The original block says
John Cummins
Elizabeth Cummins
West Philadelphia
The other block in the quilt associated with this one says
Ellen Cummins
West Philadelphia
Humphrey Hood
West Philadelphia
The Cummins family don't appear to be related to the Criswell family. I have found John Cummins and Ellen Cummins in members' rolls of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. You know the Methodist Episcopalians, they are the ones that make those fabulous missionary quilts.
Back to Philadelphia. To research the Cummins I made the assumptions that Ellen Cummins was a school friend of Mary Criswell; John and Elizabeth were Ellen's parents; and Humphrey Hood was Ellen's fiance.
I searched online for references to Humphrey and Ellen Hood. I couldn't find anything, Humphrey Hood appeared regularly but with the wrong wife. I eventually searched for Ellen Cummins on her own and made a discovery. In the 1860 census, eight years after the names on the quilt, Ellen Cummins was still single and was a member of the Dickey household in Chester County. You may remember Rachel Dickey from Block 10 who moved from her brother's home to Philadelphia to gain her medical degree. In 1860 Rachel was almost a doctor and Ellen appears to have taken over Rachel's duties in Dickey household.
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| Humphrey H Hood |
What happened to Humphrey Hood who shared Ellen's block? He became a doctor too and returned to his home state of Illinois with his sister as his housekeeper. Humphrey served as a surgeon in the Civil War and later married, was widowed and married again. His descendants are keen on genealogy and Humphrey Hood is easy to find online, but no one mentions Ellen Cummins from West Philadelphia.
If you have made Elizabeth Cummin's block we'd love to see it.
1. Write your blog post. Publish it on your blog.
2. Copy the link of the specific blog post. This is not just the link to your blog itself (www.chestercriswellquilt.blogspot.com), but the link to the specific post: (http://chestercriswellquilt.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/hows-it-going.html)
3. Click the blue link up button below and paste your link into the box.
Yum, this block is gorgeous and looks like a delight to sew.
ReplyDeleteI love that red Methodist quilt Sharon. I'd love to reproduce that one too. I'm steaming ahead with my CCCQ blocks and should be caught up in a week or so. Thanks for all your work with this BOM. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am.
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