Tag Archives: books

The 1903 Jackson Corners Signature Quilt Book

16 Wednesday Mar 2022

Posted by in 20th Century, Books, Fiber Arts, Genealogy

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Oh hey I forgot to post here as well…

I finished the book! You can buy it! It’s real!

Go to Oblong Books in Millerton or Rhinebeck to get a copy, or order it from their online store! I also have a separate blog for the book which you can check out here: jc.44parkave.com

I posted back in 2011 that I had gotten the quilt and was thinking that I should write a book about it. Took a decade, but it’s done. I’m speaking about it in various places and if I remember I’ll post about them. The first talk is tonight. I’m super nervous. If it doesn’t stink and they record it, I’ll try to remember to post a link here.

Books, Books, Books…

07 Wednesday Jul 2021

Posted by in 20th Century, Books

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I’m wrapping up the 1903 Jackson Corners Signature Quilt book hopefully by the end of the year.

I’m also working on a small booklet about the Red Hook Methodist Cemetery on Cherry St., TBA

And since 2012 I’ve had The Illustrated Life & Times of John Losee of Upper Red Hook on the backburner.

Once the Jackson Corners book is in my hands, I’ll pick the Losee book back up.

Happy Birthday, Grampa!

John Losee, born July 7th, 1907, 114 years ago today.

John Losee of Red Hook

13 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by in 20th Century, Genealogy

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Recently, my aunt Jan was cleaning and discovered a box that had belonged to my grandmother Clara Losee full of Losee genealogy notes, original source documents and the most precious thing I have found so far: “My Story” as written by my grandfather, John Losee.

When I started doing research and going through what I had, my mother said that this short autobiography existed but I couldn’t find it. We feared it to be lost.

It is 65 pages typed single space and is pretty comprehensive and surprisingly interesting for a story about a man who was born and died in Red Hook.

After scanning the document and converting it to text I am now editing the conversion (some of it came out greeked) and at about halfway through I realized I have a photograph for just about every detail he describes. Some of the images in the collection now make sense in context of the story. Just a few days ago I decided I should make a book…

The working title is “The Illustrated Life & Times of John Losee of Red Hook”. What I have envisioned sounds like a lengthy and daunting process, but I think it’s too good to pass up. The above snapshot is indeed of Grampa Losee c. 1933 lying on a rail road track with a lantern by his head.

Here’s one of the more eyebrow-raising excerpts from the manuscript about goofing around while attending Rutgers (1925-1929):

He was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment and came back with his hand and face bandaged. He was treated to free drinks at a local speak-easy for the next two weeks while the bandages were on. Here ended the bomb making. Much later I learned that the New York State Conservation Department experimented with the mixture to fire trapping nets for bird-banding but abandoned it because it was too sensitive to detonation!

The c.1925 chemical burn victim above was his roommate Phil, who I now know is the same Phil who was setting decoys on the Hudson in 1940 in this favorite image. If you blew your roommate up in your dorm room today, you’d be booted out of school and his family would sue you out of existence. Not only did Grampa complete his degree at Rutgers, the roommate became his hunting partner! Sort of makes me pine for a less litigious time.

Signature Quilt – Introduction

20 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by in Fiber Arts

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A 70″x80″ piece of family and local history was recently passed down to me from a great-aunt who had it passed down to her from her mother. It doesn’t have a name, thought had been calling it “the textile”. On doing some initial research, it appears to be a sort of “signature” quilt. Other names for such a piece are “album” or “autograph” quilt. Names I recognized from my family tree appear on it as well as those of a great many other local folks. I do not know how or why it was created, or even if it was made all at once or over time.

Signature (or Autograph) Quilt: a quilt made from blocks which have been signed on individual blocks. May be made as a friendship quilt by friends and family of the owner, or as a fund raiser.  Signature quilts were a popular fund raiser by the Red Cross and some church groups in the early part of the 20th century.

– Quilting.com

It’s constructed of muslin and embroidery thread and is unfinished–both in the sense that it has not been made into a quilt and that the edges are raw. The work is simple and in some squares rahter crude, but it is still something I treasure. Before stowing it carefully in an acid-free archive box, I photographed each of the 42 panels and transcribed the names that appear on each. Almost all of the panels are different, though most of the handwriting is in the same two or three hands, so I’m not sure it qualifies as a “signature” quilt by strict definition of the word.

The area in which the textile was made was surely around where my family lived in the Town of Milan, NY. Some names on it appear to be from the towns of Red Hook, Rhinebeck, Pine Plains, and Milan, in Dutchess County, NY and Gallatin and Livingston in Columbia County, NY. Below is panel #33 which is the only panel to have something other than a name written on it: the year 1903. On looking through the census for 1900 and 1910 I have found many of the same names right where they should be. I am currently researching all of the names on the quilt and plan to publish a book or booklet about the piece in the future.

At left, click to enlarge, is Panel 6 – 3 (#33 of 42)

Text: 1903, Herald Coons, Willis Bathrick, Harm Bathrick, Ward Bathrick, Mrs. Ward Bathrick, Willie Baker, Lulu Bathrick. Red, pink, yellow, grey and white embroidery: child, Greek helmet, heart-shape, carnations.