PIECED TOGETHER

Quilt is tied to state’s pioneer days.

Ensign Smith, great-great-grandfather of my husband, Tom, was born in 1807 in New York. He left with his brothers and landed in New Mexico Territory. In 1836 he married a local woman, Juanita Ortiz.

Ensign and Juanita were among the first pioneers to head to the Colorado Territory to seek gold. They built a small cabin, and in 1863 Ensign became one of the first probate judges in Golden City. He helped build the first toll road to Denver, believed to be where

U.S. Highway 6 now lies.

One of their eight children was Manuel, Tom’s great-grandfather. Another was Susan, known as an exquisite quilter. In 1859 Susan began to make an applique Cockscomb and Prince’s Feather quilt, using plants to dye the fabric. In the family’s small cabin, she put the cotton blocks together using a Howe treadle sewing machine her father brought to the territory on a wagon. Susan married in 1872, and—busy with caring for a family—didn’t finish the border until

1917. Sometime after that the quilt passed out of the family’s hands. In 1998 an appraiser found it in an antique shop. An attached note, signed by a Lillian Putnam, gave a partial story of its maker, Mrs.

S.C. (Susan) Adair, and the appraiser placed an ad to find out more. Her search led to Susan Adair’s great-granddaughter, Tom’s cousin Susan Beckner, who identified Lillian as Susan Adair’s daughter and connected the creation of the quilt with the early story of Colorado.

We saw the quilt in a show and admired the tiny stitches, reminders of a bygone day. I wish Tom’s mother, Susan Adair’s great-niece, had been able to learn the legacy of the oldest quilt in Colorado.

A NOTE on the quilt read, “The center blocks were made in 1859 by Mrs. S.C. Adair [inset] and quilted with one of the first Howe sewing machines to come to the Colorado Territory. The borders were added in 1917. —Lillian Putnam”