By Florence Goodman

This month I will revisit some quilting history. Quilts have been around for hundreds of years, but during the mid19th century a particular type of quilt, the friendship quilt, became very popular for several reasons. First, as settlers began to move away from their hometowns a friendship quilt was given to them as a remembrance of their friends and family. Secondly, they were cherished gifts from friends and families during a nostalgic time in history. Friendship quilts came in two forms: the signature quilt and autograph quilt. Both were usually made of a single quilting pattern, which meant that each square was the same design and made up of different scrap materials. Usually, one person sewed each square together to form the large quilt. The difference between the signature quilt and autograph quilt was what was put on the squares. The squares of the signature quilt contained only the signature of the person who made that square while the square of the autograph quilt had a short verse as well as their signature. All of these signatures and verses were written in indelible ink. Judy Anne Breneman, a researcher of historical quilts, states, "Friendship quilts took time collecting fabric or blocks from each person, piecing them together and quilting the layers. Individual blocks on a quilt may have been made over several years and sometimes they were not put together into a quilt until years later. No matter how they were made they all had the same purpose, to record memories of cherished friends and family members."

On September 22, 2024, the Wolcott Historical Society received another historic quilt donation. The quilt is the Augusta Somers Miller quilt which dates back prior to 1864. It was owned by Augusta's daughter, Margaret Hall who was one of the founding members of the Society and at one time our town historian. This beautiful piece of our town's history was donated by Bonnie Fleming Richardson, Margaret's granddaughter and Lisle Fleming, her grandson. The quilt consists of six rows with seven squares in each row. Several of the squares have no names or the names are illegible. The rest of the squares have been signed or printed by someone associated with the Somers/Miller family. Some of the names found on the quilt are Miller, Hotchkiss, Frisbie, Kenea, Woolworth, Somers and Hayes. Considering its age, the quilt is in very good condition.

The following is a brief history of the Miller/Northrop/Hall family. Margaret's childhood was an interesting one. She was the third of six children born to Charles and Mary Ann (Pierpont) Miller on February 24, 1889, at East Farms and Oak Corner in Waterbury. This property is located on the corner of East Main Street and Frost Road. Her mother's family also lived close by on Pierpont Road, which was near the Wolcott town line. The Miller children spent many hours working and playing on these beautiful farms. Margaret's father, Charles S. Miller was a blacksmith; he was mechanically inclined and could repair or build just about anything and farm too. He was also an active member of the Mattatuck Drum Corps serving as leader for over fifty years as well as playing the snare drum and teaching drumming. The band would meet at the Miller home and Margaret and her sister Ruth would fall asleep while the band practiced loudly downstairs. Charles also researched genealogy and shared that knowledge with residents all over the state, which meant much traveling around the state. On many of his travels Margaret accompanied him.

Margaret married Clifford W. Northrop on November 17,1910 and lived in Waterbury. They had had four children Marian A, Betty, Jean M and Nita P. Clifford who was eleven years older than Margaret passed away in October of 1936. Margaret's second husband was George Hall who was from West Hartford and Wolcott. They resided in the historic David Bailey House located at 335 Bound Line Road facing the Green. They referred to this property as Juniper Ledge and enjoyed many years there with their adult children and grandchildren. It was during these years that Margaret became very involved with the local history and the establishment of the Wolcott Historical Society and the renovation of the stone schoolhouse museum on Nichols Road. She also loved to lead Sunday school and Girl Scout groups to a large piece of bedrock, behind the Grange Hall in Wolcott, on the "Juniper Ledge" estate, to point out the glacier marks found on it. Also, in this area across from Brooks Hill Road there is a large boulder that glaciers dropped and is named the "Ordinary."

The new quilt has been added to our collection at the Center School History Museum. The Museum now houses four autograph/friendship quilts. One is a 150-year-old signature quilt donated in 1985 by Hazel Pierpont. The quilt belonged to Beatrice Garrigus Pierpont of Maple Hill Farm on Pierpont Road in Waterbury. Her mother, Saphronia Elizabeth Upson Garrigus, gave the quilt to Beatrice. There are thirty-seven names signed on this quilt. The second quilt is an 1848 autograph quilt, which was a donated by Margaret Hall Carpenter, a longtime resident of our town, who was living at the Masonic Home in Wallingford in 2010 when she donated the quilt. Margaret's grandfather was Ransom Hall. The quilt is in excellent condition for its age, but more importantly it is like reading an old autograph book. It was made for Lucelia Merrill who was born and lived in Wolcott from March 30, 1831, to October 7, 1908. Each square on the quilt has a message for Lucelia from her friends. The fourth quilt is the Atwood quilt. In January of 2015, Walter Atwood invited me to accompany he and his wife, Sue to Washington, Connecticut. They were meeting with Sue Reich, a quilt appraiser, to have several of the family's antique quilts appraised, one of them being a friendship quilt with many well-known Wolcott residents' signatures on it. To my surprise, at the end of the appraisal, they informed me that the signature quilt was being donated to our Historical Society. This 1860s signature quilt from the Atwood family measures approximately 7' by 6' and is in excellent condition. Sue Reich felt that it was probably made after the Civil War because the brown fabric colors and particular quilt pattern are typical of that time. The quilt block pattern is called Chimney Sweep, Album Block or Christian Cross, which is the most popular design used in signature quilts.

The Wolcott Historical Society is honored to preserve these treasures of our past and hope that you might want to enjoy them as well. All these quilts are available for your viewing at the Center School History Museum at 154 Center Street. To set up an appointment call me at 203-879-8918.

(All information for this article was taken from Samuel Orcutt's The History of Wolcott, Connecticut from 1781 to 1874; and the June 2011, May 2013, Feb. 2015 and Jan. 2020 articles in the Wolcott Community News by Florence Goodman; Access the Journals of Charles Miller at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak/gen/miller/journals.htm)

Miller Quilt pre-1864

Augusta A. E. Miller square

Iva A. Miller square

Atwood quilt circa 1860s

Garrigus Pierpont Quilt circa 1885

Margaret Hall Carpenter quilt circa 1848

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