Names on Historic Quilt Are A “Who’s Who” of Franklin History

In Franklin, an almost forgotten textile more than 130 years old recently came out of storage. Its stitches show how closely-knit the town once was.

First Methodist Church members Bettye Plant, Connie Clark, and Marie Jordan used a magnifying glass to examine the quilt.

It’s a quilt, covered in signatures, many of them carefully stitched by hand in scarlet thread. Curator Joanna Stephens found it in the collections at Carnton Plantation, with no indication of whose names they were or why they’re there.

So Stephens pored through scrapbooks and press clippings, until she found that it was made in 1880 as a fundraiser for the First Methodist Church: ten cents to sign the cloth in ink, 25 to have it stitched on.

The name of Macon Bostick is stitched in this block; some of her family members signed nearby spaces in ink.

Many of the signatures are obscured by wear and tear. But the last names that are still legible read like a Franklin street map: McEwan, Bostick, Carothers, McGavock. When the church’s congregation examined the quilt, Stephens says they found plenty of names that were never on its membership rolls.

“Some of the people immediately knew, ‘that family went to the Presbyterian church, that family went to the Catholic church.’ So it appears to have been a real community effort.”

The finished product was given to the minister’s wife, then largely forgotten. Now that the quilt has been rediscovered, Stephens says some at the church hope to see it conserved and put it on display.

The entire quilt, back at First Methodist so that members can document its signatures.