by Elmer Prather, guest blogger
These two quilt puzzles are the 37th and 38th Cobble Hill puzzle that I have had the pleasure of putting together. They are 1000 piece puzzles titled Crazy Quilt and Fruit Basket Quilt. These puzzles reminded me of the quilts made by the Walker sisters who resided in the Great Smokey Mountains. The Walker sisters lived in Little Greenbrier Cove, Tennessee before and after the U S Government forced them to sell their cabin and land in order to make it part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The deal they made with the government allowed the six sisters to live in the cabin until the last one of them died.
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| Elmer Prather's 37th Cobble Hill puzzle - Crazy Quilt 1000 piece |
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Elmer Prather's 38th Cobble Hill puzzle - Fruit Basket 1000 pc
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Their cabin was made of logs from tulip-poplars and insulated with mud and rock. Other buildings on the Walker property included a barn, corn crib, smokehouse, pig pen, apple barn and blacksmith shop. A spring house situated on a nearby creek kept dairy products such as milk and butter cool throughout the year, as well as provided storage room for pickled root vegetables. The cabin had no electricity or bathroom. There was not even an outhouse. I have visited the Walker sisters' cabin several times. Each time I visit the cabin I learn something new about the sisters and how they lived.
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| Walker sisters' corn crib |
Together the sisters' parents raised eleven children—seven girls and four boys. All eleven children reached maturity and given the time period and its lack of medical care, this was an extremely rare case. The sisters, from oldest to youngest, were Margaret, Polly, Martha, Nancy, Louisa, Sarah Caroline, and Hettie.
The Walker boys left home or married, while only one of the seven sisters—Sarah Caroline—married. John Walker, their father, died in 1921 at 80 years old, leaving the Walker sisters to carry on the responsibilities on the farm. One of the sisters, Nancy, died ten years later and the remaining five sisters continued their life on the farm. They fed and clothed themselves, raised livestock and maintained their mountain homestead for over forty more years.
The sisters were also excellent spinners and weavers. Wool from their sheep was washed, carded and spun on a spinning wheel, sometimes dyeing the yarn with berries or bark. They then wove the skeins of yarn into fabric. Flax and cotton were also grown at the Walker sisters' farm for production of their own textiles using the cotton gin their father had built. It took three people to operate the cotton gin with one feeding the balls and the other two turning the rollers. The linsey-woolsey blend cloth created was used to sew their clothing as well as their quilts.
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Hettie, Martha, Louisa (L to R) ginning cotton
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In 1926, Congress approved authorization of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, allowing North Carolina and Tennessee to begin raising money to buy nearly half a million acres, most of which was privately owned. Parcels of land collected from families and timber companies alike were bargained for, haggled over and eventually purchased, including the Walker sisters' 122-acre homestead. Refusing to leave their mountain home, the sisters held out until 1940. From the creation of the park, the sisters received $4,750 for their land as well as the opportunity to live out the rest of their lives at their home through a lifetime lease.
However, living in the national park meant traditional practices such as hunting and fishing, cutting wood and grazing livestock were now prohibited within the park boundaries. A new lifestyle developed for the sisters. Visitors flocked to the park and visited what became known as "Five Sisters Cove". The Walkers welcomed the curious newcomers and saw them as an opportunity to sell handmade items such as children's toys, crocheted doilies, fried apple pies and even Louisa's hand-written poems. The sisters were featured in the Saturday Evening Post in April 1946, showcasing their mountain lifestyle to the rest of the country.
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Walker Sisters Place - historical landmark in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
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The year before the Post writer visited the homestead, Polly passed away. Hettie died a year later in 1947 and Martha died in 1951. Margaret died in 1962 at age 92, and Louisa stayed in the house until she died on July 13, 1964. The last sister, Caroline, who had moved away and married, died in 1966.
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Margaret (91) standing and Louisa (79)
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All seven sisters and their parents are buried at Mattox Cemetery in Wears Valley. The word "mother" appears on the marker for Caroline, who is buried next to her husband Jim Shelton. The remaining six daughters have the word "sister" chiseled on their headstones. I have been to this cemetery and have viewed the grave sites. This cemetery is located between Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Townsend, Tennessee.
I stated earlier that the sisters made their own quilts. Many of their quilts were collected from the cabin when the last sister died and they are now stored in the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in Townsend Tennessee. They are occasionally displayed for public viewing. The beauty, quality, variety of colors and patch shapes of the quilt tops is amazing.
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| Collage of Walker Sister quilts by Elmer Prather |
The cabin has been maintained by the National Park Service and is open to the public. It is an amazing place to visit. You almost feel the presence of the sisters when you enter the cabin. When you walk through the doorway it's like they have invited you in to visit and to get caught up with all that is happening in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
As a side note, I purchased my first Cobble Hill puzzle at a little antique store, about a mile from the cemetery where the sisters are buried. The puzzle I purchased was a 1000 piece puzzle titled Hot Hot Sauce.
Elmer Prather of Canton, GA USA
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