Nineteenth Century Quilts Of St. Lawrence County - Part 2

Surely I'd never been interested in quilts before, but I was now. So here's Part 2 of the nineteenth century quilts at the Silas Wright House, beginning with this masterpiece, made by Catherine Keys of Black Lake. It was marked February 1888, a crazy quilt:

Another "Crazy Quilt," this one marked "To Adah, Dec 25 1896, from Josie:"

A Friendship Quilt from the town of Pierrepont, around 1888. Each of the white triangles had a signature:

Another Friendship Quilt, this one thought to have been a fundraising project for the Presbyterian Church of Canton:

A closer look revealed a signature in each of the white triangles. I had trouble reading the first word in most of them, but came to realize it was usually either Miss or Mrs:

A Rail Fence Quilt, made by Roxanna Swinning of Morristown:

A Floral Wreath Applique, made by Almena Estes of Canton about 1860:

A Six-Pointed Rolling Star Quilt made in patriotic colors from the Gibson family home in West Stockholm:

A Hexagon Baby Quilt made in various tan and pink calicos, typical fabrics of the 1860s-1890:

The lighting made it difficult to photograph, but I wanted to include this one. It was called "Grandmother's Flower Garden" and was hand stitched by either Beatrice Soule McVey or her mother, Emma Clousen Soule of Richville:

And here's a close-up, showing the intricacy of the pattern and the hand stitching. I was continually amazed by the time and effort involved in these quilts. And once again, it was easy to see why they were kept as family heirlooms for over a hundred years:

A Double Irish Chain Quilt from the Gibson family home in West Stockholm. But now that I had become such an admirer of these nineteenth century quilts, I was having a ball examining them and reading the attached descriptions. And there were still more to photograph and present to you, so I'll post Part 3 tomorrow:

A Trip To The Hopkinton Town Museum

I got to thinking that it had been several years since I'd seen the Hopkinton Town Museum and August was the month when it was open, albeit for only a few hours. So I searched the internet for the schedule and found none. I began making phone calls and found the president of the Historical Society who said it was open for two hours that very day, though he couldn't guarantee it because the volunteers had forgotten to open up the previous two Saturdays. So I drove down to the lovely, shady village green:

I parked, and walked over to the museum building:

Inside, they had a very old and beautiful pump organ:

Various mannequins, dressed in period clothing:

A comfortable parlor from a bygone era:

I climbed the stairs and found lots of quilts:

The signature or friendship quilt, with all the people's names, was especially interesting. I could only guess what the "$1.60 amt" meant. Perhaps it was a fund raiser, and these people had donated $1.60 each, a lot of money back in the day:

And just when was "back in the day?" Another panel on that same friendship quilt told the story. It was stitched in 1902:

There was an entire room devoted to old fashioned school houses:

And a bedroom, complete with a set of "woolies" long underwear, hanging on the footboard:

Downstairs in the kitchen, this wonderful cupboard intrigued me. I've searched the internet for exactly what to call it, but "cupboard" is all I could come up with. Any ideas?:

The kitchen, of course, had a great wood stove. There were two other outbuildings which I'd visited last time, but the volunteer had no keys. So I thanked her for her kindness and returned home. I am glad that so many towns are preserving bits of their history. Perhaps there is hope for the human race yet: