Quilt from 1900 returns home to Portersville church
PORTERSVILLE — A quilt went on a journey spanning hundreds of miles and almost as many years before finally returning to the place it was made, the Presbyterian Church of Portersville.
The 125-year-old quilt is not the only piece of the church to travel the nation — it brought with it the names of more than 500 of its members, many of whom also can be seen on gravestones in the cemetery, near where the quilt is now displayed.
The quilt belonged to Susan Lehman Gillgrist for the past 25 years, but it has been with her family since the early 1900s. On Tuesday, June 10, she traveled from her home in South Carolina to her former home of Portersville to return the quilt to the church, so it and the church’s history can be viewed by its community.
“It’s a beautiful quilt and it’s in great shape,” Gillgrist said. “There’s over 500 names, and it seems it was friends and family from all over the area.”
The quilt is four squares by four squares and is red with white stripes crossing diagonally over one another, creating cross-like images across the quilt. The names have been sewn in red lettering onto the white parts of the quilt.
Dana Opp, pastor of Presbyterian Church of Portersville, accepted the quilt from Gillgrist, and said he and the church’s administrators are still deciding where to display it. He said he has been aware of the quilt since his early days with the church, but is able to appreciate it and its gifting back to the church more now after being a part of it and the Portersville community for decades.
“If I would have gotten it in 2000 after three years I would have appreciated it,” Opp said. “As an artist and after 25 years, I recognize it’s a beautiful piece of work, and a significant piece.”
According to Opp, the quilt was made by the Ladies of the Presbyterian Church of Portersville Missionary Society in 1900, as a project to raise money for outreach. People could pay 10 cents to have their name sewn onto the quilt, and Opp said he recognizes many of those names — either from the cemetery or even from families that continue to live in the area.
Some of the names include the Lehmans and the Showalters.
“While it was operating they encouraged sacrificial giving,” Opp said. “People would pay to get their name on the quilt, and then the ladies missionary would pray for you.”
The Lehman family got hold of the quilt after its completion, when it was purchased by Joseph Lehman. Gillgrist said Joseph was a Burgess — his father immigrated from Germany — and he served for a time as the Postmaster of Portersville and was a member of the church’s board of directors.
Joseph Lehman gifted the quilt to his daughter just a few years after he purchased it from the church. After many years, she gave it to her brother, Clyde B. Lehman, who passed it on to his daughter, Mary Lehman Scheidemantle a few years later.
“Joseph bought the quilt, he gave it to his daughter, whose name was Violet, as a wedding present,” Gillgrist said. “Then she moved to Kansas, and it was in Kansas for a long time. Then she gave it to her niece, who lived in Harmony.
“(Mary) was adamant about me getting the quilt,” Gillgrist continued. “She wanted to give it to her niece since she had gotten it from her aunt.”
Gillgrist said she has had the quilt for about 25 years, and, in part, wanted to return it to the church in celebration of its bicentennial, which it celebrated in 2020.
“It’s a piece of the church and treasure of our ancestors from Portersville,” Gillgrist said.
Opp said he appreciates that Gillgrist returned the quilt to the church, because people of the church and the Portersville community can get a better idea of members of the church who contributed to it in the 1900s.
Viewing the quilt can help people realize that it was another method of creative expression by church members, who created it as an effort to follow their beliefs as Presbyterians, Opp said.
“Sometimes we see it as a museum, but it’s a living fellowship,” Opp said. “These aren’t just names out in our cemetery. These were living, breathing people who did what they could with their talents to worship God.”
In addition to the names being on the quilt, Gillgrist provided a document that shows all of the names typed out and their locations on it. She said one of her friends, Margaret Mara, compiled that spreadsheet with the names alphabetized so people can more easily find them on the quilt itself.
Gillgrist still has family living in the Portersville and Butler County area, so it won’t be too long before she sees the quilt again. She said she enjoys her visits back to the church because of the memories she has there, as well as for its historical significance.
“I grew up in that church, I got married in that church and a lot of my family is buried there,” Gillgrist said. “It’s a classic older church. It’s a nice building.”
