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Old Welsh Quilt Has Wisconsin Ties
A Welsh Signature Quilt that was recently donated to the Great Plains Heritage Centre (GPWHC) in Wymore, NE , has ties to Wisconsin . The quilt, which dates from about 1914, was owned by Mrs. Ethel Williams Winter, a longtime member of the St. Davids Society of Minnesota, and is thought to have been a WWI fundraising project. It is made up of 56 blocks, containing about 29 signatures each--and most of them have Welsh-sounding names.
I did some work with members of the GPWHC to identify some of the names, with hopes of locating living descendants and fleshing out the story behind the quilt.
Research on the Elijah Evans square (pictured) has led to families who were living in Milwaukee and in Troy, IA, at the time. For instance, Elijah Evans, who was 94 years old in 1914, is very likely the same Elijah Evans who was born in Wales about 1822, immigrated to the US in 1891, and was a widower living in Milwaukees 7 th Ward in 1910.
Some of the Powell signatures on the same block have also been traced to Milwaukee. Jane Powell is thought be to the widow of William Powell , a railroad agent. Their son, Rees, was married to Mabel, and they had a daughter, Mary. In 1930, they were living at 776 Hackett Ave., Milwaukee , and Rees was working as a department superintendent in the life insurance business.
This family may be connected to the Powells in Troy, IA, who are listed in the same quilt block. Catherine Powell (Mrs. C) was the widow of Robert Powell . Their daughters were Jannie or Jennie, Ellen, Laura, Martha, and Olwen.
I also located some families from Slatington, PA , and began work on some names from Wales, WI . The common Welsh names are hard to sort out, especially when only an initial is used for the given name, but by using what clues are available and combing the census and other records, it is possible to find clusters of quilt names.
Anyone with any information about this quilt should contact Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre, P.O. Box 253, Wymore, NE 68466 , or may contact Mona Everett at mona_sydd_yma@yahoo.com or in Madison at 608-334-5669.
More information on the quilt can be found in the January 2008 issue of Ninnau 
.
