A faded and
well-worn quilt is on display now at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum. Though it belonged to the Pry family, it has
only recently come back “home” to the house.
Let’s take a look at where it has been!
After the Battle
of Antietam in 1862, Philip & Elizabeth Pry's farm was stripped by the armies
of most of its resources, including the family’s food, livestock, lumber, and
even the crops in the fields. The once
prosperous farm was left in financial ruin.
Though Mr. Pry submitted a claim to the government for the items that
had been taken or destroyed, he was never fully compensated. In 1873, the family moved to farm on cheaper land
in Tennessee. Before the Prys left, many
of the local women got together and made a memory quilt as a
gift.
Memory quilts
were commonly made in the 19th century as going away presents. These quilts provided a way to remember
distant friends, family, and neighbors. Often,
the quilt blocks would be personalized with signatures, poems, or short
notes. One block on the quilt bears the
inscription, "Remember me, when this you see, though many miles apart we
be - your friend - Susie Hoffman." Though
the inscriptions could be embroidered, the ones on the Pry quilt are simply ink
signatures.
The quilt’s pattern is called Ohio Star. The center square of each block is a solid, light color which allowed the quilters to write their signatures and messages for the Prys. |
The quilt was
taken with the family to their new home in Tennessee. After Elizabeth’s death, it was inherited by
her daughter, Annie. Annie was the sixth
child of Philip and Elizabeth, and was just a year old at the time of the
Battle of Antietam. Annie eventually passed
the quilt on to her daughter, Elizabeth Jones.
When Elizabeth died in 1969, the quilt went to relatives in New
Jersey. It was later purchased at a yard
sale by Maggy Sluyter of Plainfield, NJ.
Maggy was intrigued by the signatures on the quilt and set out to find
its origin. Several of the blocks have “Keedysville,
Md” written on them. Maggy initially
misread the writing as “Kennedysville” and so sent inquiries about the quilt to
the Historical Society of Kent County, Maryland. She was referred to Mr. Doug Bast at the
Boonsborough Museum of History (near the Antietam Battlefield), who directed
her to the Keedysville Historical Society.
The quilt was donated to the Historical Society in 1999, and so came
back to the community where it was made.
This quilt block is signed, "Ellie M. Landis, Keedysville Md." |
More recently,
the Pry quilt was loaned by the Keedysville Historical Society to the Pry House
Field Hospital Museum, to be displayed in the house where the family once
lived. It is currently on display there,
in its former home.
Photos
courtesy of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.
As a quilter myself, it always fascinates me to see how they pass down through the ages. That quilt has had quite a journey!
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