Arizona Quilt Documentation Project lists a circa 1870 quilt by Martha Hunter, wife of Thomas Hunter; the quilt is similar in its design to the Mary Oliver quilt. I looked at the family and found connections to Louisiana and the Confederate War. Is there a family connection between the Calloway, Olivers, Hunters, Lawsons?
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=67-EC-4FD
http://files.usgwarchives.net/az/statewide/bios/hunter.txt
Thomas Thompson Hunter, who made a permanent location n
Graham County in 1878 and who through the passing years
identified himself with practically every phase of progress
and advancement, died February 1, 1913. It was felt as a
personal bereavement by his many warm friends.
Mr. Hunter was born in Louisiana, February 24, 1844, and is
a
son of James and Alice (Lawson) Hunter, the former a native
of South Carolina and the latter of Georgia. The father was
a large plantation owner in Louisiana. In his family were six
children: John, who now lives retired in Louisiana; Andrew,
deceased; Thomas Thompson, of this review; and Julius, Alice
and Emily, all deceased.
When Thomas Thompson Hunter was sixteen years of age he laid
aside his text books and
joined the Confederate Army, serving
through the entire Civil War with Retts' Artillery. He was at
the front in many hotly contested engagements and in nearly
all of the important battles during the four years, and
unwounded and with a creditable military record, returned
after his discharge to Louisiana, where he joined his uncle.
Together they went to Texas, crossing the plains with a
party of emigrants and pushing onward to Arizona. Mr. Hunter
met his first wife upon this journey and later their wedding
was celebrated in Wickenburg, Arizona, theirs being the first
marriage recorded in that locality. They remained with the
emigrant train and went to San Diego, California, where they
resided ten yeas, returning to Arizona in 1878. They settled
in graham County, where Mr. Hunter established himself in the
enterprise of the cattle business.
He was a member of the thirteenth Territorial Legislature
when the capital was located at Prescott.
Mr. Hunter was twice married. His first wife passed away
July 11, 1893 leaving four children.
Martha Alice is now
the widow of Thomas k. Davis, of Oakland, California. Mary
E. married Harry L. Castle, government employee in the forest
service in Payson and they have three children. Virginia Lee
makes her home in Los Angles, California. Katherine Lawson
married Dr. J.N. Stratton of Safford and they are the parents
of two children. Mr. Hunter was married October 11, 1894 to
Miss Carrie Maurer, a native of New York who survives her
husband and makes her home in Safford.
Yes, it is
batting rather than my '
stuffing.' Shows how much I know!
Anyway, I'll post once more about the Confederate Star quilt and then quit. This morning I located my g-grandmother's memoirs, written about 1925. She was the one who wore those beautiful clothes, and since she was born in 1850, had some pretty good memory of the war years. She said:
"As an aside I want to tell you about the household goods that started to Texas. When the Red River was being crossed, one of the wagons turned over. As it happened and as it often happens, it was the one wagon that was loaded with our most valuable things. There were on it all Mother's silver, the family records and business papers, including our very old Bibles and all of our better clothing. The only thing salvaged was a quilt which covered the contents of the wagon. I have it now, all yellowed and stained by the brick colored waters of the Red. It was an original pattern of Mother's, the seven stars of the Confederacy. And it was quilted in very tiny circles made with Mother's gold thimble as a pattern for the quilting. How many fears and worries and forebodings must have gone under those almost invisible stitches which were made when Mother could not sleep. She on one side of the Mississippi and my (future) husband's mother on the other often sewed all night when they heard the guns at Vicksburg. Again, I say, those women."
You can see the tiny, thimble sized quilted circles as little puffs outside the ring of stars.
View attachment 21129