Collection of DAR Museum Gift of Mrs. T.L. Tolbert
1852 made in Cooper County, Missouri
The last of the three related Missouri quilts was given to the D.A.R. Museum in Washington D.C.
by a family member who knew quite a bit about it. The quilt has something to say too. In the quilting:
"Mary Ann Poindexter 1852 I Marshall Staples April"
While the blocks are rather commonplace the border is not.
Mother Elizabeth Daniel Poindexter was born in Todd County, Kentucky about 1807 and married Peter Poindexter on September 12, 1825. In the early 1830s the Poindexters moved to Illinois with three young children and Elizabeth gave birth to two children in Illinois. After about a decade they moved west to Missouri, settling near the town of Lone Elm in Cooper County, 10 miles south of Boonville where Peter was recorded in the 1840 census.
The photos do not show it well but stuffed quilting
decorates the alternate blocks.
Mary Ann's husband John Staples died in May, 1865. She was left with five children under twelve; the youngest girl Johnnie Marshall Staples born that year was named for her father after his death. The widowed Mary Ann gave the quilt as a wedding present to her younger sister Elizabeth who married William Park Gunn on August 18, 1872. The Gunns moved to Sherman, Texas taking the quilt with them.
We know counties for two of the three Missouri quilts.
Cooper & Monroe, not far from each other
The last quilt has no known connection to the Wright family associated with the first two.
But certainly there is a visual connection especially in the borders and corner motifs. The Poindexter quilt does not have the embroidered detail outlining the applique that the other two have or the folded triangle edging.
But it does have stuffed quilting like the other two.
The Poindexter quilt may be a knock-off, inspired by the Wright quilts.
Could there be more?
American Folk Art Museum
Whig Rose and Swag Border,
Attributed to the Morton sisters, Russellville, Logan County, Kentucky
Swags and a sampler of stuffed work
Read a post about the Poindexters and Staples in Missouri here:
And one more last minute addition tomorrow.
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