actually holes in the top, with covers on them. When you wanted to cook, you would remove the cover.

The numbers on cast iron skillets, used to refer to what size burner they would fit on.

The skillets would have a "heat ring" on the bottom which would fit into the burner.

Sometimes a new stove would come with a few pieces of cookware, since at the time, most people only had cookware suitable for hanging in a fireplace or using over coals.