Kentucky Historical Society
Attributed to Susan Mary Cheatham Smith Montgomery (1846-1910)
Silk quilt pieced over paper templates in a hexagon design
with added embroidery on the borders.
Kentucky had a reputation for "fine and costly quilts" after 1840 or so. Twenty-three year old Eliza Trigg Brents seems to have been among the most skillful and productive of the makers. Above the black-bordered hexagon is a typical Kentucky show quilt but not by Eliza. We have no surviving quilts attributed to her. But we have evidence in fair records that she made many award-winning quilts over the years.
Prize records Kentucky State Fair in 1863
(Eliza's name is Brents with an S.)
She won premiums for a silk quilt and a worsted (wool) quilt plus
a piece of embroidery that year.
Again two entries: a silk comfort and a patch-work
woolen quilt
Perhaps her worsted quilt looked like this one
attributed to Mary Redman Parris of Cynthiana, Kentucky by Jeffrey Evans Auction.
There certainly was a Kentucky style. Much mosaic piecing and added embroidery...
Attributed to Sallie Pinnick of Columbia, Kentucky,
Recorded by the Florida project and the Quilt Index.
....Until crazy quilt fashion took over in the 1870s and changed
the emphasis from piecing over paper templates to crazy randomness.
Kentucky style still favored the embroidered border.
This may be Eliza with her husband and children about 1870
in front of the house her father bought her as a wedding gift.
When the Civil War began in April 1861 32-year old Eliza Trigg Brents was 5 or 6 months pregnant with her first (recorded?) child although she'd been married for 7 years to 43-year-old Samuel Worley Brents.
His first wife had died after childbirth leaving two surviving children. At War's beginning Eliza's stepchild Mary Elizabeth was about 12 and Samuel II about 8 years old.
Eliza Trigg, a native of Barren County, Kentucky, had lived in the county seat Glasgow all her life. She was from a wealthy family; the Trigg National Bank with the arch is pictured above in the early 20th century. When she lived there Glasgow had about 500 citizens, a good many of them enslaved by the Trigg family as the 1860 census Slave Schedule shows:
TRIGG, A(lanson) (farmer): 1 male 60, 1 male 55, 1 female 49, 1 female 48, 1 female 32, 1 female
35, 1 female 17, 2 females 1, 1 female 12, 1 female 9, 1 female 5 (unnamed born 15 Apr
1855), 1 female 7, 1 female 6 (Agnis born 1 Aug 1854, daughter of Permelia), 1 female 5,
1 female 3, 1 female 2 (unnamed born 1858), 1 female 3, 1 male 13, 1 male 10, 1 male 9,
1 male 8, 1 female 4, 1 male 12, 1 male 8, 1 male 5 (unnamed born 15 Mar 1855), 1 male
1, 1 male 3, 1 male 23, 1 male 21, 1 male 20, 1 male 18, 1 male 16.
Samuel and Eliza were probably also slave holders. A reference to a boy who died in 1853:
"BRENTS, Linsey, age 12 yrs, male, slave, born and resided Barren Co, Samuel Brents owner, died of unknown cause 1853."
Linsey might have been an early victim of the worldwide cholera epidemic of 1853-4, which was fatal to people enslaved by the Triggs as this schedule of African-American deaths in 1854 Glasgow shows.
TRIGG, Aggy, female, age 70 yrs, born VA, slave of A(lanson) Trigg,1 Apr 1854,old age
TRIGG, Aggy, female, age 62 yrs, born VA, slave of A Trigg, cholera 25 Oct 1854
TRIGG, Anderson, male, age 5 yrs, slave of A Trigg, 15 Apr 1854, scarlet fever.
TRIGG, Barney, male, age 50 yrs, born VA, slave of A Trigg, 23 Oct 1854, cholera
TRIGG, Fanny, female, age 5, slave of A Trigg, 1 Aug 1854, consumption
TRIGG, George, male, age 75 yrs, born VA, slave of A Trigg, 1 May 1854, old age
TRIGG, Joe, male, age 8 yrs, slave of A Trigg, 15 June 1854, consumption
TRIGG, No First Name, female, age 3 months, slave of A Trigg, 15 Apr 1854, flux
Alanson Munson Trigg (1795-1873) bought this house,
which still stands, for Eliza in 1854.
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Western Kentucky University Collection
Late-19th-century quilt with initials of Emily G. Marks (1839-1923) in the center.
The fabrics look to be wools; the worsteds Kentuckians often fancied
for their show quilts.
Which side were the Triggs and Brents on? With Kentucky's civilians it's tough to tell.
(1833-?)
April, 1917
Obituary for J. Morgan Brents from the Scottsville, Kentucky Citizen Times.
Union Army Major J. A. Brents (apparently only distantly related) spent time in Barren County. In his 1868 memoir he recalled: "Glasgow is a pretty town: the Union people are very clever. There are many disunionists in the county."
The S.W. Brents family may have been among the "disunionists." It looks like Eliza's brother Alanson Curd Trigg was one of "Morgan's Boys," perhaps killed fighting in 1863. Another clue to the Brents's loyalties is their son born in July, 1861 who was christened John Hunt Morgan Brents.
April, 1917
Obituary for J. Morgan Brents from the Scottsville, Kentucky Citizen Times.
Morgan Brents spent much of his adult life in Seattle. He was named for the famous guerilla but the Confederate raiders did not occupy Glasgow until the end of 1862---a name change?
John Hunt Morgan (1825 -1864)
John H. Morgan became a scourge in the area with his guerilla fighters known as Morgan's Raiders.
Morgan's Christmas Raid through Kentucky in 1862
Eliza's son Morgan was born 18 months before the Glasgow Raid.
Mary Moss Brents Caldwell (1865-1930)
Through these years Eliza continued to stitch prize-winning quilts she showed in fair season. In 1863 her "worsted patch-work quilt" won a second prize at the the Kentucky State Fair. After the war she won four premiums for embroidery and quilts at Barren County's 1867 fair and the following year three at the Simpson County fair for the best patch-work woolen quilt, best silk quilt and best silk comforter.
Confederate Memorial erected in 1905
There were enough "disunionists" in Glasgow that the women of the Kentucky Women’s Monumental Association sponsored a Confederate memorial installed at the courthouse.
The 1880 census shows Eliza living with her family. Husband Samuel is a boarding house keeper---apparently they rented out rooms in that big house. Morgan and Mary Moss are teenagers at school. They had one male servant Robert Chapple and Eliza's mother Mary Trigg lived next door.
Daughter Mary Moss inherited her mother's artistic talent.
1897 Louisville Courier-Journal
Eliza died at 58.
Where are Eliza Trigg Brents's prize-winning show quilts today? We might guess that daughter Mary Brents Caldwell inherited them. A research trip to Glasgow to talk to some of the older residents might reveal some lost masterpieces.
Silk show quilt from 1848 with Julia D.L. Bass's name in the center.
These show-off quilts often showed off the maker's name.
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