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Project provides window to past

The WV Quilters Documentation Project supported by WVEA meets at the Elkins Depot April 21-22 to study and record information about West Virginia quilts made before 1970. A fine local quilter, Fran Kordek, has made appointments for people who have quilts to be documented. This project is a wonderful way to learn about the tradition, culture and history of quilt making and the lives of the women who quilted.

In the process of cleaning out the Kump House, we have found the unfinished embroidered crazy quilt of Fanny Logan Scott (b. July 30, 1859, d. August 5, 1893, Beverly). She was the mother of Edna Scott Kump and four other children who died in early childhood. Fanny was not able to finish her crazy quilt, but it remains in beautiful sections at the historic Kump House.

In the late 19th century young women like Fanny made decorative folk-art quilts that represented the things they treasured most in life. A white cross represents Fanny’s personal commitment to Jesus Christ, and pastel appliqued birds and flowers represent her love of nature. We have even found skeins of unused silk tread with a bill of sale for velvet and embroidery silk for a total price of $2.59 from E. Ridley & Sons in New York (1887).

Perhaps the most unusual detail in the quilt is an 1888 political ribbon. This 2 x 6 inch piece of red silk advertises for three candidates: “Our Next President / Grover Cleveland / of New York / Our Next Vice President / Allen Thurman / of Ohio / Our Next Congressman / of Jefferson County.” Fanny sewed it in with the politicians’ faces down so only the bright red silk would show. After the Democrats lost in 1888, Fanny may have been discouraged, but we know that her husband became a WV State Senator, in 1892, and her future son-in-law, H.G. Kump was elected Governor in 1932. Fanny could not vote, but her daughter gained suffrage in 1920.

The following lines are from an August 1893 obituary found among Edna Scott Kump’s papers.

——

A Young Mother Gone

Mrs. Scott’s maiden name was Frances Irvin Logan. She was the eldest daughter of James H. and Mary G. Logan of this place, and was born in Beverly on the 30th day of July 1859. After a visit to the Centennial Exposition in 1876, she spent some time as the guest of an aunt in Pennsylvania and while there professed conversion to Christ, and upon her return united with the Presbyterian Church of Beverly, of which she remained a devoted member until her death. Her marriage took place on Jan. 26, 1886, the rite being solemnized by the Rev. W. S. Plummer Bryan, then her pastor, but now of Cincinnati, Ohio. She leaves three children — Edna, aged six years, Helen aged two and six months, and a baby boy aged about 14 days. In the early summertime of life, when hope seemed brightest, home sweetest and claims of motherhood strongest upon her, the Master pronounced her work finished and the messenger summoned her home.

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