Researching the History of Trails End

Since my quiltmaking began with my grandmother, Nanny, at Trails End Farm, I wanted to learn more about it's history. I have many fond memories of visits to this place where my mom grew up. She also shared stories of those younger years.

Some of them involved quiltmaking. As I thought about this, I realized my quilting heritage was connected with this farmstead. My daughter, granddaughter, and I are carrying on this tradition.

So....why not research the history of the farm and its inhabitants...and write about them? That also will tie in with the family genealogy research I continually do.

You can imagine my excitement when I discovered the old deeds to the farm, tracing it's family history back to around 1800! My grandfather's aunt and her husband, the Niles, owned it for many years. Then they sold it to Grandfather's father, William Coons. Over the years, William purchased neighboring land to add to the original farm.

When he died, his son Burton B. Coon inherited. (Burton changed his name from Coons to Coon, maintaining he was only one person!) Burton was my grandfather, whom we called Papa Coon.

Here my mother grew up with her sister and two brothers. Here we (her four children) visited often. Sometimes my sister and I spent a week at a time at Trails End during school vacations. By that time, Papa Coon had died and his son Webster now owned the farm. He, his wife Bessie, Nanny, and her daughter Esther (or Auntie) lived there.

As I research and learn more about the people who resided there over the decades and write down my memories, Trails End and it's quilting heritage take on new meaning.

(c)2007 Mary Emma Allen

Preserve Your Quilt Memories Through Journaling

I've been discussing at my b5media blog, Quilting and Patchwork, preserving your family memories, including those of families involved in quilting. My quiltmaking began with my grandmother when I was 8-years old. It was revived during the Bicentennial years of 1975-76.

You may want to read some of the articles at Quilting and Patchwork about family memories and quilting, including the responses I've received from readers.

What are your thoughts on preserving your quilting memories? Do you do this?

Researching Susie

Since my grandmother's friend, Susie, played a role in our quiltmaking, attending the tying sessions at the dining table, I decided to find out more about her. She was a figure in my childhood, too, often at Nanny's home when I visited. Susie also helped care for Nanny when she was ill and helped Auntie with housework and did sewing. Even though Susie probably was paid for housework, she was a friend.

It was many years before I realized that Susie had Negro blood she was so fair skinned. As we children got older, Mother mentioned this, perhaps realizing we'd hear something or notice that her hair was tightly curled or her skin was dark, not tanned, in winter time.

Checking the Census

Where is the first place one goes when trying to find more information about a person who lived years ago? Those involved in genealogy know the census is very helpful. Ancestry.com usually has many of these.

I did learn from the census that Susie was unmarried in 1920, the last census where I found her, but I know she must have lived until the 1940s because I remember her. I knew there were men in her life, but these were her brothers. Her mother was living with them in the 1910 census.

Then I traced her mother in earlier census and learned whom she married. I traced his genealogy and found his family. Since I don't know the mother's maiden name, it's difficult to know much about her family.

Although I'd been told Susie was Negro or black, on all the census except one, Susie and her family members were listed as mulatto. So that would account for Susie being so light skinned.

By tracing Susie's background, I'm trying to give her a place in history. (As far as I can tell, she has no descendants. Susie and her brothers were unmarried.)

Susie has a place in my Trails End memories, as a lovely, dignified lady who cared for my grandmother, attended our quilting sessions, and was a friend of the family.

Quilters' Tea Time Traditions

As I read my grandfather's journal, I discovered that he, Burton Barker Coon, discussed tea time and his mother's group of quilters. When the neighboring ladies gathered to work on their quilts, they might serve tea, he said.

His mother, Mary Barker Coon, was one of my ancestors, part of the group I call the Trails End Quilters. My daughter, granddaughter, and I continue their tradition of making and enjoying quilts.

To learn more about tea time traditions, some that evolved in my family and others I've discovered around the world, visit my blog, Tea Time News & Notes at http://tea-time-notes.blogspot.com .

More Quilting News & Information

If you'd like to read my other blogs/web sites with information about quilting and patchwork in addition to that involving the Trails End Quilters, check out:

Quilting and Patchwork at: www.quiltingandpatchwork.com

Quilter's Potpourri at: http://quilterspotpourri.blogspot.com

Here you'll find a variety of postings and stories about quilting past and present.

Mom, Write Down Your Memories

"Mom, you spend time researching our family history and telling me stories about Grandma and Great Grandma. But you need to write down your memories for me and your grandchildren," my daughter said.

So often we think other people's memories and stories are more interesting and important than our own. However, to our families, as Beth reminded me, ours are a part of our family heritage as well. (This also includes our quilting memories and journaling about what we're doing today. Involved in this would be research and writing about us as Trails End Quilters.)

I began relating some of my childhood memories, as well as those of later years, so they would become part of my daughter's and my grandchildren's background.

Perhaps in the future, they will be as excited to learn about my life as I am about my great grandmother's letters telling of homesteading in the Midwest. Your journals, your stories, and your memorabilia are part of the heritage that binds your family together.

The Favorite "Blankie"

Most children have a favorite blanket or toy that follows them through their early years. Some only feel the need for a few years. Others will have it on their bed, at least, into teen years.

This is something familiar to comfort them when the challenges of being a child seem overwhelming. This helps them fall asleep, overcome fears, and simply make them feel good.

I made small patchwork quilts for each of my grandchildren at their births. These were of the Rail Fence Design…blue, white, and yellow for Kara and green, white, and yellow for Alex. (Kara was four years old when Alex was born; we have photos of her helping me finish it.)

Kara used hers for many years and now has it packed away. Alex’s has become very worn, so that their mom has patched and re-patched it, front and back. Finally the back couldn’t be patched any more, so she put on a completely new one, using fabric that matched his pajamas.

(Read about this blankie and see pictures at her blog: http://meanderingthreads.blogspot.com )

I never imagined when I made these crib quilts for my grandchildren that they’d become so treasured. It seems I was carrying on a tradition. My grandmother made my brothers, my sister, and I bed-sized patchwork quilts (with me, at 8-years old) helping her. I was so pleased when I discovered my mother had saved mine.

©2006 Mary Emma Allen

(Mary Emma Allen lives with her family in a multigenerational household in New Hampshire. Visit her other quilting web site: www.quiltingandpatchwork.com )

Quilting with Susie at Trails End

When I think of my grandmother’s friend Susie, tying quilts around the dining table at Trails End comes to mind. I’d helped cut and stitch pieces for quilts Nanny made for us four grandchildren. Now I felt so grown up as she, Aunt Esther (or Auntie as we children called her) and Susie invited me, a mere eight-year old, to help tie the quilt spread out on the large table.

Susie also assisted my grandmother, Nanny, and Auntie at canning time, spring cleaning time, harvesting season, and other occasions. She was between Nanny and Auntie in age, as near as I recall. At family gatherings, Susie often attended, helping with the meal, joining the activities. She attended Christmas festivities. We gave her gifts and she made some for us. In later years, when Nanny was an invalid, Susie became her companion.

It was years before we children realized Susie was more than deeply tanned. One evening, we stayed overnight at her cozy home because all of Nanny’s guest rooms were filled with other relatives. Perhaps one of us children asked a question; perhaps Mother thought we’d see some family pictures; perhaps someone had made a remark.

Mother mentioned that Susie and her brother, who lived with her, were Negroes. Their parents had come to the community many years before; Susie and her brother had grown up there.

The fact that Susie was of a different race made no difference to us; she was still “our” Susie and a friend who was considered part of the family. So I never thought to ask her about her heritage and why her family came to settle in the small town where Trails End Farm was located.

I wonder now, if her parents or grandparents had any association with the Underground Railroad. Did quilts play a role in their escaping from the South? Since my prominent memory of Susie consisted of her chatting and laughing with Nanny and Auntie as we tied quilts, I wonder if they were part of her heritage.

When I research, reminisce, and write about the Trails End Quilters, Susie stands out as one of those ladies who contributed to my quilting and patchwork heritage.

(c)2006 Mary Emma Allen

Christmas Cookie Exchanges

An exchange of cookies among friends or family is another way of sharing our baking.

Did the Trails End Quilters have cookie exchanges as a way to share cookies for the holidays? Or did they simply take gifts of cookies when they visited one another? I guess you might say they did because I've been involved in a few and consider myself one of a long line of Trails End Quilters.

Cookie exchanges can be organized in several ways. Keep the number to about 6, with each person bringing a dozen cookies. Then the hostess will divide them up, so each person receives an equal number of each type.

If you have the group much larger, the distribution can become rather unwieldy. However, there are many variations on this. Also, if you’re meeting at the friend’s home for refreshments, as well as exchanging, bring some extra cookies to share with tea, coffee, or holiday punch.

When a friend organized a cookie exchange, she had 12 people participating. We all dropped our cookies at her home at a specified time. She then made the exchange and packaged each on a party plate, and we picked our goodies up later in the day. It had proved difficult to get all the participants together in an evening as it approached Christmas, so this way worked well.

(c)2005 Mary Emma Allen

(If you'd like to share stories about your cookie exchanges, e-mail me: me.allen@juno.com. Type "Trails End Quilters blog" in the subject line.)

Quilting Bees & Teas

My grandfather, Burton Barker Coon, writer and farmer, mentioned in his memories his mother’s quilting, the fact that the ladies might together for afternoon tea and cut 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 quilts, bake bread and do all kinds of housework….,” he related.

I wondered what they served with their afternoon tea. Then I browsed through my aunt’s cooking notebook, in which she jotted down favorite family recipes. There were several for cookies and cakes. Perhaps the ladies in the neighborhood enjoyed these as they chatted, cut pieces, and quilted.

(c)2005

(If you have questions about quilts and quiltmaking, e-mail me: me.allen@juno.com. Type the words "quilt blog" in the subject line.)

Sharing Quilting Knowledge

I find so much enjoyment in sharing my quilting experiences and research with others, reading from my book, displaying my quilt collection and telling about my Trails End quilting heritage. One fun time consisted of participating as a guest speaker at a local historical society. They asked me to talk about quilting history and my book, The Magic of Patchwork.
Since I’m also a school teacher, I’ve found that “show and tell” will hold your audience’s attention rather than simply reading or talking…unless you can give a dramatic performance. So I brought along several of the quilts from my collection, along with quilt patches and pieces.

I particularly like to show the quilt I made with my grandmother when I was 8 years old. I recall sitting beside the woodstove in the kitchen hand sewing the pieces together. Nanny made one of these quilts for each of her four grandchildren and embroidered our initials on a corner.

Imagine my delight when my mom found this quilt with my initials and gave it to me when I was making quilts during the Bicentennial years. Showing this quilt often brings memories to mind for my audience about quilts in their heritage or collections.

©2005

(If you have any questions or memories to share, leave me a note in the comments section.)

Trails End Quilters of the 1870s

As I read my grandfather’s writings, Fifty Years Ago, Rural Life from 1876, I was delighted to realize he’d included information about his mother’s quilting at Trails End Farm, in Dutchess County, NY. I knew, from this, that my quilting heritage definitely traced back to my great grandmother, Mary Barker Coon, and earlier.

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 quilts, bake bread and do all kinds of housework….,” he related.

Then he mentioned “quilting bees” that were common in his childhood. “The quilting frames would be brought down from the garret, the middle of the sitting room cleared, the frames put together with clamps, and the corners laid on the backs of four chairs. Then the quilt, pieced perhaps by a daughter in the family, would be stretched on the frame, the cotton batting inserted, and all would be ready for the bee.”

He told how 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.”

“I used to like to hear my mother tell, ‘Now I had a dress like that, and an apron like that, and you had a little green sun bonnet, and a dress like that, and grandma a dress like that, and Aunt Susie one like that.”

He described the quilts: “ I could see them all in stately array. There were no loud patterns. The figures were small and the colors very bright and lasting.”

From my mother’s tales of sewing get-togethers when she was a child and Mary Barker Coon an elderly lady, I imagined my great grandmother stitching quilts in her younger days. Her son’s description of quilting when he was growing up substantiates that quilting occurred at Trails End Farm in the 1800s. He also indicated that his mother learned to sew quilts when she was a young girl, before she married and came to live at Trails End.

As you research your ancestry, you may find that you have a fascinating quilting heritage, too.

©2005

(If you have any questions or information to share, e-mail me at: me.allen@juno.com. Include the words “Quilting Blog” in the subject line.)

Daughters Quilting

Watching your daughter excel in quilting becomes exciting for a mom. When mine is invited to participate in quilting exhibits and teach classes, it’s enjoyable to realize our Trails End family tradition of quiltmaking will continue.

Recently Beth participated in an exhibit of the Fiber Arts Friends at their annual Art Quilt Show in Plymouth, NH. Their display fascinated viewers with quilts and hangings that take quilting beyond the traditional forms. They blend the new with the old and incorporate a variety of materials.

These ranged from king-sized quilts and large wall hangings to postcard and playing card size pieces. Fabrics made up the basic material, but they also used beads, netting, scarves, threads and non-traditional items to create work that reflected their various styles.

From this exhibit, their art will be displayed in a nearby gallery during the coming month.

©2005

Creating Hangings from Old Quilt Squares

When we found several old quilt squares midst my mother’s memorabilia after her death, my daughter and I wondered how to share them with my sister, her daughter and daughter-in-law…in other words, the other gals in the family. We weren’t sure who had made them. In all likelihood, it was one of the Trails End Quilters.

My mother grew up at Trails End Farm and her mother introduced me to quiltmaking when I was eight years old. I knew my mom hadn’t made the squares, so it must have been someone in her family since they were among other items she’d received after her mother’s death.

There weren’t many of these hand stitched quilt squares. If we made a quilt or hanging of them, only one person could enjoy it. My daughter suggested she add a border around each and put them in frames.

This is what we did. Now each female in the family has a bit of Trails End quilting in her home.

There are other ways we could have finished these bits of memorabilia ,and they can always be taken from the frame for the owner to create something else. For instance, they could become the centerpiece of a hanging, by adding more borders and other patchwork around it. A quilter could find older fabrics and make other blocks using the same pattern, then use the original as the center block of the quilt.

Or she could make a pillow of the square, a tote bag, a piece of clothing. We preferred, to place the squares in something to hang on the wall so they’d have longer life.

What have you done with your family quilting and memorabilia so the handiwork of previous generations isn’t forgotten?

©2005 Mary Emma Allen

(If you have questions or information to share, e-mail me. )

Quilts for Disasters, the 1860s & Now

As I’ve researched my children’s book, Papa’s Gone to War, concerning the Civil War era, I discovered that women then, as they do now, made quilts during times of disaster. Quilters are responding to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina by providing quilts for those who need bed coverings, especially for children who might be comforted by their own “blankie” when all around them is new and strange, or wrought with destruction.

During the Civil War, women made various items for the soldiers away from home. Among these were quilts the soldiers carried in their bed roll. Chief among the organizations collecting quilts and distributing them to soldiers on the battlefield and in hospitals was the United States Sanitary Commission.

The Commission coordinated many of the clothing and bedding collection activities. This organization was begun in New York City at Cooper Union or Cooper Institute. Their Soldiers Relief Circles met throughout the Union, generally once a week, from 1 to 4 P.M. The ladies also did more work at home.

(In my book, Mandy, her grandmother, aunt, and several other ladies got together to work on quilts for their menfolk. A scene in my book takes place at a quilting/sewing session. I even may include a pattern in the book for youngsters to sew, as Mandy did.)

Were my Trails End ancestors among the ladies who met weekly and stitched clothing and quilts for the men fighting to hold the Union together? I've not come across any factual data about this, but it seems likely they did participate in this way. I do know that some of the men in the neighborhood fought in the war.

When you make quilts for use and commemoration (some groups raffle quilts to raise money for disaster victims) during times of trouble, you’re part of a long line of quilters who respond to help those in need by using their needlework skills.

©2005

Cousin Virgilia & Quilting

Cousin Virgilia and Quilting

My mother had a favorite memory about quilting that she recalled until Alzheimer’s captured her mind. When she was six-years old, she received a letter from Cousin Virgilia, her father’s cousin.

It’s amazing to me that Mother kept this letter and treasured it in her latter years. As she held it and read it to me, she’d recall other stories about Cousin Virgilia and early quilting days.

I’ve also quoted from this letter in my book, The Magic of Patchwork: “My Mama said when I was six-years old I had pieced blocks enough for a quilt, and I can remember sitting at her side sewing.”

Mother said she sat beside her mother, grandmother, and older sister with sewing tasks when she was that same age. They made quilts, sewed clothes, and, of course, did endless patching for the family.

This is part of my Trails End Quilting heritage, for that’s where my mother grew up and the quilting skills and lore passed along to me originated…on their farm at the “end of the trail” in New York State.
©2005

Feed Sack Fabrics

“Mom, there’s a yard sale down the road and they have printed feed sacks!” Beth called as we drove in the driveway when they lived in Ohio. “I got some this morning. But they had quite a few left.”

So I left Jim with unpacking the car while Beth and I dashed off to the yard sale. Yes, there were feed sacks there to add to our collection. These were of the era when I was a young girl making quilts with my grandmother.

Many of the fabrics Nanny and Auntie (the daughter who lived with my grandmother) used for their sewing projects and for quilts at Trails End. My family bought their chicken and cattle feed in burlap and plain white sacks. So it was with fascination that I looked over the fabric from sacks Nanny and Auntie acquired.

I still have a drawstring skirt I made from one of these sacks for a 4-H project. The first item I made to model in our 4-H dress review. It has a red background with small white flowers over all.

You’ll often find these feed and flour sacks at yard sales and in antique shops. The prices generally are higher in the shops than the yard and garage sales. Sometimes if you purchase a box or batch of fabric at an auction or estate sale, you’ll find some of this old fabric.

Feed sack fabrics for quilts and sewing projects constitute some of my Trails End quilting memories.

(c)2005

Introduction to the Trails End Quilters

I've discovered my quilting heritage evolves from the quilters who lived at Trails End Farm, in Milan, NY, the home where my mother grew up, where her mother and grandmother also lived and were involved in quiltmaking. This is where I sat beside my grandmother, in her country kitchen, when I was 8 years old, and helped sew my first quilt blocks.

That quilt was one of four Nanny made for her grandchildren. I still have the one we made for me, although it's well worn and faded.

I took up quiltmaking again, at my mom's urging, during this country's Bicentennial years of 1975-76. This developed into a quiltmaking and patchwork business, along with writing about this topic for quilting magazines. Eventually I wrote a book, The Magic of Patchwork.

My daughter has become a quilt designer and quiltmaker, who is gaining recognition in her field. Her daughter also has begun following in the footsteps of the Trails End Quilters.

I hope you enjoy the stories I share about my quilting heritage which began with the quilters at the Trails End Farm.

(I also write a general quilting blog at www.aboutweblogs.com/quilting. )