Washington County woman’s friendship quilt preserves a lifetime of history

How do you remember your family and friends? In 1845, Hagerstown resident Ellen Cecelia (Carver) Mobley began a friendship quilt to remember her loved ones. Before her death in 1899, Ellen had collected 36 signatures and inscriptions on her quilt.

Friendship quilts, also called autograph quilts, originated in the late 1830s. These quilts were made by women or given as gifts to women to honor significant moments in their lives, such as marriage, childbirth, moving away, or educational milestones.

Friendship quilts embodied a woman’s inner circle of beloved friends and family members. A woman spent years collecting signatures on quilting squares before crafting her quilt, or a group of friends and family signed a completed quilt as a gift for her. Today, these quilts are valuable historical artifacts that represent women’s material culture.

Ellen Cecelia Carver was born in 1827 to Daniel Carver and Amelia S. (Helfleigh) Carver. Daniel owned D. Carver’s Book and Stationery Store, located on Hagerstown’s Public Square, and was an elected Assistant Engineer (a modern fire chief) with the Hagerstown Fire Company.

In 1843, when Ellen was 16 years old, she married Edward Mayberry Mobley, age 18. The couple had married young, even for mid-19th century standards, when the average marriage age for females was 21 and 25 for males.

Edward Mayberry Mobley, born in January 1825 in Frederick County, had moved to Hagerstown with his parents. Edward worked at his father Eli’s carriage business, and in 1842, Edward became the youngest member of the First Hagerstown Hose Company.

In 1844, age 17, Ellen gave birth to Edward Carver (called Carver), the first of her 10 sons born over 22 years. Eight of her sons lived to adulthood: Carver, Albert, James, William, Harry, Lewis, Pinkney, and Walter.

The year after having her first child, Ellen began collecting signatures on her friendship quilt, made of white cotton backing with a “pine burr” pattern of green, pinkish red, and blue printed cotton fabric. The signatures were signed in indelible ink to resist fading over time.

Samuel Artz signed the first autograph in 1845, inscribing, “To Ellen, May God the Spirit from above / Enchant thy heart with sacred love.” The following year, a friend named Henrietta Betts signed, “When this you see / Remember me.”

During the next five years, Ellen collected 22 signatures. “For My Daughter,” Daniel Carver signed, and “Honour Thy Father and Mother,” Amelia Carver signed, both in 1847. Ellen’s quilt contains signatures from the Fechtig, Hershner, Hershey, and Swartz families.

While the initial 22 signatures represent Ellen’s early family and friends, the signatures added after 1850 encompass the family that Ellen created with her husband. All eight of her sons’ signatures are on the quilt. Her eighth son, Lewis Richmond Mobley, left a large ink splotch by his name.

In 1859, Ellen’s husband Edward was elected Washington County Sheriff. Soon after, the Civil War broke out, and in August 1862, Edward enlisted in Company A, Seventh Maryland Volunteer Infantry, a Union regiment. He was commissioned captain of Company A soon after, and his 19-year-old son Carver fought beside him in the same regiment.

Edward and Ellen corresponded during the war, but their letters were often interrupted or delayed. Ellen, at home with her seven sons, anxiously awaited news. Edward’s letters to Ellen reveal his wife’s anxiety over not hearing from him regularly. “[Y]ou speak of my having forgotten you. I have not forgotten by any means,” Edward assured her in November 1865.

Edward wrote to Ellen as often as he could. His extensive letters to her recounted battles he experienced, and challenging conditions and losses his regiment faced. In a letter dated February 1865, after the Battle of Hatcher’s Run, Edward signed, “Good bye my own darling wife, many kisses from your Ned.”

Edward fought in the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse and witnessed the Confederates’ surrender in April 1865. By June 1865, he had returned home, and in July 1866, the couple welcomed their 10th and final son Walter.

By the 1880s, five Mobley sons still lived at home, working in Hagerstown as a machinist, drug clerk, telegraph operator, and confectioner. Edward had worked as the County Tax Collector and Deputy Internal Revenue Collector after the war, and the next 40 years of his life were filled with a vibrant social scene and career, including as President of the First Hagerstown Hose Company.

It is during these years that Ellen collected the final 14 signatures on her friendship quilt. The quilt had been a constant in Ellen’s life, staying with her and gathering her loved ones’ signatures as she aged. Ellen died on May 16, 1899, after a stroke at her 525 N. Locust Street home. Her sons were her pallbearers. Edward Mobley died on April 4, 1906, and is buried with Ellen in Rose Hill Cemetery.

Ellen’s quilt passed into the hands of her sixth son, Harry Hiser Mobley (1855-1928). The quilt descended through Harry’s daughter and granddaughter, making its way to Gulfport, Mississippi. In 1980, Ellen Mobley’s great-grandchildren donated her quilt to the WCHS, and it returned to Hagerstown. Ellen’s friendship quilt is a tangible piece of women’s material culture, both a primary source for genealogists and historians, and a beautiful 19th century textile.

The WCHS collection is home to over 80 quilts and quilted artifacts, including four friendship quilts made between 1845 and 1860. One of these quilts, Q013, is part of the WCHS Adopt an Artifact program. This quilt belonged to Priscilla (Shyrock) Barber (1822-1889), wife of Matthew S. Barber; made in 1845, it contains signatures of Priscilla’s parents, extended family, and female friends.

Consider donating to support Priscilla’s friendship quilt and six other quilts that need acid-free, archival-quality boxes for long-term storage. For more information and to donate through GoFundMe, visit washcohistory.org/adopt-an-artifact. To read more about Colonel Edward M. Mobley and family, check out Justin Mayhue’s book, Colonel Mobley: 7th Maryland Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War (2020).

Abigail Koontz is the curator/program director for the Washington County Historical Society.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Hagerstown woman’s friendship quilt preserves a lifetime of history