Week 20 - Textiles (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

 Textiles are interesting.  I think the first thing that comes to my mind would be quilts, but I feel like clothing, linens, samplers and embroidery work are included also.  I'm sure I am overlooking many other examples. Some are reminders of a special occasion and some are like comfort food. Many are hand made with much love or just as something the family needed.  Over the years, I have created my own textiles when I learned to knit, crochet and embroider/cross stitch.  Some I made as gifts and some for my own use.  Years later, some of the gift recipients said that they still have the thing that I made for them creating a new family keepsake.  Some of them came back to me when the owner of them passed away.  I'm glad that we save these things.  They, in small ways, tell something of each person who possessed or made them.  

 Some of the things from my family are pictured below that I keep on display in my home.  

My children's christening outfits from the 1970's that I arranged in a shadow box.  

The white quilt was given to me by my mother in law  when my first child was a baby.  She said that her mother made it.  The woven plaid blanket was from her also.  Also an embroidered pillowcase of mine. 

This quilt was almost thrown away.  I happened to be at my grandmother's house one day as my aunt was cleaning out some things and we went up to the attic for something and this quilt was there. It was going to be thrown out but I said I would take it. She looked at me kinda incredulous, but here it is.  I have no idea how old it might be and I can see why it might have been tossed but I like it.  

As I look at this photo, I realize that there are various textiles in it. The quilt was one that my mother was given from her mother in law's home.  She then gave it to me.  The children's clothing are again from the 70's.  And they are hard to see, but there are a few dressy hats , I think from the 50's or 60's that belonged to my mother in law.  

This twin size quilt is one of a matching pair that my aunt gave one of to me.  She tells me one was made by  her mother(my grandmother) and the other by her grandmother (my great grandmother).  

This is simple, but a favorite.  It hung on my grandmother's kitchen door for as long as I can remember.  It has a roller bar and a looped towel.  And a bonus embroidered linen also.  It now hangs on my kitchen door.  

So in writing this, I started to remember some other things that I have, which made me go open my Lane chest where I keep many of them.  Well, the things that you don't really forget but just don't think of often !      Here are an assortment from the chest.

This hand knit child's sweater is one that my mom kept in her cedar chest . All she knew about it was that it came from her Italian family and when she gave it to me, I was told to take good care of it and not throw it away.  I never wore it on my children because of that, but saved it just the same.

More hand knit baby sweaters.  The white one was mine and the yellow on was made by my grandmother for my children. My grandmother, Elizabeth Arnold Heacock, was the knitter and her sister Anna was a crocheter.

One more sweater - remember when?  My husband's from high school in the early 1970's

I rescued these doilies, among others, as well.  I do not think that they are handmade but they are from my mom's 50's home.

Here is a neat child's western themed hankie.  This was amongst some things from a great aunt's home. They never had children so maybe it was just a fun hankie to have.  

My dress white gloves that I wore to church many Sundays. 

Family reminders of days gone by.  All of this has also reminded me that I really do need to catalog what I have so others know what they are and whose they are.  My chest is full. 

ADDITION:  Since I wrote this and was ready to post it, I read some of the other posts for 52 Ancestors and saw some textile ideas that I should have thought of right away.  So here is a little more to this week's post.

I may have mentioned in another post that my grandfather, Charles Bonadio, worked in a mill his entire working life.  It was the Bloomsburg Silk Mill located in Lock Haven, Pa.  He worked as a warper, which is: a person or thing that warps. In Textiles - a machine used to wind warp ends in preparation for weaving. The mill made silk fabric. Early on he was a winder, who  was a person who wound the silk from silkworms cocoons onto bobbins.   His sister in law, Bertha Knepley, also worked there, first as a picker, then a floor lady and finally in a clerical position in the office.  She used to bring us seconds of fabric for my mom to sew with.  

Warper

  

Winder

Examples of what a warper and a winder do found at 

https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:wd376999j

A postcard of the Mill that they worked in.  This would have been not many years before my grandfather began working there at age 16, which was in 1922, he retired from there in 1971. At some point in his employment here, he became active in labor relations for the employees of the mill. In 1964, he was an executive board member for the union which successfully negotiated a contract between the mill and it's employees. After his marriage, my grandfather lived probably about a mile or two from this mill and I imagine he would be able to walk to work.  

My mother in law, Caroline Betz Sinton, worked for many years as a seamstress in various apparel factories in northeastern Pa.  A way of life for women in that area during a time when much of our clothing was still made in the USA.  She was a staunch believer in only buying clothing made in the US.  She was also a sewer at home and made much of her family's clothing.  Her husband would joke that if she could make shoes they would not have to buy anything!  And my husband briefly worked in textiles also.  He was a Packer in an apparel factory when we were first married. He would pack boxes of apparel and load them onto trucks for shipment to department stores. He moved on, but at that time a job was a job.  And many, many people successfully worked their entire lives in these factories and  raising families.   Sadly, all of these factories are now gone. 

One more connection to the textile industry comes from my husband's relations in Northern Ireland.  Some of his Sinton family became prominent in the linen industry in County Armagh.  

Thomas Sinton's linen mill in Laurelvale about 1887

 Thomas's mills not only spun the yarn for linen but also manufactured heavy linens and sheetings, as well as household linens, cambric and linen handkerchiefs.  One mill produced a fine grade linen. He began his career in linen when he bought a 150 acre property at Laurelvale of which 4 acres were covered by mill buildings.  They contained 350 steam driven looms.  Nearly 700 people were employed there.  Thomas owned two other mills, one at Tandragee and one at Killyleigh.  Yarns from his mills were also sent out to as many as 1500 cottage weavers in the counties of Armagh and Down.  His four sons took over management of the mills in 1887 when Thomas died. As of 2003 the mill building was still in the Sinton family but not in operation.  Thomas Sinton is a 3rd cousin 5 times removed from my husband, also a Thomas.  

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