The 1929 Kelsey Quilters

It is a true story of how a 1929 quilt was found in the closet of Mary Cannon Hamberlin folded over a strong hanger along with twenty-two extra blocks covered in plastic and sent to the only relative that her daughters thought might know who the women were that had made it. The woman they sent it to was a convert to the Church. She had done the Family History of both her husband and herself. She had been to Kelsey and met some of the women. Her love of Family and Temple work led her to discover the histories of forty-six women who not only had made quilts together but had been related to each other and to her and her husband's family. The women were all converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from the southern states in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They had all come together in a place called Kelsey, which became the mother colony of the Church in Texas. Wilford Woodruff encouraged the saints to stay in Texas and not make the move to Salt Lake. They sent Missionaries to Kelsey to oversee the education of these new saints. The personal histories of these women help her to overcome the loss of her husband and strengthen her testimony of Jesus Christ so much that she knows that she has to share it with their families. As she researches, she meets others who love these women too. Their Stories also help her to remember and record her own memories and maybe it will help others do the same.