Saturday, February 13, 2010

Block 37. A Stitch in Time

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

A stitch in time. . . Block 37 of the circa 1931 Friendship Quilt in the Museum of the Itawamba County Historical Society



GRISSOM, James, Block 37

Son of Al and Donie Grissom, James W. is listed on the 1920 census as being 4 months old. Included with him are his parents, sister Pauline, and brother Horace and Morris E. Grissom. On the 1930 census, James, 10, was enumerated with his family at Mantachie.


Like his father, James Grissom also served as a mail carrier for several years in the Mantachie area. A veteran of World War 2, James Grissom married Etoyle Comer.


James Grissom is listed on the SSI Death Index as born August 24, 1919. His lived in Mantachie --- and there he died in August 1987. He is buried in Mantachie Cemetery.


See additional information at A.P. Grissom, Block 17.


SHEFFIELD, Evelyn Mrs., Block 37

According to IHS member Joe Sheffield, Evelyn Sheffield was an elementary school teacher in Itawamba County.


No additional information was found on Mrs. Evelyn Sheffield.


SHEFFIELD, Sula, Miss, Block 37

Sula B. Sheffield, 32, is found on the 1930 census, Beat 2, Guntown-Fulton Road, in the household of her brother, Shelby Sheffield, 31, a farmer, and his wife Blanch, 24.


Sula Bell Sheffield, 23, is listed on the 1920 census of Mantachie in the household of her father, Jessie Sheffield, 59, a farmer. Other included in the household were Sula's mother, Mallie, 55, and five brothers: Dee, 35, Dorsey, 25, Shelby, 21, Gorden, 18, and Ezell, 16.

S.B. Sheffield, 12, is listed on the 1910 census of Fawn Grove in the household of her parents W.J. Sheffield and Mallie Sheffield and five brothers.


WATSON, Verna Mrs., Block 37

Verna Watson, 32, is listed as the wife of John A. Watson, a farmer in Mantachie, on the 1930 census. See information at J.A. Watson, Block 05.

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

Members of the Itawamba Historical Society continue to find circa 1930 Friendship Quilts from the county and are in the process of transcribing names from them. The quilt which is the subject of this series of articles is located in the Bonds House Museum of the Society. Friends of the Historical Society have loaned quilts so that the names can be listed and added to the body of knowledge about earlier times in Itawamba County, Mississippi. If you have such a quilt from Itawamba County, won't you please consider loaning it to the Society so that the names from it can be transcribed?

You also have a unique opportunity to have your names recorded on a new Friendship Quilt as the Society is currently in the process of producing one for 2010. Before the quilt is raffled to some lucky winner, the names of the new quilt will be transcribed and listed with family information in the files of the Historical Society for future reference.

Subscribe to the friendship quilt project today. Add your name and the names of your family to the quilt for a donation of $10 per name. One hundred per cent of the donations from the quilt project will go directly to the non-profit Itawamba Historical Society to further its work in preserving and promoting the history of our region.

Contact the Itawamba Historical Society to be a part of the 2010 Friendship-Memory Quilt. Call 662-282-7664 for details or write to the Society at PO Box 7, Mantachie, MS 38855.

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.



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