1888 Shaftsbury Signature Quilt

04/26/2024

08/14/2023

If you missed seeing the quilt at the Galusha House you have a second chance at the Left Bank on August 16th. Hope to see you there.

08/01/2023

BLOCK 25 Myron Barton/Mrs. Myron Barton (husband and wife)

Myron Barton was the son of Hiram and Lucy (Howlett) Barton. He was born in Shaftsbury 17 April 1821. His first wife was Adaline S. (Galusha) Barton was the daughter of George and Lucy (Burnham) Galusha. Adeline was born 6 November 1825. Myron and Adeline marry 1 September 1846. They had one child, Arthur Sedgwick Barton (1848-1897). He was born 17 April 1848. Adeline passed away 1 June 1849 a little more than one year after Arthur was born. Arthur dies at the age of 47 from pneumonia.
According to the census of 1850 Abiah/Abia Fisk (18) is living with her Uncle Lemuel (50) and Aunt Abiah E. (47) Bottum. Abia (18) was the daughter of Truman and Freelove (Andrus) Fisk. Freelove (Andrus) Fisk and Abia (Andrus) Bottum (47) were sisters. Truman and Freelove had moved to Castile, New York which is about 300 miles from Shaftsbury. During the 1830's Castile grew rapidly and was famous for its Sanitarium also called the “Water Cure”. It is assumed they moved there because Abia's (18) mother, Freelove was ill. Abia (18) wanted to stay in Shaftsbury for her upcoming nuptials to Myron Barton. Also, in the 1850's census are her cousins, H. B. Bottum (22) and Edward (17). There were four hired laborers included in the count as Lemuel's large farm required much help.
On 10 September 1850 Abi E. Fisk marries Myron Barton. It is assumed she helps raise Myron's son, Arthur. She and Myron have two children together; Alice May (Barton) Bottum (1857-1922) and Mary/May Parks (Barton) Huntington (1867-1940).
The Federal Census of 1870 records Myron (49) living in Shaftsbury with his wife Eliza AKA Abia Elizabeth Barton (38) and three children; Arthur (22), Alice (13) and Mary (3). Also, in the household are Helen Turner (23), a domestic servant, and John Quinn (16), a farm laborer.
The Census of 1880 reports Myron (59) and Abi E. (47) are taking care of Myron's father, Hiram (85). Their oldest daughter May P. Barton is 12. May P. shares (BLOCK 17) with her Grand Aunt Mrs. Abia Bottum. May P. eventually marries John Huntington (BLOCK 31).
When the quilt was signed in1888 Abia would have been 56 and Myron were married for 38 years.
By the Census of 1900 Myron (79) and Aba (67) were raising their grandchildren Eliza A. Barton (23) and Arthur M. Barton (12), children of Arthur S. and Emma (Hawkins) Barton. Arthur S. died in 1897 and Emma lives to the age of 62. It unknown why her children did not stay with her after Arthur's death. She and Arthur are buried together in Center Shaftsbury Cemetery.
Myron Barton died 30 June 1903 from a Cerebral Tumor. He was 82 years old. Abia died 24 September 1912 of Apoplexy (sudden loss of consciousness from a ruptured blood vessel causing lack of oxygen lack to the brain, now commonly referred to as a stroke) at the age of 80 years, 3 months and 15 days.
Both Myron, Adaline S., and Abi are buried in Center Shaftsbury Cemetery. Their three children are also in Center Shaftsbury but in different plots with their own spouses and children.
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Please review BLOCK 17 for the biography of Mrs. Abiah Bottum. That biography includes a brief history of the the family name of “Abiah/Abia”. It appears to be a well loved, respected and often used in the lineage of the Andrus/Andrews family. One of the first “Abiah's” was born in Tisbury, Massachusetts 22 September 1693.

This group focuses on the genealogical history of the quilts signers.

Signers’ histories were researched using Ancestry.com, Find-a-Grave.com, and Newspapers.com.

07/25/2023

BLOCK 24: W. S. Rhoades/ Maud D. Wilkins

This researcher was able to find a headstone for a W. S. Rhoades (1866-1919), who is buried in White Chapel Cemetery, Bennington, Vermont. Others in the same plot are: Wm. Goodamote (1862- ____) and his wife Lydia Mattison (1861- _____). If this is the W. S Rhodes whose name appears on the quilt he would have been 22 years old in 1888. He moved from Shaftsbury to Kansas the following year.
An obituary found in the Roseville Reporter (Roseville, Kansas) printed on 27 March 1919 records the death of Scott Rhoades (Winfield Scott Rhoades). He died in a hospital in Roseville and his body was shipped to his half-brother, Mr. Goodamote, in Bennington for burial. Winfield, who seemed to prefer using his middle name, had lived in Roseville for 30 year. He was a farmer on the Mulvane Ranch. There are no records indicating he had a wife or children.
A Federal Census of 1910 documents Scott (45) as being a farmer living in Roseville. At that time he was single.
His half-brother William Valentine Goodamote was the son of Valentine and Adelaide (Cross) Goodamote. He was born in New York 28 March 1862 and passed 19 April 1928. According to his obituary he came to live in Shaftsbury when he was about 13 year old. He was a Teamster and worked for Henry M. Tuttle Co. He married Lizzie (Lydia) Matteson in White Creek, New York. They had no children, which is most likely why their dates of death were never placed on their headstone.
Other than stated In Winfield Scott Rhoades' obituary that he and William Goodamote were half-brothers there are no records indicating William's mother, Adelaide (Cross) Goodamote was ever married to a man named Rhoades.

07/25/2023

BLOCK 24: W. S. Rhodes/Maud D. Wilkins
� Maud D. Wilkins' life is recorded in Newspaper announcements from the various social events she attended. The first notice was on 28 September 1892 when she left her home in Bethel, VT to go to Bishop Hopkins Hall which was a finishing school at Rockpoint Farms in Burlington, VT. 28 December 1892 she returned from school to her home in Bethel, VT. On 28 March 1894 the Burlington Free Press states “Miss Maud Wilkins is home from Bishop Hopkins Hall on a vacation. Miss Gratia Wilkins is also home from Saratoga Springs, N.Y.” In doing research on Gratia I. Wilkins (Block 27) it is apparent they are sisters; the daughter of Rev. G.A. and his second wife Mary M (Mack) Wilkins (Block 20). Maud was born about 1878. When the quilt was signed she would have been 10 year old.
Maud graduates from Bishop Hopkins Hall 15 January 1894 with a 96.3 average. On 10 July 1895 she returned from Isle La Motte. 14 June 1901 she is in West Lebanon, N.H. visiting Miss Annie M. Batchelder. 6 August 1902 she and Mrs. F. B. Ball of Brooklyn, N.Y., who was possibly a cousin, were visiting the family of the Rev. G.A. Wilkins in West Lebanon, VT. Word of her wedding appears 10 January 1903 in the Burlington Free Press. “Announcement is made of the marriage of Miss Maud Wilkins to Edward Brown Wardle at Brooklyn, N. Y. Christmas Eve. Mrs. Wardle is the daughter of the Rev. George A. Wilkins, formerly rector of the Episcopal Church in Bethel, VT and was formerly a scholar in the Bethel High School and at Bishop Hall at Burlington.” Maud and Edward's marriage on 24 December 1902 is recorded in the N.Y. U.S. Extracted Marriage Index, 1866-1937. According to the Federal Census of 1875 Edward Wardle was the son of Joshua and Annie W. Wardle of N. Smithfield, Rhode Island. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire class of 1899, majoring in engineering.
The 1910 Federal Census records them as living in Essex, N.J. Edward (35) is a civil engineer. Maud (31) was home with their children Gratia (5) and Harry (0) months. In the household was her mother Mary Wilkins (76). Maud's father, Rev. George A. Wilkins had died 18 April 1907. This census states her mother was born in England so this is definitely not the Mary Wilkins on Blocks 1 & 20. Maud names her daughter Gratia after he sister Gratia Wilkins (Block 27).
Maud's husband registers for the WWI draft on 2 October 1918. They were living in Grand Mere, Quebec, Canada at the time. He was 44 years old and described as being slender with medium height and build. He had blue eyes and brown hair.
The census of 1921 documents Edward (48) and Maud (43) and their three children still in Grand Mere, Canada. The children are Gratia (17), Harry (11), and Rosemary (8). Edward's father, Joseph (77) lives with them and there is no mention of Maud's mother. They have a servant and gardienne (nanny).
Edward dies first on 11 July 1951 at the age of 77. He died from metastatic cancer, was cremated and buried in the Wardle family plot in Slater Cemetery at North Smithfield, R.I.. Maud dies two months after his passing on 29 September 1951 in Queens, N. Y. at the home of her daughter Gratia (Mrs. Phillips Wood). She is buried in Hartford Cemetery in Hartford, VT. The death year on her headstone is incorrect. Perhaps a descendant knows why she was not buried with her husband.