The genesis Bob Hursey OCTOBER, 2002 -- Three years ago I observed a beautiful quilt hanging in the Ohio Historical Museum. Each square was designed and intricately crafted by the wife of an Ohio General during the Civil War. This gave me the idea for a millennium quilt to be made up of blocks submitted by each family on our family tree. The idea was enthusiastically received at our reunion that year and it was decided that any medium could be used, but each block should represent something about the family. Our goal was to have it completed before the new millenium began in 2001.
This goal turned out to be somewhat ambitious as it took some time and persuasion to get our modest and busy families involved. Regretfully many family members are being left out of the quilt because no blocks were received, but this was probably inevitable given how scattered the family seems to be. But there had to be a shut-off eventually and now, in 2002, albeit a couple years past the millennium, the quilt is closed to new squares and Minnie Hursey is putting it together.
The quilt should available for all to see at the 2003 reunion in Clyde, Ohio. I am sure you will agree that it was worth the effort.
Our thanks to all who participated in this family project, and especially to Minnie Hursey who put in many hours doing the most difficult task of all.
I recall Momma's quilting bees when our dining room at lake park was filled with her big quilting frame and her friends and neighbors busily gathered around it, to gossip and make quilts. Quilts, in those days of unheated bedrooms, were not merely ornamental, but practical and essential on cold winter nights.
Our Ohio Historical Society owns hundreds of historic quilts, and many of them will be displayed in a new exhibit at the museum beginning November 2002.
[NOTE: At the 2003 family reunion in Clyde, the family voted to have the quilt permanently hung at Great Scott Farm, the old Willis Murphy homestead now owned by John and Gracie Murphy.]