Civil War Quilts: April 2018

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Memorial Quilt for an Ohio Soldier

The Ohio quilt project documented a memorial quilt from

1869 with two mourning blocks lamenting the death

of Lewis A. Hulse.

"Lewis. A. Hulse.

Member Co A 69th Reg O.V.I.

Died Feb 16th 1863, at Nashville Ten

From a wound received at the Battle

of Stone River Age'ed 18 years"

Lewis's older sister Loretta Emeline Hulse Ayers, known as Emme, is said to have pieced and inked the family record quilt. It seems she copied the text from his tombstone in Rose Hill Cemetery in Mason, Ohio.

"Lewis Albert

Eldest son of

David & Ernestine Hulse

Member Co A 69th Reg O.V.I.

Died at Nashville Tenn

Feb 16th 1863,

From a wound received at

The Battle of Stone River

Aged

18 years & 4 D's"

The quilt is discussed on pages 118 and 119 in the book

Quilts in Community: Ohio's Traditions

The Hulse family lived in Butler County, north of Cincinnati, Ohio on a farm near Pisgah.

A local history tells us about Lewis who was "born Feb 12, 1845. Energetic and patriotic, he enlisted Sep 1862, in the 69th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. At the battle of Stone River, the first battle he had an opportunity to be in, he was acting as a scout. On the morning of Dec 31 he was shot down, although living until Feb 16, 1863."

The Battle of Stones River [the current Tennessee spelling] is also known as the Second Battle of Murfreesboro and took place between December 31, 1862 and January 2, 1863.

Lewis appears to have been wounded in his leg, probably cared for in a makeshift hospital like this one pictured in a postcard from about 1910.

"During the late war, Pisgah furnished a score of men for the army, out of which a full dozen either were killed outright, died in hospital, or from the effects of the hardships and exposures of camp life soon after returning home. Lewis A. HULSE, son of David HULSE, was a mere lad when he shouldered his musket for the army. He was wounded at the battle of Stone River, and died in camp."

Loretta Emeline Hulse was born September 7, 1842. She is buried in the same graveyard (with a misspelled record on Find-A-Grave.) She married James Ayers and had at least one son, dying at 51 years old in 1893. Her quilt is a memorial to her and her brother.

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Antebellum Album 4: Quaker Pride

Antebellum Album 4: Quaker Pride by Mark Lauer

Block from the Aimwell School Quilt, Philadelphia, 1847.

Collection of the Historical Society of Moorestown, New Jersey.

This month's block is found in a lovely Quaker quilt made for a 30-year-old Philadelphia teacher.

"Presented by the Pupils of the Aimwell School to their

Teacher, Sarah D. Powell, 1847."

We saw the quilt at the AQSG meeting in New Jersey a few years ago.

I recognize Karen Alexander, Ginny Gunn and me admiring the fabrics.

The Aimwell School, on Cherry Street below

10th, photographed by Robert Newell, about 1870.

Sarah Dutton Powell was born in Nether Providence, Pennsylvania, in 1817. Her own schooling was at the Quaker Westtown School in Chester County, where she graduated with the class of 1838.

Embroidered sampler featuring the Westtown School

founded in 1799, near Philadelphia.

When Sarah was a student the female curriculum at Westtown still emphasized sewing. A short history of the sewing room there:

"Sewing was generally taught in girls' schools over the country; it was a special recommendation to a teacher that she could make a handsome sampler—at times that was the main object in attending school....In 1815 we are told that 'two weeks out of six were passed by the little girls in the sewing-room, no matter what their proficiency in the art.' "

The Committee of Instruction eliminated the sewing course in 1843 after Sarah's graduation.

Quaker needlework traditions with their early 1840s emphasis on friendship quilts undoubtedly influenced the fad for signature quilts. As a major Quaker academy Westtown School attracted Southern students whose parents valued Quaker or Friends culture over any North/South prejudices. So we can imagine that schoolmates from both sides of the Mason-Dixon line signed album blocks.

Westtown in 1840.

The school claims to be the

oldest co-educational school still operating in the U.S.

Westtown takes great pride in its over 200 year history, but the Quaker girls' school where Sarah taught was three years older. Founded by Anne Parrish (1760-1800) to give poor girls a proper education, she charged no tuition. Named for an educational goal, the Aimwell School was supported by contributions until it closed in 1923.

Sarah's quilt might have been made as a going away gift by her Aimwell students or as an engagement celebration. She married Isaac Leeds of Moorestown, New Jersey on March 28, 1849 at Philadelphia's Twelfth Street Meeting.

Twelfth Street Meeting House

Block 4 by Becky Brown

The Block

Our fourth album block has remained popular as a signature pattern since the 1840s.

Emily Vandergrift Snyder's Philadelphia quilt

recorded the death of her husband and three of her children.

See the whole quilt in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art here:

http://www.lacma.org/eduprograms/EvesforEds/AmericanStories.pdf

As #2413a & 2413b in BlockBase it has several published names.

Names include Grandmother's Pride so I've called this month's pattern Quaker Pride because of its popularity with Quaker album quiltmakers.

Cutting a 12" Block

A—Cut 2 squares 2-7/8”. Cut each in half diagonally.

You need 4 small triangles.

B—Cut 2 squares 5-1/4”. Cut each into 4 triangles with 2 cuts.

You need 8 large triangles.

C—Cut 13 squares 3-3/8”.

Two blocks by Denniele Bohannon

The Civil War & After

Like several other young women followed here Sarah Powell Leeds did not live to see much of the Civil War. She died at 44 in July 1861, leaving five children three to ten years old. We can guess that she and a sixth child died at a time when almost 60 of every 1,000 births resulted in the mother's death.

The red vertical line is British data for 1860.

In 1990 the U.S. maternal death rate was 8.2 per 100,000;

In 2007: 12.7 per 100,000.

When Sarah died the rate was 6,000 per 100,000.

Statistics were no better in 1889

when this spirit photo of a motherly ghost

was published.

Pat Styring

A little applique, a little fussy cutting.

Again Sarah's quilt probably survived because she did not. Her children may have treasured it as a relic: "Sacred to Memory" to use an old-fashioned term.

Sentiment for April

For the Quakers a dove of peace

Mark's second block in traditional color

See the Aimwell School Quilt files here at the Quilt Index:

http://www.quiltindex.org/~quilti/fulldisplay.php?kid=4A-7F-2DB

And Lynda & Mary show several details of the blocks at Quaker Quilt History:

http://www.quakerquilthistory.com/2012/11/anne-parrish-and-aimwell-school.html
http://www.quakerquilthistory.com/2013/12/literacy-numeracy-and-useful-work.html

Quilt dated 1851 in an ad from antique dealer Susan Parrish.

Three of the blocks are this month's pattern.

Westtown Reunion in the 1880s

Saturday, April 21, 2018

1864 Quilting Party in St. Louis

I found this photo from the 1864 Sanitary Fair in St. Louis recently.

That is a quilting frame.

And that is NOT Abraham Lincoln sitting at it.

I am looking for more information and a better scan but I bet this is a scene from the Fair's nostalgia display. Fairs had Colonial kitchens or similar rooms where everyone dressed up in old-fashioned costumes to demonstrate the lost arts.

Similar scene at the New England Kitchen at New York's Metropolitan Fair

Detail of the St. Louis scene:

Note the man on the left in a tri-corner hat, They are sitting in

front of a large open fireplace.

The seated woman on the left here is wearing an old-fashioned mobcap.

I would imagine this photo is from the collection of the Missouri Historical Society, which has another shot of the same re-enactors. The men look to be portraying Presidents Lincoln and Washington.