Quilt (Woodford, Sophia)
cotton
The full history of this quilt, including genealogy, is available on CTDA: https://ctdigitalarchive.org/islandora/object/150002%3A39121
Sophia’s Childhood
Sophia was born on January 30, 1820, and grew up on Avon in a comfortably well-off farm family of ten children. (One died in infancy, leaving a family of eight children.) Her parent’s farm had 100 cultivated acres and cows, oxen, horses and sheep. It was located in the West Main Street area near the Avon Congregational Church.
Strong Ties to the Avon Congregational Church
Sophia’s grandfather Selah and father Orris had donated lumber in 1817 to build the meetinghouse in the center of Avon (the Avon Congregational Church). Theirs was a forward thinking donation as the church was not even formed until the next year. Grandfather Selah Woodford was a founding member of the church in 1818. Sophia and all her siblings were baptized at ACC on the same day, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1822. (That is, all who were born by November 1822 (with one exception): Orris, Guy, Adaline, Sophia (almost three years old), and Egbert. (Infant James was baptized in June 1822.) Adaline joined the church in 1831, when she was about 16 years old.
Six of the 8 Woodford children are buried in East Avon Cemetery (Adaline is, but not Sophia). So are their parents Orris and Lucy, and grandparents Selah and Sarah.
Sophia’s quilt is signed by family and friends from 1850-1852 (CHECK THIS). What life events happened around 1850 to Sophia and Adaline, prompting the making of the sister-quilts?
Adaline moved from Avon to New Haven in 1850. Sophia, about age 30 at this time, was living in Avon with her widowed father and her three brothers, Egbert, Lucius and Selah (according to 1850 census). She would marry later, in about 12 years. Adaline never married.
I wonder if the making of the two quilts was the Avon community’s effort to support the Woodford sisters during the time when Adaline was moving to New Haven, and Sophia was a 30-year old woman taking care of her father and three grown brothers. Perhaps Sophia’s quilt was even intended to celebrate a marriage in the early 1850s that never happened.
Sophia’s Childhood
Sophia was born on January 30, 1820, and grew up on Avon in a comfortably well-off farm family of ten children. (One died in infancy, leaving a family of eight children.) Her parent’s farm had 100 cultivated acres and cows, oxen, horses and sheep. It was located in the West Main Street area near the Avon Congregational Church.
Strong Ties to the Avon Congregational Church
Sophia’s grandfather Selah and father Orris had donated lumber in 1817 to build the meetinghouse in the center of Avon (the Avon Congregational Church). Theirs was a forward thinking donation as the church was not even formed until the next year. Grandfather Selah Woodford was a founding member of the church in 1818. Sophia and all her siblings were baptized at ACC on the same day, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1822. (That is, all who were born by November 1822 (with one exception): Orris, Guy, Adaline, Sophia (almost three years old), and Egbert. (Infant James was baptized in June 1822.) Adaline joined the church in 1831, when she was about 16 years old.
Six of the 8 Woodford children are buried in East Avon Cemetery (Adaline is, but not Sophia). So are their parents Orris and Lucy, and grandparents Selah and Sarah.
Sophia’s quilt is signed by family and friends from 1850-1852 (CHECK THIS). What life events happened around 1850 to Sophia and Adaline, prompting the making of the sister-quilts?
Adaline moved from Avon to New Haven in 1850. Sophia, about age 30 at this time, was living in Avon with her widowed father and her three brothers, Egbert, Lucius and Selah (according to 1850 census). She would marry later, in about 12 years. Adaline never married.
I wonder if the making of the two quilts was the Avon community’s effort to support the Woodford sisters during the time when Adaline was moving to New Haven, and Sophia was a 30-year old woman taking care of her father and three grown brothers. Perhaps Sophia’s quilt was even intended to celebrate a marriage in the early 1850s that never happened.
2022.001