Mary High Prince's Civil War Quilt

 

Turkey red print basket with inked name of  Confederate soldier

Captain P.B. Anderson.

In 1977 Emeline Prince Gist published a two-page story in the Franklin County (Tennessee) Historical Review. “History Preserved in Stitchery,” discussed a family quilt she attributed to her grandmother Mary High Prince (1840-1930.) 

The basket quilt was shown in the 1981 exhibit American Quilts: A Handmade Legacy at the Oakland Museum and the later book: Hearts and Hands: Women, Quilts, and American Society (Elaine Hedges, Pat Ferrero & Julie Silber.) Emeline also brought the basket quilt (and others by Mary Prince) to a Quilts of Tennessee documentation day in the 1980s where it was photographed and the inked names transcribed.

The Raus Schoolhouse (Thompson Creek) about 1900

Emeline Gist's grandmother Mary High Prince was about 23 when the basket quilt was said to have been made, a resident of the small community of Raus in Bedford County (then called Thompson Creek.) Thompson Creek near Shelbyville changed its name in 1891.

Emeline dated the quilt to 1863 & 1864

https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=22-18-423

Emeline Anderton Prince was the daughter of Mary's son Clofton O. (also Clafton) Prince born in 1885 or 1886. Emeline, born in 1922, knew her grandmother as a child and had quite a story to tell of her quilt and that grandmother:

"This quilt was one of several made and raffled by the ladies of the Raus Community in Bedford County during the Civil War. Many of the names of people native to the community were 'Tennessee Volunteers' (indicated by the initials T.V.) serving in the 17th Tennessee Infantry Regiment....The names were written in ink made from berries. It is reported that this quilt and another quilt similar to it were hidden in stumps for safety during the looting raids throughout the area.

"She was (a)spy during the war for (the)confederate side. She had (a) message she was carrying to Columbia and was caught in Pulaski. She 'closed up' to the fire and burned the message and was sent home. Her fiance was hung (sic) in Murfreesboro. (He was a spy for confederate.) She took a wagon and his sister and cut him down and brought him home to Raus for burial."

Here we have seven associated tales.

1) The quilt was buried in a stump during the War to protect it from raiders (Yankee or Confederate?)

2) The maker was a spy for the Confederacy carrying messages across the lines.

3) Her sweetheart was hung as a spy, his body left on the gibbet as a lesson.

4) She and her sister were the only ones brave enough to cut his body down and bury him.

5) The quilt was made during the Civil War and raffled.

6) Names of  Tennessee Volunteers were inked on the blocks while they were away at war.

7) As no commercial ink was available the names were inked with pokeberry juice.

That's a lot of baggage for one quilt and one grandmother.

Turkey red prints with blue and white figures such

as this are far more common before the Civil War than after.

Let's begin with the quilt's fabric and style, the first place to look for evidence of such associations in the early 1860s. Could the basket quilt have been made before 1865? It does have the look of many late-19th-century quilts but comparing it to others in this pattern shows several made in the 1850s. The pattern and style continued popular.

Quilt similar in style and fabrics dated 1855

from an online auction.

Family showing the Prince quilt and a photo of Mary.

So with only poor photos to go by, we could say the quilt could

indeed have been made in 1863-4.

We can then corroborate stories by finding more about the maker and her family. Mary High was about 23 in 1863. Her maiden name "Miss M. M. High" is inked on the quilt, as is her future husband's Benjamin P. Prince whom she wed in 1865.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25201248/mary-m-prince

She and Benjamin Payton Prince are buried in the Smith Chapel Methodist Memorial Church yard in Moore County, Tennessee.

Although we are mentioning several counties Mary

lived within a small area in Southern Tennessee.

 The cemetery is on the road between Tullahoma and Lynchburg, Tennessee, about 25 miles from their last home in Winchester.

Social note from the Nashville Banner in 1920. Mrs. Ben Prince

and daughter (probably Donie) visit brother Claude's wife for dinner.

Mary lived in Winchester in Franklin County for the later decades of her ninety years.

Market day in Winchester, Tennessee

1924

According to an article by a descendant in a United Daughters of the Confederacy publication Mary and Ben had eight children, five who lived to be adults. The quilt seems to have descended in the family of youngest son Clofton (C.O. Prince) who died in 1976. His daughter Emmeline as noted was the source of the stories, which she may have heard from him or his mother.

Mary's son Ollie who died in 1889 at about 23 was buried with infant brother Homer in Raus's Parker Cemetery, indicating Mary may have lived in Thompson Creek/Raus until at least the 1890s.

The 1910 census found them still in Bedford County

but after Ben died in 1919 Mary and Donie moved in with Clofton

and his wife Ethel in the larger town of Winchester.

So we can guess that Mary lived in Thompson Creek/Raus until about 1920 where Emeline believed the quilt to have been made.

UDC Magazine by the Kirby-Smith Chapter 327 in Sewanee, TN.

Mary received the UDC Southern Cross of Honor, probably in the early 1900s. R

the pink star 

Made by the mother of C.O. Prince, Sr. Made after the Civil War around 1870.

 Emeline Gist's story 

Sam Davis, the Boy Hero of the Confederacy a hero of the Lost Cause hyped by Sumner Archibald Cunningham the founder of  Confederate Veteran magazine in 1893,

 hung at Murphreesboro---no mention of any fiance

f Sam Davis, The Boy Hero of the Confederacy.

 Sumner Archibald Cunningham for that honor. Cunningham, a Confederate veteran himself, was the founding editor of the monthly Confederate Veteran magazine. A Bedford County native, he served in the 41st Tennessee Infantry and fought with the Army of Tennessee at Franklin and Nashville. After the war, Cunningham wrote a book about his experiences and launched a career in journalism. By 1885, he was a popular columnist at the Nashville American published by Edward Ward Carmack. While there, he got involved with a group of Southern newspaper men who were promoting plans to construct a memorial for Jefferson Davis. While Carmack went on to be a powerful voice for the temperance movement in Tennessee, Cunningham became one of the most important figures in the Lost Cause movement. Carmacks push for a ban on alcoholic beverages led to a run for governor that divided the states Democratic party. He was assassinated in 1908 by Robin Cooper, the son of his rival and former boss, Duncan Brown Cooper. Carmack had encountered the father and son on the streets of downtown Nashville. He fired the first shot, wounding Robin Cooper who returned fire, killing the newspaperman instantly. He became a martyr for prohibition and a statue of Carmack, created by noted Nashville sculptor Nancy McCormack, was commissioned by the Tennessee General Assembly. The sculpture still stands on Capitol Hill in Nashville, ironically, over the entrance to State Capitol tunnel, which is named in honor of Sen. Reagor Motlow. The Motlow family once owned Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg. About that same time, a second statue was commissioned for Capitol Hill. This one, Cunningham, described as the highlight of his career. This sculpture was to perpetuate the story of Sam Davis, The Boy Hero of the Confederacy. Romanian born artist George Julian Zolnay, later called the Sculptor of the Confederacy, won the commission. He is best known for his bust of Edgar Allen Poe and for the Jefferson Davis Memorial in Richmond. He was a sculptor in New York when the Davis work was crafted. The Sam Davis statue was more than a monument to a single soldier. It was a study in reconciliation for antebellum Southern culture. Standing relaxed with one leg slightly bent, Davis looks calm in the face of impeding death. His chin is tilted up and his gaze looks firm and resolute. His arms are casually crossed with an air of defiance. Zolnay and his Sam Davis statue became national news at the turn of the century. Even the New York Times featured the sculptors effort to capture his spirit. But Cunningham and the Confederate Veteran were chiefly responsible for the statute and for pulling the story of Sam Davis out of obscurity. The monthly magazine was developed out of a newsletter Cunningham established as a way to keep donors to the Jefferson Davis Memorial fund informed about progress on the project, which still stands in Richmond. Founded in 1893, the Nashville-based magazine was popular due to its low cost ($1 a year) and its efforts to memorialize the story of rank-and-file Confederate soldiers. By 1904, it had the highest circulation of any Southern magazine. 

                                 

 anonymous. Description of a quilt made as a fundraiser for the Confederacy, featuring names and verses. Also a pillow made in 1910 by 70-year-old Mary Prince from scraps of old dresses associated with Confederate days. Two pages, two pictures. (1977: VIII:1, 51-52)
United Methodist & Presbyterian U.S.A.,” by Emeline Prince Gist.
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The surveyed owner's grandmother participated in the creation of this quilt. It was a Civil War fundraiser, and several individuals made the blocks. There are 72 blocks and 72 names. The list of names is available but is too extensive to list on this site. This quilt was one of several made and raffled by the ladies of the Raus Community in Bedford County during the Civil War. Many of the names of people native to the community were "Tennessee Volunteers" (indicated by the initials "T.V.") serving in the 17th Tennessee Infantry Regiment. Three companies from Franklin County also served in this regiment. The names were written in ink made from berries. It is reported that this quilt and another quilt similar to it were hidden in stumps for safety during the looting raids throughout the area.