Thursday, July 16, 2009

My Mother Was a Quilter



A cascade of vintage quilting fabric brought back memories of growing up with a mother who was a quilter. As the caboose in the family, I frequented the quilting bees she attended because there was no one at home to tend me.

My parents raised my older siblings during the depression and were grateful to have the cloth from flour sacks to make pajama’s, aprons and probably play blouses to wear under my sister’s jumpers.

Even though I was born two decades later than them, I also heard the constant refrain; “Wear it out. Use it up or do without”. The extreme lessons learned in the depression never left my parents minds.

Hence, the pattern of the vintage fabric produced a flashback of laying my bored, tired young body under a quilt frame with a quilt stretched across it. Surrounding me were the legs of a dozen women wearing similarly patterned dresses, thick hose and ‘sturdy’ shoes. I can still hear their constant chatter, laughter and the occasional ‘Ouch!’ from an errant stitch. Once the “chickens in the coop” started to cluck, my eyes rarely stayed open for more than two minutes. Maybe someone should sell that sound as a sleep aid for children and men.

Of course I married a quilter. Not necessarily by conscious thought, but certainly to my delight. The craft has passed on to our daughters and daughters-in-law. When I sit in my chair in the living room and they all gather to discuss their latest projects, designs and favorite fabric patterns, the two minute rule is still in effect. Cackle, cackle, ….. snore….

Unfortunately, all of the guys in our family think there is a downside to our wives hobby. Sometimes we are dragged by them, (usually screaming), to a fabric store.

Reading the Pickles comic strip makes me think its creator has a copy of the security tapes from my visits to these stores. I’m obviously the inspiration for the strips covering this subject.

 


Mom’s quilting legacy lives on in the current generations. They don’t make many quilts out of old Levi’s and worn out shirts like Mom did, but they do help several quilting stores remain viable in our area.

I’m glad the legacy is being passed on to our granddaughters. They are full of creative ideas and are bonding with the older quilters in the family in ways that make me smile.

I wonder how far back the quilting talent can be traced in their lineage. It was probably less ‘fun’ for the earlier generations. Our grandmothers were sewing clothing to wear and quilts to warm their beds rather than the current creations that are produced under less pressure and thus with probably a little more enjoyment of the work.

Looking at some of the designs in my grandmothers old quilts makes me think that there was more than a little whimsy stitched into their designs though. The patterns are obvious, but when you explore the stitches closely, you often discover the quilters initials and other signature stitch designs. If you spend just a few minutes more, you can see the elongated, crooked and loose stitches that were made by the young folks in the family who were being taught the craft as they sat in on a quilting bee.

All the quilts our ladies have made are Treasure. Pure Treasure.

That’s family history you can touch!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Ground Did Not Pay Very Well - Today Only Got Ten Dollars

March 1856 found spring flowers blooming in Calaveras County. Reading the entries in David Lewis Drew’s diary, spring rain and high water from winter snow melt impacted his efforts to recover much gold from the river.

Although David and his partner consistently found gold in their sluices, they had to pay expenses associated with repair materials and investment payments on other mining properties in addition to other living expenses.

David received a letter from his father, David Drew, of Plymouth, Massachusetts in the last week of the month. The mail took 40 or more days to travel across country. Postage costs were very high in comparison to the rates today, so communication by the Massachusetts miners back to their homes in Plymouth were typically limited to once every other month or so.

As noted in earlier posts, David’s spelling has been left intact in this transcription. Writing in a shirt pocket sized diary while sitting on a cot in your tent did not lend to worrying about perfect spelling or lengthy entries.

March 1856

SATURDAY 1 -- finished ground sluceing below the dich to day. here it is spring again time seemes to slip away awfull fast.

SUNDAY 2 -- Went up on the Flat to day. dry times up there watter dried up.

DLD_diary_pg16_sm MONDAY 3 -- Commenced ground sluceing above the dich today.

TUESDAY 4 -- Found the dirt so hard above the dich that we concluded.

WEDNESDAY 5 -- Ground did not pay very well to day only got ten dolars.

THURSDAY 6 -- Quit about the midle of the afternoon. The slide company are sluceing across our dich and cut it away. White went up to Columbia after letters. did not get any.

FRIDAY 7 -- Got our watter on this morning and went to washing.

SATURDAY 8 -- Been to work in a sink to day and it paid pretty well. Got forty dolars. Took out $97.50 this week.

A "sink" is a low spot in the bedrock of the stream bed. Frequently these were especially rich in gold nuggets.

SUNDAY 9 -- Went up to Columbia to day. Paid $26.50 expenses on my Shaws Flat claim.

References to "the flat" may have meant just up on the generally level ground around Columbia, Springfield, and Shaws Flat, or specifically Shaws. The latter was a fairly well established town, and apparently was the headquarters of a number of the Pilgrim Mining company members who came out from Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1849, as well as those, like David Drew, who followed later. Most of the speculative deals in which David was involved were with other members of this group of Massachusetts Argonauts.

MONDAY 10 -- Shifted Sluice and washed the top dirt.

TUESDAY 11 -- Pretty warme to day and does not look as if it was agoing to rain again this season.

WEDNESDAY 12 -- Looked like rain all day to day. but does not seem to make a raise. took out six oz and ten dollars to day.

THURSDAY 13 -- Rained a little last night and has looked squally all day to day. Washed down and shifted sluice this afternoon

FRIDAY 14 -- Rained this afternoon so that we did not work. the river rose so about night that we thought it best to take our boxes and spouts.

SATURDAY 15 -- Good weather this morning. Put in our boxes and spurs and went to washing. Took out $265.25 this week.

SUNDAY 16 -- Went up on Shaws Flat to day. Paid an assessment of $11.00 on the New York tunnel.

MONDAY 17 -- White stoped up to Columbia last night to try and sell some of our shares in the Know Nothing tunnel.

TUESDAY 18 -- White came down to day. has disposed of one share. and there is a prospect of getting clear of the rest.

WEDNESDAY 19 -- Commenced ground (slucing) to day. We have come to the conclusion that it is not going to rain again this year.

THURSDAY 20 -- Been pretty warm too day. and it makes the sweat start. The floweres are a begining to bloom on the hills.

FRIDAY 21 -- The river rose considerable this fornoon. the affects of warme weather

SATURDAY 22 -- Len was not very well to day and so he did not work.

Gold Miners stocking up SUNDAY 23 -- Went up on the Flat to day. Took diner at Capt. Bartletts. set a pretty good table.

MONDAY 24 -- River is up pretty high this warm weather melts the snow.

TUESDAY 25 -- John is down to day a prospecting the bar above.

WEDNESDAY 26 -- It looks as if we might have some rain to night. and I hope that we shall for it is needed bad enough.

THURSDAY 27 -- It looked bad enough to rain too day but it is starlight to night.

FRIDAY 28 -- Len was not very well and did not work.

SATURDAY 29 -- My self and white went to Jim town at day to attend a meeting of the K.N. tunnel company paid an assessment of $13.50 to the share.

SUNDAY 30 -- Staide on Shaws Flat to day raind pretty much all day. Received two letters one from farther and one from Charly Wadsworth.

MONDAY 31 -- Came down from Shaws this morning worked a few minits and it commened to rain and kept it up all day Wrote to farther to day.

The Twig That Knocked Down A Brick Wall

None of the descendants of Hiram Anderson had been able to find his ancestry. A single scant clue to his lineage was in the note stating that he was born ‘on the north branch of the Potomac River.

Single individuals and cousin groups had searched for the meaning of this phrase for years. Finally, two cousins who live many states away contacted me via the web and our ancestral musings rekindled the quest.

I lived closest to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, so the task to spend whatever time required to break this brick wall in our ancestry fell to me. There were only two days available in my schedule for months ahead, so I spent them at the library from door opening to door closing. If a book or film had any reference to any Anderson in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia or West Virginia, I copied the page, listed the source reference on it and tucked it into my briefcase to review later during late night hours at home. My time in the library was too valuable to spend any of it analyzing the pages.

There were a lot of promising clues but none detailed any facts that could tie our Hiram Anderson to the Anderson families in that area.

Night after night, I extracted the facts on the photocopied pages into a new database that I’d created for this quest. All the handwritten notes, drawings and poor copies were scanned and enlarged to be studied on my computer monitors.

This activity continued for weeks with no success and then one night I noticed some tiny writing on the branches of a hand-drawn image of a family tree. Hiram’s uncle had long ago drawn the tree for his extended family and a copy of it survived to be published in a family history. When I enlarged the area of interest by 500%, Christmas arrived early.

There, detailed in small print, was the name of Hiram Anderson with the correct names of his siblings. He was the son of William Anderson and Nancy Ann Forshee. The puzzle pieces all fell into place. Because his parents names were in the database that I’d created from the research copies, I was able to construct both sides of Hiram’s ancestry for several generations.

Hiram's parents move their family from Anderson's Bottom in Hampshire County, Virginia west to Fairfield, Ohio in April 1806. In February, 1807, Hiram's mother died leaving William with six children. The youngest, Rachel, was only two years old at that time. The family struggled to survive on the frontier, building a log home, clearing the land for farming and growing enough food to eat.

As with most early settlers in frontier settings, births, marriages and deaths were usually only recorded in a family bible, if they were recorded at all. This was true for the Anderson family.

William Anderson's father, Thomas Anderson, served as a captain in the Revolutionary War and was involved in the surrender of Cornwallis that effectively ended the war. He had also served as a captain in the local militia protecting the settlements in western Virginia from attacks by the Indians and British. Both he and his father, William, knew George Washington personally. As a young man, General Washington worked as a surveyor and frequently stayed with the Anderson family. Service to their country and fellow men was deeply instilled into the hearts and minds of the men of the Anderson family.

At the outbreak of the War of 1812, William Anderson and three of his brothers joined the militia in defense of the fledgling United States against the British and their Indian warriors. Three of the brothers didn't survive to returned home. Among them was Hiram's father, William Anderson, who had died at Fort Malden, Ontario, Canada. Hiram was left to support and raise his younger siblings alone.

No wonder birth, death and other records were difficult to find. A move to the frontier where record keeping was scarce. A mother dying soon thereafter leaving a husband and six children scrambling to survive and carve out a home and farm from the raw land. A war that took the father from the home to never return.

I'd love to shake the hand of my great grand uncle who drew the family tree so there was a record of Hiram's lineage that was created by someone who knew him personally.

Fortunately, several primary and many secondary sources were in the stack of copied records about the Anderson Family. Because I had time at home to carefully sift through the pages, details emerged that helped fill blank lines in my database. They also pointed me to other areas to search including specific documents and sources that were in the Library in Salt Lake and some that required written requests and associated fees.

The twig on the tree expanded to bring down our brick wall. To date, we have only found circumstantial evidence of Hiram’s ancestry in other records. The hand-drawn tree by his uncle is the only record that lists Hiram with his parents.

Sometimes the smallest clues bring great rewards. Moral: Never give up. Check, double check and even triple check all of the data from your research. The smallest element may be the seed that expands to break down your brick wall.