19th Century Quilt

This crazy quilt was made by my great, great grandmother, Sally Van Volkenburg, in the 1850’s in Fulton Scoharrie County, New York, or in the 1860’s in Plainfield, Wisconsin after she moved there. It is covered with fancy embroidery stitches, a way that women then could show off their embroidery skills. The quilt was passed on to her daughter, Hattie May (Van Volkenburg) Lamb, then to her daughter (my grandmother), Mildred (Lamb) Johnson, and then to my mother, Hattie (Johnson) Lee, and finally to me.

My mother lived in Spokane, Washington, until she was 11, when her mother died in 1918. The quilt was one of the few things my mother was able to take with her on the train from Spokane to live with her mother’s sister and her husband in South Dakota. The quilt was always kept in a trunk, and I loved to take it out and look at it when I was a child. I was the only daughter in my family, so I now have this special quilt. In the fall and winter months we hang it on a wall in our den.

Contributed by: Lola Fodness
Created by: My great-great grandmother
Origin: It was passed down from one generation to the next.