Rose of Sharon with Buds Quilt
Attributed to Margaret Wright Dickinson of Missouri.
Texas Quilt Project & the Quilt Index
Yesterday's post was about the quilt on the left attributed to Margaret & Gillie Wright.
We find out much more about Gillie & Margaret in a similar quilt that descended in another branch of the family.
The quilts are remarkably alike. See the edge of folded triangles, the stuffed work
quilting, the triple swag border and the white embroidery detail along the applique's edge.
Above Quilt Index information researched by the Texas project, which featured this quilt in their book Lone Stars, pages 54-55.
The maker's great-granddaughter, born Iris Mitchell, brought in the quilt for documentation and told the project that Margaret Dickerson (ca 1845-1916) stitched it in the 1860s in Missouri and brought it to Texas with her about 1875. Margaret had 4 children, the third was Gillie Dickerson Mitchell, Iris's grandmother, born in Texas in 1874. If you will recall the quilt at the L.A. County Museum of Art is attributed to Margaret and Gillie Wright. Iris noted that Margaret Dickerson's sister was also a quiltmaker named Lula Wright and a third quilt was made for a man named Van Wright who moved to California.
The Texas book tells us
"Applique was done with a running stitch, overlaid with a perfect
chain stitch...outlining each piece and every layer."
Yesterday I thought that might be couching
but this is probably how it was done too.
So we have a Margaret Wright Dickerson and her daughter Gillie Dickerson, who left a paper trail.
Family Search
Gillie Dickerson, born in 1874, is too young to have had a hand in the quilt.
She married James Floyd Mitchell (1865-1950) in 1891
in Coleman County, Texas. She, James and several children are
buried in the Atoka Cemetery.
Atoka in northwest Coleman County, about 35
miles south of Abilene.
Coleman County
Little remains of Atoka today.
Margaret moved to Pasadena in Harris County to live with
Gillie's brother.
The 1910 census tells us that Margueret E. Dickerson lived with
son Arthur L. in Harris County. Margaret was born in Kentucky;
Arthur in Missouri in 1871, indicating Margaret was living there as late as that.
Arthur was a florist in the Houston/Pasadena area.
Margaret's death certificate tells us her father was R.P Wright, also Kentucky born.
She was born December 4, 1835. Note the cross-out on her name. Perhaps it
was some form of Marguerite.
Her cemetery marker at Crown Hill Cemetery
in Pasadena is recent and spells her name as Marguerite.
Apparently the cemetery was neglected in the 20th century
and headstones were lost.
Sketch of the block, set on point
Margaret (Marguerite) Wright Dickerson must be the same Margaret Wright associated with the LACMA quilt.
Stuffed work in the two alternate plain blocks in the center of the Texas quilt.
Stuffed work on the LACMA quilt
She must have lived in Missouri in the 1860s as at least one child was born there but so far no records. Then again, Missouri in the Civil War's 1860s might be viewed as bureaucratic chaos.
Monroe County, where the California quilt is said to have originated,
is between Hannibal and Moberly.
Tomorrow: A Third Quilt
