McPherson Quilt Reference 1911

Secession Quilt in the collection of the 

Arkansas Territorial Museum.

Their caption:

Secession Quilt, 1861. 

Made by Mrs. Green McPherson. 

White Co, Arkansas.

85.5” x 97”

Gift of Florence C. Spore

85.39.4

http://www.historicarkansas.org/collections/quilts.aspx?id=70

I believe this quilt is on view at the New York Historical Society in Manhattan during the current venue of the American Textile History Museum's traveling exhibit Homefront & Battlefield: Quilts & Context in the Civil War.

http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/homefront-battlefield-quilts-context-civil-war

I recognized it immediately in a 1911 issue of the magazine 

Confederate Veteran.

The article:

NOTED CONFEDERATE QUILT
A beautiful quilt has become quite noted in Arkansas. It was made in the early sixties by Mrs. Mary G. McPherson, of West Point, in that State, and finished just as Arkansas, the ninth State, seceded from the Union, May 6, 1861.
The quilt was raffled to raise funds for equipping soldiers for service. The Federal authorities were so aroused about it that Mrs. McPherson's home was put under guard soon after her home town was occupied by them, and she was kept under vigilant guard lest she do something else to aid the Confederate cause.
When the quilt was disposed of, Joshua Crow, of West Point, became the owner, and the quilt is at present owned by his daughter, Miss Ella Crow. During the war the quilt passed through many perils., From one country place to another it was carried and stored in cellars and garrets, as seemed most expedient. Although a quilt, it was so similar to a Confederate flag that the enemy sought it diligently. The picture herewith given shows more the "Stars and Stripes" than the "Stars and Bars."
Mrs. McPherson's work in the many thousands of stitches shows the zeal she exercised in its production. She died in 1891 at Searcy, Ark., in the home of her daughter, the wife of Dr. S.P. Tapscott. Her granddaughter, Mrs. George B. Gill, of Little Rock, is President of the Memorial Chapter of that city, "a most efficient and enthusiastic worker in the Confederate cause," and has the loan of the "quilt" for the time being. To Mrs. Gill, the VETERAN is indebted for the fine illustration herewith given.

Here's a link to the article at Google Books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=m8E_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA510&dq=mary+mcpherson+1891+searcy&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SDVEU-niOqbq2gXhsYDoDw&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=mary%20mcpherson%201891%20searcy&f=false

Now that we have her first name we can find out more about Mary Green McPherson. More next week.