Lucy Loch Hallman's Sewing Box

A few years ago I bought a package of quilt-related ephemera, the papers

and quilt pieces and patterns of Lucy Ann Loch Hallman.

In the manner of girls Lucy Ann wrote her name in several places.

"Lucy ann Hallman

Paper April 

the 9 18.62"

Her married name.

Pattern for something like an oak leaf and reel...

...sort of like this classic design.

The fabric pieces seem related. Here I've guessed....

The newspaper patterns are cut from a German-language newspaper, not surprising since Loch and Hallman are German names and the patterns were found at a Pennsylvania estate auction. I couldn't find a date in the newspapers but did find a mention of Perkiomenville, a community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Lucy Ann left quilting designs and patchwork patterns.

The quilting designs are typical mid-19th-century Pennsylvania.

Lucy Ann Loch, before her marriage

And many embroidery designs, possibly traced from

the fashion magazines of the day.

Embroidered edge for a baby's blanket

published in Peterson's Magazine

A collar from Godey's Lady's Book

I had a lot of clues as to who Lucy was but there are quite a few Lochs and Hallmans of German descent in Montgomery County. However, I think I found her. Lucy Ann Loch was born November 14, 1844 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in Southeastern Pennsylvania, daughter of Henry and Lovina (Levina) Scholl Loch.

Here she is at five years old in the 1850 census, only child of blacksmith Henry and Lovina. Her name is spelled Lucana---Lucy Ann?  A second daughter Catherine had been born in 1847 but lived only 15 months. Lucy's father died in 1855 and her mother remarried Johannes Bartman (1810-1902).

One of Lucy's papers is an account page signed by Abraham Hallman. There are two Abraham Hallmans in the neighborhood, father and son. (Forgot to mention they are tailors.) Abraham and Miss Meyer (?) seem to be paying her for piecework sewing.

She may be sewing coats and pants (Bants in German-inspired English)

for a tailor and making not a bad sum--- $18.44 in 1860.

The Abraham Hallman family had another son John Trumbower Hallman (1835-1914) who married Lucy when she was in her teens, possibly in 1862. She gave birth to a son Frank in January, 1863 but never recovered from childbed, dying in April soon after she'd turned 18.

We can imagine her grieving family saving her sewing box. Perhaps it was her mother who kept these pieces. What a pleasure to have a souvenir today of a long ago girl's life.

Lucy was buried in the Wentz Cemetery in Worcester, Montgomery County,

much changed since 1863.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125891843/lucy-ann-hallman