A Historical Apron

On Friday, I shared pictures of the amazing handiwork of my Grandmother’s crazy quilt squares. Today, I will show you that her father (my great-grandfather) was also talented with needle and thread and in the future, I will share some of the work of her mother (my great-grandmother).

My great-grandfather, whom we call Granddaddy Beery, was 25 years old when the United States entered into World War I. He registered for the draft, but he claimed an exemption on religious grounds. (He was a nonresistant and believed in “Be[ing] a well wisher of all men and helpful to humanity and overcom[ing] evil with good.”) His exemption was denied, and he was sent to Camp Lee in Petersburg, VA, on October 25, 1917. While there, he was first treated as a prisoner and later was sent to a detention camp, where he volunteered to serve as a cook. According to a letter sent home from one of his friends who was also in the camp, he was a good cook. The friend wrote: “Ward is working in the kitchen today. I guess we will have a good dinner today. He is a good cook…”

In addition to being a good cook, he was skilled at almost anything apparently. When the conscientious objectors were furloughed out to work on farms, Granddaddy Beery was sent to work on Pine Dell Plantation in Williamsburg, VA. “On arrival the owner asked Papa what he could do. He replied, ‘Most anything.’ Some time later the owner came to Papa and said, ‘I believe you were right.’”

While he was in the camp, he made several aprons out of flour sacks. He also carved wooden pincers (or pliers) out of one piece of wood from a prune box. According to his 1918 diary, he made aprons on January 25, March 1, and March 4, 1918. After his wife, my Grandmother Beery, passed away in 1996 (at the age of 102), my great-aunts gave me one of these aprons. I do not know why I was honored in this way. Maybe they knew how much I would appreciate it. This apron was made entirely by hand and the stitching is so precise and tiny. He was obviously a meticulous man.

I asked my husband to wear the apron so that I could get a better picture of the entire apron. It fits him very well!

When I got the apron out to take pictures of it, I found this note that I had written at the time that Aunt Mary and Aunt Wilda gave it to me. I wanted to make sure that I remembered its history correctly; however, I realize now that my note isn’t entirely correct (CPS camps weren’t created until later).

Fortunately, though, I don’t have to rely on this note for the information regarding the apron’s history. After Grandmother Beery’s death, several family members compiled a booklet of the happenings of Granddaddy Beery’s life during WWI entitled Faith at What Price? All information and quotes in this post were taken from the booklet, which contains photographs of the correspondence with the government, notes, and excerpts from the diaries of my great-grandparents, who were courting during this time. They were married a few months after his December 1918 discharge. Grandmother Beery’s diary states on December 18, 1918: “Boys returned from camp for good…”

He and his wife had twelve children and passed down their sewing skills to the next generation. Their daughters were extraordinary quilters. My grandmother told me recently that she made her first quilt at the age of nine. “It was a Double Four Patch, and my grandmother taught me how…I made it out of feed sacks.” (She also told me that her mother encouraged them to learn quilting by telling her girls to quilt while she washed the dishes). Grandmother donated her first quilt to our local quilt museum, but she told me that I should go there to take pictures of it. When I do so, I will share those pictures with you…