Anna Legare OHear's Civil Warxxx

 

One of my favorite quilts.

It's the curvy chintz border contrasting with the geometric blocks.

Source? Maybe Ladies' Circle Patchwork Quilts issue on South Carolina quilts years ago. My notes say they photographed it on Edisto Island near Charleston.

Someone else had access to the same stripe. This

medallion from the Winterthur Museum (2010.0038) is

about 100 inches square.

A lovely composition of imported chintzes, perhaps

made about the time that Anna Legare married

John Sanders O'Hear in Charleston in June, 1845.

Inked on the back Anna B Legare (pronounced LaGree.) Anna Berwick Legare O'Hear (1825-1905) lived in Charleston.

Link to the Anna Legare quilt:

http://museumcollection.winterthur.org/single-record.php?resultsperpage=60&view=catalog&srchtype=advanced&hasImage=&ObjObjectName=&CreOrigin=&Earliest=&Latest=&CreCreatorLocal_tab=&materialsearch=&ObjObjectID=&ObjCategory=&DesMaterial_tab=&DesTechnique_tab=&AccCreditLineLocal=&CreMarkSignature=&recid=2010.0038&srchfld=&srchtxt=legare&id=36a1&rownum=1&version=100&src=results-imagelink-only#.YI3bsLVKiUk

When the Civil War began in 1861 Anna had been married for about 15 years to physician Dr. John Sanders O'Hear (1806-1875.) As his third wife she was about 20 years younger than he. She was the mother of several children who died young but in April, 1861 when war began seems to have been raising two, Mary born in 1859 and John born in 1855.  Her husband, a graduate of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia was a supporter of South Carolina's secession in late 1860, signing the state's Declaration of Secession.

They lived in southeast Charleston in the Parish of Thomas and St. Dennis.

Their neighborhood Episcopal church photographed

about 1940 by the HABS project to preserve American

architecture.

It's doubtful that Anna made the quilt. As a luxury item it was Hugenot French asttitide aritocrayd and artisans.

Huegenots

 hyū-ge-nō, 

he Huguenot Society of South Carolina was established in 1885 to preserve the memory of the Huguenots who left France prior to the promulgation of the Edict of Toleration, November 28, 1787. Today, the Society has nearly 2,000 members who are descendants of those Huguenots.

Although the first group of Huguenot settlers numbered no more than six hundred, they arrived in the colony at a time when they could exert a disproportionate and fundamental influence on early colonial institutions. Hirsch explains how they quickly became a political force and aided the Anglicans in establishing the Church of England in South Carolina. He also traces the ways in which successive generations left an indelible mark on the cultural and economic development of the colony and the new state.

Bertrand Van Ruymbeke's new introduction places Hirsch's book in its historiographical context as the product of a 1915 University of Chicago dissertation and the intellectual heir of Charles W. Baird's groundbreaking work on the subject. He examines the book's strengths, notably its accurate identification of assimilation as the major theme of Huguenot history in South Carolina and its integration of archival and family history research. Van Ruymbeke also brings to bear his own prodigious research in French archives on the backgrounds, number, and manner of immigration of the early arrivals. He provides a new look at the way the Huguenots found a place in the political economy of colonial South Carolina.

Mary Legare O'Hear was born on 7 March 1859, in Charleston, South Carolina, United States, She died on 3 January 1943, in Charleston, South Carolina, United States, at the age of 83.see 18 state s carolina anna ohear

marriages
Ohear, John S /Fuller, Catharine M Nov 11, 1834 SC
Ohear, John S Dr/ Legare, Anna B Jun 24, 1845 SC

sonjohn l845-02
hus john sanders ohear

O'Hear , John L. ( 1845-1902 ) , of St. Thomas Son of Dr. John L. O'Hear and Ann Berwick of Cainhoy

m in 1864, JAMES O'HEAR is a son of Dr. John S. O'Hear and Anna Berwick (Legare) O'Hear. The O'Hears spring from Ireland. The Protestant branch, from which James O'Hear descends, was transplanted into France and resided there for several generations until it removed to Charleston about the middle of the eighteenth century. The first of the family to settle in Charleston was Hugh O'Hear, the great-grandfather of James O'Hear. Mr. O'Hear's father, Dr. John S. O'Hear, a graduate of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, was one of the signers of the Ordinance of Secession of the State of South Carolina. He was an uncle of Gen. Johnson Hagood, who was Governor of the state from 1880 to 1882. On his mother's side, Mr. O'Hear is descended from the Legares, one of the more prominent French Protestant (Huguenot) families in South Carolina. His mother was 

MEET YOUR GRANDFATHER A Sketch-Book if the HAGOOD-TOBIN FAMlLY By GENERAL JOHNSON HAGOOD

JOHN SANDERS O'HEAR 1806-1875 (Half Brother of my Great Grandmother) JoHN SANDERS O'HEAR, son of James O'Hear and Sarah Fabian, his wife, was born on the 6th of September, 1806, and died on his plantation on the Wan do River, September 18 7 5. He received his early education in the schools of Charleston, and went from there to the Philadelphia Medical College, where he graduated in 1824. He practiced his profession in the Parish of St. Andrews, where the family owned large estates. In 1826 he married Caroline Fuller. Of this marriage there was no issue. His second wife, Catherine O'Hear, died 27 December 1835, aged 23 and was buried in St. Andrews Parish Churchyard. In 1845 he married Anna Berwick Legare, daughter of John Berwick Legare, Esq., an Attorney at law in Charleston. Of this marriage there were eight children, three of whom reached maturity. Two of these, Mr. James O'Hear and Miss Mary Legare O'Hear, both of Charleston, were living in 1942. The former had a son Dr. James O'Hear, Jr., who served as a major in the Army Medical Corps overseas during the Second World War. In 18 4 7, Dr. John Sanders O'Hear bought large tracts of land in the Parish of Thomas and St. Dennis, where he lived with his family and slaves up to the time of his death. About 1850 he lost the use of one hand by the accidental discharge of a shotgun. This prevented his taking an active [

24 MEET y OUR GRANDFATHER part in the War of Secession. He was however, an ardent supporter of the Southern Cause. He invested his entire fortune in Confederate Bonds, and thus lost all he had when the armies of the South were defeated. At the calling of the Convention, which ultimately passed the Ordinance of Secession, he was, with Mr. Nowell, elected to represent the Parish of St. Thomas and St. Denis. When Charleston was evacuted several gunboats went up the Wanda River and, landing at the O'Hear Plantation, made a clean sweep of everything. (The family had refugeed into the interior of the State.) One of the federal officers found in the house a pamphlet of the proceedings of the Convention, in which Doctor O'Hear's name appeared, and he asked one of the servants if her master's name was Dr. J. S. O'Hear; when she replied in the affirmative he immediately ordered the house burned. So when Dr. O'Hear returned with his family he found a stack of chimneys where had been a lovely home. In connection with this there is an incident which is more like fiction than cold fact: In the early days of 1800 a negro man was made free by his master for faithful service of some kind. As was the requirement at that time, this man had to have what was called "a legal guardian". Mr. Legare, the father of Dr. O'Hear's wife, was appointed his guardian, and took charge of all his business. Old Captain (it was by that name that the negro was known to the younger generation) had a little farm on the outskirts of the city and accumulated quite a comfortable fortune. He was devoted to his guardian and would frequently bring the first vegetables from his farm to Mrs. Legare. On these occasions a table was always laid on back porch and his breakfast sent out to him. When Mr. Legare died the old man's grief was touching, and some years after, when the latter died, it

JoHN SANDERS O'HEAR 25 found that he had left to l\1r. Legare's two daughters a sum of money as an expression of love and gratitude to their father. Mrs. O'Hear decided to use this legacy from old Captain for the betterment of his race, so she had built on the plantation a pretty chapel, and every Sunday afternoon the Rector of the Parish preached to the colored people of that and the adjoining plantations, who gathered in the chapel to hear him. Fortunately the chapel had not been consecrated, so that it could with very little expense be rolled to the site of the old homestead, that had been destroyed by Yankees, raised, and rooms built under it. This made a quaint and comfortable home. So after many years the grandchildren of Old Captain's friend were provided with a home by his grateful tribute to his benefactor. The information for this sketch was furnished by Miss Mary Legare O'Hear prior to the First World War.-J. H.