Thursday, July 15, 1982             Westfield Republican

Dibble’s Dabbles

Memories unfold with an old friendship quilt

 

By Billie Dibble

In the spring of 1933 an energetic group of young women in Westfield were promoting many fund-raising activities which sound unique to us today.

They put on a Depression Party. They held a series of Vanishing Teas. Perhaps their most ambitious venture was the creating of a Friendship Quilt.

The group was the Stitchery Club which was organized on January 11, 1928 as an auxiliary to the Methodist Ladies Aid. The charter members were Miss Lottie Schoenfeld, Mrs. E. T. Judd, Mrs. Ralph Strickland, Mrs. Harold Watt, Mrs. Merle Findlay, Miss Alice Curtis, Mrs. J. Vernon Wantshouse, Mrs. Oscar Covell, Mrs. Arthur Macer, Miss Ella Weise, Mrs. Robert Hussey, Mrs. O. A. Ottaway, Mrs. R. H. Morganstern, Miss Augusta Schoenfeld, Mrs. Ernest Rexford, Mrs. Carlton Judd, Mrs. William P. Oakes and Miss Mary Wright. During the first five years the membership expanded from the eighteen charter members to an enrollment of more than sixty.

With Mrs. Erman Peck as the president and in the minutes recorded by Estella Amidon secretary, I read” Discussed making friendship quilt, It was planned to finish the quilt for Easter.” The February minutes recorded that the quilt material was ordered paid. In March, “Report was given on the quilt blocks.: At the May meeting Beula Waite reported $38.00 from the quilt.” In June a letter of thanks was read from Mrs. Welch for the quilt.

Today I unfolded that beautiful old blue and white quilt and read the names of about 380 people, most of whom lived in Westfield and many of whom I had known quite well. Attesting to the care and skill which went into the making of the quilt, only one of these names, painstakingly written and embroidered in blue floss, is illegible.

The quilt is made up of 20 blocks, each containing the autographs of 19 people. Family circles and circles of friends are grouped so that you can almost tell which Stitchery Club member was responsible for collecting the ten cents and signature from each person whose names appears on the quilt. For instance there is one block that bears the names of people who worked in the Welch Office up town – another for those in the factory and the print shop. Another reveals the names of folks employed in the telephone office and stores on Main Street – the National Bank (Patterson Crandall, Edward Reagan and Frank P. Wolfe).

One block, no doubt the one assigned to Ruth Ranson, showed the names of Rev. and Mrs. Frank McKnight and all the ministers who had served the Westfield Methodist Church who were still living in the spring of 1933 – including Rev. and Mrs. F. A Mills who were retired and living here at that time.

My mother’s name appears in the circle of friends of Charlotte Schoenfeld, of course, for they were life-long friends. I can remember when she embroidered “Mayme” Small” with the blue floss.

One complete block shows the names of the members of the Welch family including the name Lena Koch who was the faithful housekeeper in the C. E. Welch home for many years.

In 1933 Julia Frailey Welch , widow of Dr. Welch, was not very well and as a gesture of their love and esteem for her, the members of the Stitchery Club presented her with the Friendship Quilt, which she cherished. Some years later the quilt war returned to the church and offered for sale at a bazaar. At the end of the day no one had purchased it and rather than see it stored away, a far sighted lady made an offer and it was sold to her for a mere fraction of its value. She guarded it with tender loving care and today it is in the custody of Lois Downey who works diligently each year on the annual quilt show sponsored by the Westfield Hospital Auxiliary.