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One Man's Passion
An 1893 World's Fair Crazy Quilt:
Getting to Know the Quiltmaker
by Merikay Waldvogel
As another avenue to confirm the story, the quiltmaker's great-great-niece Lynn Guarch-Pardo and I conducted a genealogical search. The most important piece of new information is the quiltmaker's death certificate, which confirmed the story handed down through several generations.
Full Name: Leonard F. Mitchell
Occupation: Miner, Mineral Industry
Born January 1, 1857 in St. Louis, Missouri
Died January 5, 1912 (age 55 yr. 4 days) in Salt Lake City (LDS Hospital) of acute pneumonia
Witness: [brother] C. C. Mitchell, 27 South Main, Butte, Montana
Father's Name: George Edwin Mitchell, birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
Mother's Maiden Name: Linda Hume, birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri
Searching Missouri genealogical sources revealed a George Edwin Mitchell listed as a jeweler and gunsmith in the 1881 Missouri State Gazetteer. A George E. Mitchell, Massachusetts, is also listed in the Civil War pension database. Military historians who examined the quilt remarked that the tassel and the metallic embroidery thread is reminiscent of braid work on the sleeves and epaulets of soldiers' dress uniforms.
We found no new information about Leonard's mother, Linda Hume Mitchell. If we learn that she was a seamstress or a milliner, I would not be surprised. She might even have been the quiltmaker. If she was actively involved in St. Louis women's groups, she might have exhibited something in the Women's Building at the 1893 World's Fair.
According to a letter Len Mitchell wrote to his brother Charles (C. C. Mitchell) in 1912, just two weeks before his death, he was working in the Hiland Boy mine in Bingham Canyon, Utah, and planned to move on to Nevada to seek mining work there. He made no mention of being ill, but he asked his brother to retrieve a trunk from his previous boarding house, a telescope, insurance papers, and jewelry at a local pawn shop. What was in that trunk?
Lynn's mother found two more interesting letters that shed light on the quiltmaker's whereabouts between the 1893 fair and his death in 1912. In 1906, he was stationed with the U.S. Army in Havana, Cuba, and in 1907, he was working as a drill runner on a dynamite crew digging the Panama Canal.
But...we are still waiting for that letter from Len F. to Charles C. to surface which says, "Dear Brother, I just finished the quilt!'"
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