Nebraska Quiltmakers Part I

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

In the aftermath of the Civil War, settlers poured into the new state of Nebraska, each one bent on claiming free land--160 acres acquired by paying a $10 filing fee and living on the land (and improving it) for five years. Soldiers who'd become restless after the war, people whose physicians recommend the west as a place to regain their health, folks fleeing economic depression and financial panics of the 1870s, and immigrants escaping economic and political upheaval in Europe all comprised part of the tide of settlers.

"Imagine traveling 10,000 miles--or even 1,000 miles--to make a new start. At last the pioneer reached the selected land on the Nebraska plains. He had a wagon drawn by two horses, a few supplies, an axe, a plow, a shovel, a barrel or two, a canary, a wife, and three kids. With this he had to build a home. There was not a tree to e seen--in fact, none had been seen for three days. There were no rocks, no stone outcroppings. There was absolutely nothing but sky and grass." (Roger Welsch)

It sounds bleak, but pioneer women brought beauty with them. They brought quilts, and quilts are about a lot more than keeping a family warm.

Maria Jane Forsythe Newton
photo courtesy of the family

Maria Jane Forsythe Newton gave birth to her fifth child a month after her husband, Abel, was drafted into the Ohio Infantry. Abel and Maria had always planned to move west, but Abel never fully recovered from lung problems that began during his service in the Civil War. After he passed away, Maria the five children still living at home joined family in Furnas County, Nebraska, moving into the sod house originally built by Maria's parents.  

Wedding Ring Quilt
made by Maria Jane Forsythe Newton.
Private Collection. 

Family letters and memories show that Grandmother Newton was a hard-working family matriarch who made quilts, sheered sheep, carded wool, spun yarn, made clothing, and wove carpet strips. She was one of a group of "very good quilters" who met weekly at Bethel Church in Stamford, Nebraska, to earn money for missions. Family remembered that Mrs. Newton loved working with blue and white. She made the quilt pictured at right. 

"I have got Harold, Ralph quilt top done and gave to them. Got Lye's done ready to join. Have all my grandchildren done. Thirty-one. That is a lot of piecing but something they will remember me every time they see the quilt."

Maria Jane Forsythe Newton is only one of the Nebraska pioneer quiltmakers featured in Home on the Plains: Quilts and the Sod House Experience by Kathleen Moore and Stephanie Grace Whitson. Learn more here: https://www.amazon.com/Home-Plains-Quilts-House-Experience/dp/1935362801/ref=sr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536361537&sr=8-1&keywords=Home+on+the+Plains. For information on ordering autographed copies, e-mail stephanie@stephaniewhitson.com.

 

QUILTING MYTHS

I would like to shine a light on five quilting myths most of us have believed to be true at one time or another. 

QUILTING MYTH #1 ~ A common task for women during Colonial America times was quilting. 

In Colonial times, quilting wasn’t a task of necessity or frugality. It was a pastime of the wealthy. The cottons and silks used in quilting at the time were expensive imported fabrics. Those who could afford the fine textiles quilted, but the ordinary person in early America was hard pressed to keep their family in clothes with days spent spinning, weaving, knitting, sewing, and various other chores for survival. No time for something as frivolous as quilting.

Around 1840 with the industrial revolution, the widespread production of affordable textiles made fabric plentiful and available for more women. As textiles were being mass-produced, some fabrics went from $5 a yard to 5-cents a yard.

Quilt from Elko Museum

QUILTING MYTH #2 ~The Underground Railroad used special quilt designs & patterns as signals. 

This myth has great romantic appeal. I love the idea of slaves escaping from the South knowing where to find safe refuge by a quilt hung on a clothesline or a special block pattern in a window. But research on the Underground Railroad has found no evidence of such a practice. 

QUILTING MYTH #3 ~ Scraps used for quilting was a frugal measure. 

This myth implies that most if not all quilts were a product of needing to be frugal. Most women of the past bought fabrics specifically for making a quilt, much as we do today. True, they also used scraps from worn-out clothing or the leftovers from making garments, but they most used new fabric purchased for the quilt. Women didn’t use the worn-out portion of cloth because they would already be—well, worn out. The quilt would damage or tear easily, and all that work would be fruitless. 

The frugal quilter theory suggests that quilting was out of necessity only. Many quilts were far too elaborate to be made for daily use. However, simpler quilts were made for everyday. 

An old quilt my grandma made decades ago

QUILTING MYTH #4 ~ To show humility, mistakes were intentionally made in quilts from yesteryear. 

Intentional mistakes in old (or new) quilts was never a common practice. All quilters make mistakes. It's nearly impossible to make a perfect quilt no matter how hard one tries. 

However, there are mistakes in quilts that have been put there purposefully, possibly for religious reasons or superstition. 

It is believed that Amish and Mennonite women put a mistake in each quilt because it would be prideful to make something perfect, because only God is perfect. But to include a mistake on purpose would presuppose that one believed herself to be perfect and that would be prideful. 

So, when you find a mistake in a quilt, it’s unlikely to have been made on purpose. It’s just the quilt maker being human. 

QUILTING MYTH #5 ~ While migrating west, pioneer women pieced blocks and quilted. 

On the long trek westward, a woman rarely worked on a quilt. Any able-bodied person, including women and children, walked most of the roughly 1,500 miles, so doing any form of sewing would have been pretty much impossible during the day. If a woman would have been fortunate enough to travel in the wagon the rough ride would have made fine sewing nearly impossible. 

Once stopped at the end of a long day, there were many chores to be done; tending to the livestock, gathering wood, cooking, and so much more. If a woman had any energy after all that, the poor evening light would have made sewing hard, and so they preferred knitting that could be done in low light. Though a few pioneer women might have pieced blocks together for a quilt along the journey, it was uncommon. 

So there you have it, five quilting myths that are sadly not true. 

MARY DAVIS is a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January, Courting Her Amish Heart in March, The Widow’s Plight in July, Courting Her Secret Heart September, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December. She’s a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-three years and two cats. She has three adult children and two incredibly adorable grandchildren.

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THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT ~ A sweet historical romance that will tug at your heart. This is book 1 in the Quilting Circle series. Washington State, 1893

When Lily Lexington Bremmer arrives in Kamola with her young son, she’s reluctant to join the social center of her new community, the quilting circle, but the friendly ladies pull her in. She begins piecing a sunshine and shadows quilt because it mirrors her life. She has a secret that lurks in the shadows and hopes it doesn’t come out into the light. Dark places in her past are best forgotten, but her new life is full of sunshine. Will her secrets cast shadows on her bright future?

   Widower Edric Hammond and his father are doing their best to raise his two young daughters. He meets Lily and her son when they arrive in town and helps her find a job and a place to live. Lily resists Edric’s charms at first but finds herself falling in love with this kind, gentle man and his two darling daughters. Lily has stolen his heart with her first warm smile, but he’s cautious about bringing another woman into his girls’ lives due to the harshness of their own mother. Can Edric forgive Lily her past to take hold of a promising chance at love?

THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT releases in ebook on July 1 and will be out in paperback by mid-June.

Quilt Inscriptions and Signatures

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Quilt inscriptions, be they signatures or rhymes, elegant inked stamps or embroidered names, evoke different responses from different viewers. Reading the sentiment below might inspire a historian to search for names and family connections. A quilt lover might wonder over patterns and designs. And storytellers like me muse about the "rest of the story." But whatever the response, inscribed quilts connect present to past in a unique way. 

Harriet H. Huston is my name

America is my station

Springfield is my dwelling place

and Christ is my salvation.

When I am dead and in my grave

And all my bones are rotten

When this you see 

Remember me

Lest I shall be forgotten.

A.D. 1846

Through them, we can realize that some things--like the desire to celebrate friendship and the motivation to support causes we care about--are timeless.

Friendship, Family, and Faith

Some inscribed quilts were made to mark

important life events like the birth of a child, a child's graduation to adulthood, a marriage, or perhaps a departure. When I read the messages ("Hope on hope ever" "When far away remember me") on these four quilt blocks pictured at right, I imagined a woman gathering friend's signatures for a quilt she would carry to a new home that was "far away." Of course the obvious question is why they never got finished. Musing about that resulted in my first novel! 

Ladies of congregations of many different denominations presented quilts to their pastors. In a 1909 letter Ella Rush of Stamford, Nebraska, wrote to family back in Ohio: The ladies aid had a surprise on the minister & wife today. It was his birthday and . . . we had pieced a crazy worsted quilt and finished it to give them. Women of the Holy Trinity Church of Lincoln, NE created the quilt pictured at left (bearing 549 embroidered names) for their pastor and his wife on the occasion of the pastor's departure in 1913. 

Fundraising

In the 19th century, women's organizations like ladies' aid societies and missionary organizations often created signature quilts to raise money for important causes. They'd charge a nominal fee to have a name included on the quilt and then raise more money when the resulting signature quilt was auctioned off. 

During the Civil War, women on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line plied their needles to support their cause. The quilt at right was purchased at a Union sanitary Fair in St. Louis and bears several signatures, among them that of Ulysses Grant. The fair raised over $500,000 for the Union cause.

In 1896, women of Grand Island, Nebraska, made the quilt at left to raise funds for the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) and its projects supporting "old soldiers."

During WW I, the Red Cross encouraged women to make and auction off signature quilts to help support the Red Cross. In 1916, the women of Martell and Sprague, Nebraska, charged 50 cents to have one's name embroidered on this quilt. Once it was finished, it was auctioned off and raised another $75--a month's wages for the man who won it. 

Whatever the reason for the making of an inscribed quilt, their creation provided a way for women and their work to be remembered. As Maria Jane Newton of Nebraska wrote in the 1920s, "I have got Harold, Ralph quilt top(s) done and gave [sic] to them. Got Lyle's done ready to join. Have all my grandchildren done. Thirty-one. That is a lot of piecing but something they will remember me (by) every time they see the quilt."

Have you ever helped make a quilt for a friend or fundraiser?  

To view the quilts that were part of a signature quilt exhibit in Lincoln, Nebraska, follow this link: 

http://www.quiltstudy.org/exhibitions/online_exhibitions/whats_in_a_name/inscribed_quilts1.html

____________________________________

Musing about why some beautiful quilt blocks were never finished was part of Stephanie Grace Whitson's journey toward becoming a published novelist. 

Her first book, Walk the Fire, tells the life story of avid quilter Jesse King. 

Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Walks-Fire-Prairie-Winds-Book-ebook/dp/B078G865VJ/ref=tmm_kin_title_sr?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1525808912&sr=8-1

To learn more about Stephanie's books:

www.stephaniewhitson.com

To join the conversation about her writing life and love of quilts:

www.Facebook.com/StephanieGraceWhitsonofficial

Quilt Mysteries

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Quilts played an integral part in my becoming a novelist. Early in my writing journey, I purchased a set of unfinished quilt blocks at a country auction, delighted by the colors (madder browns and rusts), amazed by the maker's skill (diamonds where the points MATCHED), and sad that the pieces hadn't ever been connected to make a quilt. I wondered why. In a fabric dating class, I later learned that those pieces predated 1867, the date when Nebraska became a state. How did they get here? Why weren't they ever finished? What story could they tell? Those musings played a role in the story of Jesse King, a woman traveling the Oregon Trail, and that story became my first novel, Walks the Fire. 

The stories behind old quilts inspire me to study them and to help research the quilts in the collection at the International Quilts Study Center and Museum, where I'm a member of the Genealogical Task Force, comprised of five volunteers who delight in spending hours researching names and dates. 

Some of the quilts in my personal collection suggest stories, too. Here are a few of the mysteries they represent to my overactive imagination ... and the answers I've found so far:

This wool quilt, purchased at an estate auction in Palmyra, Nebraska, suggests that something important happened in January, 1926. The quilt isn't finished (there's no back), but embroidered initials and symbols surely had significance for the family. Lesson learned: ask questions on the day of the sale. Don't expect to learn much when the sale is over and the family has parted ways. 

I purchased the quilt represented by the single block on the right as an intentional rescue. While it's lovely, it's faded and its price at a local estate sale proved it wasn't valued by anyone but me. I brought it home and it wasn't until I photographed it months later that I realized the maker had quilted both initials and the year 1880 into the sashing. Who was "A.E.S."? What happened in 1880? Quilted hearts make me wonder A.E.S. was a bride-to-be making a wedding quilt, but that's just a story. I don't know. I never will. The mystery remains. 

I purchased this quilt (left) at an antique mall in North Carolina, and while I don't know much about it other than the fact that the vibrant graphics appealed to me,I do think the maker may have lived on a farm. Why? The back is a walnut-dyed feed sack that once contained "Choice Virginia cornmeal." Was the quilt made in Virginia? Possibly. How did it get to North Carolina? Mystery. 

It's not uncommon to find silk ribbons incorporated into Victorian crazy quilts. One of mine includes this ribbon that commemorates an "FE&MVRR" outing October 16, 1888. Research reveals that the Fremont Elkhorn

& Missouri Valley Railroad was established in 1869 Nebraska and often called "the Elkhorn." I imagine a Victorian lady taking the excursion and enjoying it enough that she kept the ribbon and added it to the crazy quilt.  

The origin of the "mysterious" stains on this quilt is no longer a mystery. I was drawn to this lovely quilt in spite of those stains because it's entirely machine quilted, and that's unusual for a late 1800s quilt. A textile expert told me about those stains many years later. This is what can happen when a quilt touches the wood of a cedar chest. This quilt was probably stored in a cedar chest, and the wood oils migrated into the fabric. Ouch. I still love it. 

And here's the last quilt mystery for this post. I wanted this quilt because of the elephant. Someone loved the
circus! Look at those blue eyes! But ... why has the embroidery been picked out of the block that spells NANY? Did someone leave the "c" out of the name Nancy and intend to fix it? Or did Nany do something terrible enough to make a quiltmaker want to remove his/her name from the quilt? (I used that idea in my novel The Shadow on the Quilt.)

Do you cherish something that suggests a mystery you'd like solved?

_____________________________________

Stephanie Grace Whitson's Keepsake Legacies series uses cherished keepsakes (a quilt, a charm string, and a small box of treasures) as a way of telling the story of three pioneer women. 

In book one of the series, Sarah Biddle's patchwork quilt tells the story of her life, but Sarah's niece, Lorna, doesn't realize the stories Aunt Sarah told her were true. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DV1SX9Y/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

When Quilts Speak

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Do you have family quilts that remind you of past events? So many quilt stories disappear when quilts aren't labeled (and most weren't). But here are a few stories that ARE known--stories that take as beyond the textile itself and into the lives of the people involved in their making.

See the words Ladies Aid in the center of the quilt block on the right?

In 1893, the Ladies Aid Society of the Filley (Nebraska) Methodist Episcopal Church raised funds to support the church by having a contest. Members of the organization embroidered their names on the front. Folks who contributed ten cents got their names on the back and the woman who raised the most money got to keep the quilt. The winner had recently married and collected names (and contributions) on her wedding trip--which included a visit to the Chicago World's Fair. 

During the Civil War, women organized Sanitary Commission Fairs to raise money for the cause. The quilt on the left bears General Grant's signature. It was brought back to Nebraska from the fair held in St. Louis--which raised $550,000.

The Grand Island, Nebraska, GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) chapter made this flag fundraiser quilt about 1896.

You wouldn't necessarily expect a pioneer story to emerge from this elegant crazy quilt, but the maker painted flowers onto velvet and silk while homesteading a claim in western Nebraska in the 1890s. Inspired by the wildflowers growing on the prairie, she wrote, "the first summer I copied these flowers with oil paints on silk and velvet pieces sent me from home." She was able to hire the work down required to "prove up" ... and isn't that just another story that reminds us not to make assumptions about all those pioneer women! 

Do you own a quilt that tells a story from your family history?

________________________________________

Stephanie Grace Whitson loves including references to quiltmaking in her historical fiction. Sarah's Patchwork, a story of an orphan train child, is told through the fabrics Sarah used in the crazy quilt she uses to tell her life story to a beloved niece. Learn more about Stephanie at www.stephaniewhitson.com. 

To order Sarah's Patchwork: https://www.amazon.com/Sarahs-Patchwork-Keepsake-Legacies-Book-ebook/dp/B01DV1SX9Y