Block 23. A Stitch in Time

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

A stitch in time. . . Block 23 of the circa 1931 Friendship Quilt in the Museum of the Itawamba County Historical Society

LEIGH, Emma Mrs., Block 23

According to Jo Nell Wood, Emma Leigh is her Great-great-Aunt Emma, sister to Jo Nell's grandmother, Lonnie Stovall on Block 25. Emma Leigh is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery located north of Centerville, Itawamba County.

On the 1920 census of Mantachie Precinct, Emma Leigh, age 56 born Alabama, is listed with her husband, William Leigh, age 58, a farmer. Included in the household with Emma and William Leigh are cousins Wesley Leigh, 23, and Clifton Bowen, 18, both born in Mississippi.

STOVALL, Corene Miss, Block 23

According to IHS President Jo Nell Wood, her mother, Miss Corene Stovall, whose name is on this quilt block, married on November 28, 1936. The quilt was, therefore, made prior to that date. See also information about Alvah Stovall and Lonnie Stovall, Block 25.

TACKETT, Linnie Miss, Block 23

Linnie Tackett, age 34, is named as the daughter of Thomas Tackett, age 66, farmer of Mantachie Precinct on the 1920 census. The household consisted of only Thomas and his daughter Linnie.

Linnie Tackett, 44, is enumerated in the 1930 household of her father Thomas Tackett, 76, a farmer in Beat 2 on Guntown-Fulton Road.

TURNER, Bennie Mr., Block 23

The only Bennie Turner found on the census is the 5 year-old son of Elbert and Minnie Turner, farmers of Lee County. In 1920 that family consisted of Elbert, 37, Minnie, 38, sons Leonard, 17, Carol, 15, Clyde, 13, Delbert 11, Bonnie 9, Bennie, 6, and Preston 6 months and daughter Nellie, 3. The family lived on the Old Saltillo-Tupelo Road.

His brother Delbert lived most of his life in Itawamba County --- and in Delbert's obituary of 1999 was the statement that Bennie had predeceased him.

Bennie Richard Turner married Inez Gann according to an online family tree that has not been verified for this article.

No other information was available for Bennie Turner.

If you have additional information about any of the names on this quilt square, please post a comment below. Your help is needed to "write" the story of this almost eighty-year old quilt.

A stitch in time . . . The 2010 Friendship-Memory Quilt

Join the fun of a time-honored fund-raiser -- the friendship quilt. The Itawamba Historical Society is preparing a friendship quilt to be raffled off in 2010. The king-sized quilt will feature names, memorials, and/or business names which will be embroidered on squares featuring appliquéd birds set together with strips of blue and blocks of red. Subscribe today! Contact the Itawamba Historical Society at 662-282-7664 for more information (or read the insert in the current issue of Itawamba Settlers, The Quarterly Journal of Itawamba County, Mississippi, History and Genealogy).

You can help by volunteering to appliqué birds on quilt squares, to embroider names on the squares, to sew the quilt top together, or to come and help quilt at public quilting bees to be scheduled later this Spring. All donations of time and money to this project are most appreciated.

SOURCES:

Family information from Memories from Itawamba County: A Friendship Quilt circa 1931 --- A Stitch in Time by Terry Thornton with assistance from Members of the Itawamba Historical Society, Itawamba Settlers, Quarterly Journal of the Itawamba County, Mississippi, History and Genealogy. Winter 2009, Pages 143-61.

Square from 1931 Friendship Quilt photographed by Terry Thornton, September 3, 2009, Bond's House Museum, Itawamba Historical Society, Mantachie, Mississippi.