Trails End Quilters of the 1870’s – My Quilting Heritage
April 14, 2008 by Mary Emma Allen
Filed under Home & Living
As I read my grandfather’s writings, Fifty Years Ago, Rural Life from 1876, I was delighted to realize he had included information about his mother’s quilting at Trails End Farm, in Dutchess County, NY. I know from this that my quilting heritage definitely traced back to my great grandmother, Mary Barker Coon.
Papa Coon, as our family referred to Burton Barker Coon, writer and farmer, mentioned the women getting together for afternoon tea and cutting out pieces for quilt blocks.
“They would take their sewing along and have a very pleasant time. All the girls were brought up to piece quiltsk, bake bread and do all kinds of household chores,” he related.
Then he mentioned quilting bees when four or five neighborhood ladies came to help. “Needles and tongues would vie with each other in making bed spreads and history,” he wrote.
Papa Coon called each quilt a “sort of souvenir piece.”
Are you researching your ancestry to see if you have quilters in your heritage? Are you making quilts now as souvenir pieces for future generations.
I’d love to hear about the quilts in your family history.
(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen
This is very cool, ME! thanks for telling this story. My husband and I have been tracing our family histories. My aunt did some quilting, mostly counted cross stitch, but I’m sure there are other quilters back there who passed on their love of quilting to me.
I’m pleased you enjoyed this piece, Jean. I’ve found it interesting to learn about the quilters in my family and the heritage I have. Fortunately my grandfather was a writer, in addition to being a farmer, and liked to write about the everyday topics of life. I’ve learned much about life in his younger years by reading his writings.
We have no quilters that I know of back deep in my family, but plenty of women who were fabric artists in other media. I’m thrilled for you that you were able to learn this bit of history!
How wonderful to have your grandfather’s writing and your grandmother’s quilts! What an incredible blessing!
Cyndi and Noreen, it was such fun to find my grandfather had written about quilting and quilting bees in his reminisces. He wrote for his pleasure and was published in a number of local newspapers. To support his family though, he was a farmer and lay preacher.
It also was exciting to trace my quilting heritage back to his mom. On my husband’s side of the family, we have quilt tops made by his grandmother.
How neat to discover this piece of your heritage Mary Emma. I don’t know of any quilters in my direct lineage but, when I was very small, a family friend whom we called Aunt Mary, would bring her quilting circle to our house.
We had a large basement where the ladies could arrange a frame of chair backs over which they would stretch a quilt. Then they would work together to do the final tufting.
Aunt Mary would have been born before the turn of the 19th century. It makes me wonder where she learned her quilting skills and if the ladies of Slinger Wisconsin have carried on the tradition.
We have a quilt from my husband’s grandmother, but that’s about it for my quilting history. You have a nice story though!