People do enjoy finding and photographing the names of relations on the quilts. The Heritage House Museum, Mt. Ida, Arkansas during the summer of 2010 had on display a collection of quilts including six signature quilts. The names will be transcribed after the exhibit is changed up. The quilts all belong to the HHMMC museum and found in the main hall in the spinning/quilting exhibit. Quilts have also been used to accessorize the full size bed in the log house and the bed in the museum. Beginning in 1928 the Kansas City Star printed a different quilt pattern each week. Quilters cut them out to save. The museum has a notebook showing some of the patterns before they stopped being printed in 1961. The pattern "Many Roads to the White House," was a classic Kansas City Star pattern made of scarp pieces. Such fun quilts could be used anywhere. The museum has one that belonged to Lola Bradley Wells.
Tulip Quilt
In the late 1800s Sarah Standridge Wheeler and several of her daughters made quilts using the tulip pattern. This quilt belonged to daughter Ada Wheeler Widener. Fabric remnants from clothing made for various family members were carefully saved to make the quilts. The batting was made from cotton raised on the Wheeler homestead in the Owley community. Sarah A. Standridge was born on 22 Feb. 1859 in Montgomery Co, AR. She died 14 Dec. 1928 and is buried at the Owley Cemetery. Parents: Samuel J. STANDRIDGE and Sarah Ann Margaret BATES. She was married to Pleasant Montgomery Wheeler 10 Feb 1876. Children were: John Riley, Sam Jesse, Ada Minerva Josephine b: 28 Jan.1884, Jones Pleasant, Ruthie Jane, James Joel, Mary Edda, Laura Violet, Thomas Newton Wheeler.
Grandma Nelson "N"
These quilts are not your artistic quilts that you see in
quilt shows of today and the quality is not high and they were made from scraps
of multi coloured material, from old dresses and shirts. Quilts were put away
for the summer and dragged out for winter, either used or given as a gift,
treasured, and not used, either stored in a chest or were displayed on a quilt
rack in a bedroom or living room. If
you want to see 100 - 200 high quality quilts plan to attended the
annual
quilt show at the Mt. Ida Fairgrounds, the 2nd weekend in October. This year,
8th, 9th & 10th Oct. 2010. Montgomery Country and surrounding counties still has
some of the best quilt makers in the States. They also showcase heirloom quilts
and have a raffle quilt.
Clover Valley Friendship Quilt
Birthday Greetings from the Clover Valley Boys and Girls,
Sept. 5, 1939. To Our Teacher Mr. Grady Qualls.
Two of the signatures: Sylvia Neighbors and Tommy Land. It was a tradition
through the first half of the 20th century for families to present the teacher
of their children with a community or memory quilt. The blocks are the same
style but pieced of different patterned and colored fabric and each student's
name was stitched in the block center.
It was also a tradition to make quilts as gifts for engaged young ladies and for others celebrating a special event. In 1974 The Mt. Ida Church of God Ladies' Aid group finished quilts for many members of the community and would quilt a regular size quilt for $10 and $20 for one they had to do by the piece. The weekly meeting records were kept and can be found at the museum. The museum has a 1930s friendship quilt made by members of the First Baptist Church of Mt. Ida probably used as a raffle item for a fund raiser with about 195 names stitched onto the quilt.
Outside in the log house.
Friendship Quilt, 1944
Home demonstration agents began their work in Arkansas about 1912 slowly revived old skills. This quarter pattern signature quilt with an unusual border was made by the Extension Homemakers club when Miss Ola Mae Walton was the extension agent for Montgomery County and each member signed it.
| Mrs Etta Apple Mrs Elmer Baker Mrs Mary Dell Bakke Mr John W. Hennessee |
Melvin Lee Simpson Betty Jean Simpson Billie Sue Simpson Tommie Simpson William R. Simpson Mrs Zelma Simpson Otus Simpson |
Robert Lee Sims Hattie W. Watkins Mrs W.G. Watt Mrs Lori Wingfield |
Yell County Record,
Danville, Arkansas Wednesday, January 8, 2003 Obituary
William Rufus Simpson, age 91, of Mt. Ida, Arkansas died
Monday, December 30, 2002, at the Montgomery County Nursing Home in Mt. Ida. He
was born July 15, 1911, in Fir, Arkansas to the late John Tubb and Martha Jane
Hennessee Simpson. He was a retired automobile mechanic and a
member of the Mt. Ida Church of God. He was preceded in death by his wife,
Zelma Simpson. Survivors are 2 sons, John Thomas
Simpson of Hot Springs, AR and Melvin Lee Simpson of
Mt. Ida, AR; 3 daughters, Billie Sue Sanders of North Little
Rock, AR, Betty Jean Bonady of Wynne, AR, and Deborah Lynn
Cunningham of Anchorage, Alaska; grandchildren, Phillip Sanders of Little Rock,
AR, Scott Sanders of Fayetteville, AR, Suzanne Robinson of Americus, Georgia,
Jill Thew of Mt. Ida, AR, Joy Shepherd of Wynne, AR, Sarah Bonady of Wynne, AR,
Nan Wilson of Mt. Ida, AR, Sally Rupert of Ft. Smith, AR, Don Cunningham of
Clarksville, AR, Lee Cunningham of Anchorage, Alaska, Geoffrey White of Denver,
CO, Jennifer White of Anchorage, Alaska; great grandchildren, Hunter Sanders,
Hayden Sanders, Phoebe Sanders, Sophie Sanders, Isabella Thew, Whitney Wilson,
T. J. Wilson; 2 sisters, Beth Beam of Mena, AR and Lucille Housley of
Clarksville, TN. Funeral services were Tuesday, December 31, 2002 at the Mt. Ida
Church of God with Pastor Willis Summitt officiating. Burial was in Little Fir
Cemetery. Arrangements by Cornwell Funeral Home, Danville.
Quilts at the museum in 2019
The museum in 2019 has 35 quilts, about 15 of them friendship
quilts, with three quilts on display. The others are stored rolled up in a
backroom and images and additional information in the museum database.
2000 Friendship, 1932; Oden Community
2010 Friendship, 1936; Union Hill Community
2015 Friendship, 1930s, Alamo
2010 Friendship, 1939, Mother, Clover Valley
2001 Friendship, 1944; Hurricane Grove
2000 Friendship, 1944; Circle
2011 Military Quilt- Names of servicemen from Montgomery County 1945
2000 Friendship, 1950; 4H
2000 Friendship, Lone Valley Church of God, Sims
2005 Friendship, "Album"
2013 Oden Graduation Seniors
2007 9-Patch Mrs Ward 1890s
2001 Sarah Wheeler 1890s, "4 Tulip block" quilt
2007 Grandma Nelson "N"
2007 Grandma Nelson, 4 Square & Jacob Ladder quilt
2007 Mrs. Ward's 1920s blocks n sashing
2012 Norman Garden Club, 1940
2000 Tacked, 1942, Assembely of God
2000 String, 1950; Spider Block
2012 "Kansas City Star" or "Wheel of Change" 1960
2001 Lola Bradley Wells, String quilt
2015 Scrape quilt, "Gay"
2012 "Endless chain", peach
2013 "Economy Blue"
2015 "Kewpie Doll"
Friendship quilt c.
1944
This quilt was assembled by the families of Hurricane Grove. What was the
occasion and who was the recipient? Names are from these families: Black,
Standridge, Stanley, Bates, Kinsey, McKinney, Todd and Sekavec.
My dear ones at Union Hill. 1936. Hester. Jesus light of the world.
Bell Stachey, Ada Dell Stachey. Ceil Stewart.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
(Little Rock) Friday June 18 2010 Obituary
Whether serving his pharmacy customers or spreading his Christian faith, Audell
Stachey was constantly on his feet - no small achievement for a man who
developed gangrene in both his feet while serving in the Army, his son Tim
Stachey said. Even though he couldn't bend his ankles, he worked as a pharmacist
from 1960 until 2010. Audell Stachey died Tuesday at Baptist Health Medical
Center in Little Rock from a subdural hematoma resulting from a head injury he
suffered in a Monday car accident near the Perry and Pulaski County line. He was
79. Stachey was born March 1, 1931, in Story in Montgomery County to Monroe
Stachey and Hester
Baker Stachey. He was inspired to learn the piano at 16 while singing with his
siblings in a church quartet. He played throughout his life. He graduated from
Mount Ida High School at 17 in 1948. He married Billie Jean Hardage in 1952, and
they had two children. She died in 1996. Stachey joined the Army in 1953 as a
chaplain's assistant. While stationed in Germany in 1955, Stachey developed
gangrene after a patrol in the snow. He was honorably discharged as a corporal.
Although pharmacists stand for long hours, Stachey knew that was what he wanted
to be. He received his state pharmacist's license in 1960, and went on to work
12-hour to 14-hour shifts six days a week, with shorter shifts on Sundays. In
1965, he opened Wakefield Pharmacy and worked there until it burned down in
1991. Despite his pain, on Sunday mornings and evenings, and on Wednesday nights
he would play the organ at Unity Missionary Baptist Church in Little Rock. He
played there 51 years. Preceded in death by two sisters, Avadell Rico of Hot
Springs and Alice Collins of Fort Smith.
Many of the quilts here are hand sewn and hand quilted with real cotton as batting that was hand carded. The museum does not have any flour sack quilts as of yet. The underside of the quilt was often made of muslin or flour or sugar sacks sewed together and dyed turkey red or lemon yellow. I did have one from Oden, made by Miss Cordelia Willhite, until last winter, 2008, hand made, the top was made from flour sacks interspersed with scraps of multi coloured material from the girls dresses and it was heavy with cotton batting. My son, unfortunately, decided to make a bed for his black lab one winter night on the porch with the quilt and I realised it was gone when I found only wee bites and pieces on the lawn a few days later. The trash had already ran and I couldn't even salvage a square or a pieces of cotton. He did a good job cleaning up the lawn. It was gone! I didn't even get a photo of it. Photograph your quilts and start a portfolio! Cordelia not only made quilts, she made aprons, the children's clothes, braided floor door mats, they were round, bonnets with wooden slats inside the material (the pioneer sunbonnet), glass bead work dollies and she played the banjo and violin at the county fair.
THE FLOUR SACK
By Collen B. Hubert
In that long ago time when things were saved,
when roads were graveled and barrels were staved,
and worn-out clothing was used as rags,
and there were no plastic wrap or bags,
and the well and the pump were way out back,
a versatile item, was the flour sack.
Pillsbury's Best, Mother's and Gold Medal, too
Stamped their names proudly in purple and blue.
The string sewn on the top was pulled and kept;
the flour emptied and spills were swept.
the bag was folded and stored in a sack
that durable, practical flour sack.
The sack could be filled with feathers and down,
for a pillow, or t'would make a nice sleeping gown,
it could carry a book and be a school bag,
or become a mail sack slung over a nag,
it made a very convenient pack,
that adaptable, cotton flour sack.
Bleached and sewn, it was dutifully worn
as bibs, diapers, or kerchief adorned.
It was made into skirts, blouses and slips.
and Mom braided rugs from one hundred strips.
She made ruffled curtains for the house or shack,
from that humble but treasured flour sack!
As a strainer for milk or apple juice,
to wave men in, it was a very good use,
as a sling for a sprained wrist or a break,
to help mother roll up a jelly cake,
as a window shade or to stuff a crack,
we used a sturdy, common flour sack!
As dish towels, embroidered or not,
They covered up dough, helped pass pans so hot,
tied up dishes for neighbours in need,
and for men out in the filed to seed.
They dried dishes from pot, not rack
that absorbent, handy flour sack!
We polished and cleaned stove and table soured from cellar to gable,
we dusted the bureau and oak bed post
made costumes for October (a scary ghost)
and a parachute for a cat named Jack
from that lowly, useful flour sack!
So now my friends, when they ask you
as curious youngsters often do,
"Before plastic wrap, Elmers glue and paper towels, what did you do?"
Tell them loudly and with pride don't lack
"Grandmother had that wonderful flour sack!"
and feed sacks!!