Antique Quilts

Irish Chain "Name" Quilt Still Entices

Our commenter, Jennifer, contributed the fact that Mahala Evans Kelly, whose name appears on the quilt and in a photo in an earlier post, was the grandmother of Edith (Kelly) Fetherston, who, with husband, John, created Packwood House.  Edith's mother's married name, Mrs. J. C. Kelly, is also on the quilt.

What brought all these people's names together on this quilt?  They represent different faiths, as nearly as I can tell (Himmelreich, for instance, is a name on the quilt and the name of the library building attached to the Presbyterian Church here in town; I have been assured that other named people were Lutherans).  Was it perhaps a Centennial Quilt? Lewisburg was incorporated in 1812.  The quilt has been dated around 1900.  1912 is not too great a stretch...  The names of people who lived in neighboring towns, including two labeled as being from Williamsport ("Mrs. H. Barr, Wmsport" and "Mrs. M. Irven, Wmsport") are on the quilt, but I can imagine celebrating a nearby town's centennial.  When I was 17 (1967) and living in Westborough, Massachusetts, the town celebrated its 250th anniversary (semiquincentennial--great word!).  I got to ride on a float (I was Worthy Advisor of the local Rainbow Assembly at the time, and got a TERRIBLE sunburn that day), and I'm SURE there were many people viewing the parade and other festivities who weren't residents of the town.  Anyway, the *reason* for this quilt remains a mystery.  Does anyone out there KNOW?

Jabberwocky, anyone?

Well, I must say there has not been a landslide of entries in my free raffle ticket contest!  Where are the Lewis Carroll fans out there?  The title of the last post came from the "Jabberwocky" poem--the one that begins with "Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe..."  Oh yes, NOW you remember.  Yes, and more:  " All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe."

Anyway, please go to the Packwood House Museum site NOW to download full information about the Antique Quilt exhibit and the exciting Quilt Weekend in August.  Registration is open for the dinners, lectures, and workshops. Spots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, and several of the workshops are anticipated to fill quickly.  To find the Exhibit and Weekend information on the Packwood site, click on the "Events" item in the menu on the left.  It's all THERE!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!*

Program and registration information are now available for our big Quilt Weekend at the Packwood House Museum, August 21-23, 2009.  Go to the Packwood House Museum website and click on the "Events" item in the menu on the left side of the page.  There you can see the schedule and download detailed information on the weekend and get your registration form.  Most of the workshops have limited capacity, so make your plans NOW and get your registration in if you want to reserve your spot!

*a free quilt raffle ticket from me to the first person who e-mails me at rburnham at bucknell dot edu and tells me the source of the title of this post.

More history from a quilt...

Another fun find with this quilt full of names.

First, it's helpful to know that I was an administrator at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA for 24 years.  My first job out of graduate school turned into a career, and I have great affection for the institution and some interest in its history.

The quilt has the names Prof. Edwards and Ida M. Edwards on it.  It seemed likely that there was a Bucknell connection here.  So I went to the Bucknell website and searched for Prof. Edwards, finding the following:  He was Thomas A. Edwards, and was Professor of Pedagogy and Dean of the Department of Women from 1904 to 1914.  I found him and his wife in the 1910 census record for Lewisburg Borough.

Bucknell's bit of history also informed that their son, Merle, Class of '03, was a soccer coach at the University, and founded the intramural program.  It is for him that Edwards House on campus is named.

Now, about making that man Dean of the Department of Women...

Antique Quilts and the Census

This is SUCH fun news!

Packwood House Museum in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania will have a lovely old indigo and white Double Irish Chain (at least I think it's Double) quilt in its exhibit coming up June 9 to October 24, 2009 (The exhibit is "Pennsylvania Quilts:  Studies in Color; A Century of Antique Quilts from the Packwood House Museum Collection.).  In dozens and dozens of the white squares of the chains are written names--men's names and women's names.  Many of them very common family names from around here.  Me, I'm originally from Massachusetts, and Gutelius and Gundy and Pfenninger are not common where I grew up, but they definitely are common here.

Last evening I got to poking around on ancestry.com to see if I could find any of these people in local census records.  I checked 1880, 1890 (where I could find it), 1900, and 1910 and hit wonderful "pay dirt".  For some families, it was hard to tell if I'd gotten the exact people.  For instance, J. Gundy on the quilt could have been, in the census records, John C., John A. Jacob, or Justin.  I should add here that I haven't taken the quilt out of storage yet and transcribed the names first-hand.  I wrote down all the names I could decipher from photos taken during our September 2007 quilt documentation project (with Trish Herr, who was MOST helpful) and started poking about in the census records on-line.

It became clear that I would have the best luck with names that were less common.  A good example was the block with the name "Mahala Kelly".  I found her listed in the 1910 Milton Borough census, at age 59, living with her sister, Margret, age 57.  In the 1880 census, Mahala, age 25, was listed as a "servant" with the Barclay family in Milton's South Ward.  Census records sometimes give you tantalizing mileposts, but clearly most of the actual story of the journey is left to the imagination.

Another fun example was where the quilt said "C. F. Lindig".  It also said "Mrs. C. F. Lindig" and "Miss Blanche Lindig".  In the Lewisburg Borough census of 1900, I found "Charles F. Lindig", who was born about April 1835; Sarah Lindig, who was born about February 1845; and Blanche Lindig, who was born about November 1872.

 

So now I want to get the quilt out and systematically write down ALL the names on the quilt and perhaps do a storyboard about it.  I know we have people in our area still who are related to the folks whose names are on the quilt.  I know some of them!

Stay tuned for more, if I find some!