The Civil War in Kentucky -- Sophronia's Crazy Quilt
New Castle, KY was the home of my great-great grandparents William Owen and Sophronia Combs Bruce. They lived on about 3,000+ acres of land along the Drennon Springs Road, only part of the original family holdings from Williams grandfather, also William O. Bruce. The Bruce Family Farm was in the hands of the family from 1812 until 1969. As a girl, I went there every year with my little Grandma, whose half-uncles still lived on the farm. They were named, true to form, William and John, like four generations before them, and were the sons of my great-grandmothers governess, Miss Josie.
William and Sophronia had three daughters, Hallie Ann, Mary Francis, (my great-grandmother), and Ludia. William teasingly called them Faith, Hope, and Charity. Hallie was born in 1856, my great-grandmother Mary Francis, in 1860, and Ludia, (Ludie), in 1868. During the war, Morgans Raiders came up Drennon Springs Road on their way toward Lexington, chased by Union troops, which included the 14 th Kentucky Calvary, of which Nancys husband, Robert Trumbo, was a member. These troops met further east at Perryville, at which is now known as the bloodiest battle of the Civil War for the number of troops involved, affecting the life of my great-great grandmother Emma Strother Hutchison. Mary Francis was to marry Emmas son, Charles Early Hutchison, a legend in and of itself
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1874, New Castle, KY
Hallie, Fanny, and Ludie sat with their mother in the parlor of the fine home on Drennon Springs Road. The older girls had stacked their bustles upstairs in their bedroom to be more comfortable, as had their mother, Sophronia. They were carefully embroidering the quilt squares for their mothers crazy quilt. The quilt was made of their best dresses since Sophronia had married, that were worn out, or outgrown. The fabrics were of silk, velvet, satin, and finely woven soft wool, cut into odd shapes to fit onto the squares.
Ludie was fascinated by the beautiful fabrics, saved for this special quilt. She pointed to a particularly lovely blue/green woven silk, Where did this dress come from, Mama?
Sophronia smiled, and said, That was my wedding dress, Ludie! My Papa sent for the silk, all the way from Cincinnati, Ludie, so I could look beautiful for my wedding day! See how it shimmers blue one way and green the other? It had buttons of polished jet, black lace runching, and looked very different from the styles of today. I loved that dress, Ludie! Now, come, sit beside me and baste these pieces onto the backing.
Ludie sat beside Hallie on the horsehair loveseat, and pointed to a piece of dark, rich blue velvet. And what was this dress, Mama? she asked.
That was the dress that I wore to Fannies christening at the church, Ludie! Sophronia said. Wasnt it pretty? It was a cold day, but I wrapped her warmly, and we all went to the church to christen your big sister.
Sophronia smiled at her middle daughter, who was evenly stitching a fence stitch around one of the pieces of the quilt. Her needle flashed!
Now, Ludie, come sit beside me, please, and baste the pieces onto the backing. Come now, you are a good seamstress! Sophronia said.
Mama, Ludie asked, pointing to a dark green watered silk, what was this dress?
That dress, Ludie, was the dress I was wearing the day that Morgans Raiders came to the house, Sophronia said with a sigh. I was wearing that dress under a big apron, with Betsy baking bread. The soldiers came up the drive, up to the house, and asked if they could camp here.
Morgans Raiders? Who were they Mama? Ludie asked.
General Morgan was a Confederate general, Ludie. The soldiers were going through Kentucky back from raids in the north. They were running from the Yankees, and the Yankees were hot on their trail! Hallie was just about the same age you are now, and Fannie was three. General Morgan asked if he could stay here with his men and camp for the night. Your Papa brought him in, and Betsy and I cooked a fine supper for him and his command. There were so many of them, they couldnt fit around the table! They sat in the parlor, too, Ludie, and ate their dinner. They were nice enough gentlemen, Ludie. Some of them were educated men, Ludie, and asked to borrow our books. They especially liked Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo! Lees miserables, they called it!
Morgans raiders were cavalry men, Ludie, and they had many horses. The only place we could put all their horses were in the big chicken house down the lane. Your Papa, Old Noah, and Timothy fed and watered the horses, and the men camped back there in the field near the chicken house, away from the road, so they wouldnt be seen. They stayed here for two days, resting their horses.
"We gave them all of our smoked hams, because they traveled well, and all the food and corn for the horses that we could spare. They didnt take our horses, Ludie, because we couldnt spare them. They didnt take the cattle, either, because they didnt have time to salt the beef. We didnt have enough salt on hand, anyway. Betsy and I cooked and cooked for them, to feed them all! Their rations werent very good, Ludie, and there were so many of them! They were so very hungry. Sophronia looked at her hands, to steady herself. She carefully tied a knot and continued.
Betsy cooked all day to make hot soup for the soldiers, using up everything in the garden and all the chickens to feed them. Old Nanny helped too, even though her rheumatism was hurting her so bad. But she fed them the hot soup and they were happy to have a meal with chicken in it! Papa said we may as well use the chickens, because they had no place to stay with all the horses in their house. I dont think they had much meat, those boys. They looked thin and sickly, I thought. Some of them WERE sick, Ludie. They stayed in a tent, next to the camp.
Hallie said, I remember the raiders, Mama, they made me a whistle and a corn husk doll!
A whistle is not a very nice toy for a young lady to have, Hallie, but they were good enough men for soldiers. Most of them were from Alabama! They missed their families, and left me many letters to send for them, through the underground.
"Mail didnt always work well with the south, in those days, Ludie. We couldnt write to any one down south and expect our letter to get there. They were a different country in those days, so we had to send letters by our neighbors, one after the other, until someone could carry the letters across their field, all the way down to the south. All of us carried letters, when we went to see our neighbors. All of us knew the way the mails were working, and that many people needed to hear from their men.
How long did they stay, Mama? Ludie asked.
They only stayed for three days, Ludie. The General used our parlor and our dining room for his meetings, and there was such a bustle! We moved the girls in with us, and the General and his second in command stayed in the bedrooms upstairs. Then, they struck the tents and left, all a clatter, down the road. They said that the Yankees were coming and they had to leave quickly! The General told me that he didnt want a fight here, he needed more troops. He thanked me kindly for our hospitality, and offered me money for the food that we had given them, but it was Secesh cash, so we couldnt spend it here, and to have it at all would give us away. It was dangerous to have Secesh cash. They rode out, and we had two days until the Yankees came.
What happened then, Mama? Ludie asked.
Well, the very next day, Hallie became very ill. She had spent some time with the soldiers, and had read to the men on the back porch. She must have caught a fever from one of the soldiers. She was very sick. I put her in the big bed and worked with Betsy to put our house back together. We were just about out of sugar, salt, and flour, and we had no chickens left. The cattle, sheep, and pigs were fine, but we needed more salt to salt down the meat.
The next day, Papa took the wagon to town to get more supplies for us. He talked with the doctor and looked for medicine for Hallie, but someone bought up all the medicine there was to be had. Someone else must have had soldiers in their home, too, and they must have been ill. There was no medicine to buy. So, William rode the wagon home, with the flour, sugar, salt, and whatever he could buy in town, which wasnt much. I stayed here with Hallie, trying to get her fever down.
I was so sick, Hallie said. I was so hot from the fever, the walls seemed to breathe!
You were very ill, Hallie, Sophronia said gravely. Old Noah went down to the root cellar, and brought back the last of the ice from winter, so that I could wrap you in ice, and try to cool your fever. Fannie wasnt sick at all, then.
Did Fannie get sick, too, Mama? Ludie asked.
I surely did, Ludie, Fannie said. She shook her head, I barely remember it! I wasnt as sick as Hallie, but I was sick enough!
Sophronia looked softly at her daughters, as they stitched the beautiful quilt. The Yankees came the next day. We were hoping that they would just go on down the road. General Wright and his men rode up the drive to the house, their horses stepping on my best flowers! Your Papa met them on the porch. He had his big shotgun, and was ready for trouble.
Were going to make camp here, General Wright said. We are occupying this area, to clean those Rebel vermin out of this area.
Your father told them, We have sickness here. My daughters are very ill with a fever. Take your men away, it may not be safe.
We are going to make camp right here, sir, and you and your family is hereby under my command, the general said.
Sophronias eyes filled with tears. She said, The general didnt believe that we had sickness, but once he saw Hallie and Fannie, he called for the army doctor to come. The doctor gave us medicine for the girls, and they were kind to them.
"The General said that he was commandeering the house for his headquarters. We couldnt leave, because the girls were so very ill, so he let us stay in our own home until they were well enough to travel. We all stayed in the one bedroom in our own home while the general and his officers stayed in our house. Betsy and I cooked for them, serving them the beef and pork that were ours.
When, Fannie got the fever, she wasnt as sick as Hallie, but we had two sick girls. We lived like this for over two weeks. The generals men slaughtered our cattle and our pigs, one by one, as we watched. They commandeered the food that your Papa had brought from town, but they did not make us leave until both Hallie and Fannie were able to travel.
Your Papa asked the General if we could take our things with us when we left. He told Papa that he was not a hard man, that we could take what we needed with us. We packed the silver and the china, our paintings, our furniture, and our best quilts to take with us to town. Our house in town wasnt very big, but it was a place to go, to get away from the soldiers. Papa made several trips in the wagon with some of our furniture, and all the things we could save for our house in town. They did not raid the house, nor steal our things, unlike many people who were occupied. We were very fortunate that General Wright was a gentleman!
Finally, Hallie and Fanny were well enough to travel. We loaded our wagon with as many clothes as we could take-- our linens, and all that we could carry. Old Noah, Betsy, and Nanny came too, in a second wagon. They allowed us to drive our horses to town, but Papa had to return them the next day. Our own horses and the fancy buggy!
Before we left, the General thanks me kindly for our hospitality Hospitality at gunpoint! What could we do? Two sick girls, all those men with guns and even cannon. Before they knew of the illness, they aimed the cannon at the house!
Your Papa was allowed to bring one horse, Cherry, back with him, so that we had one wagon and a horse, to get back to the farm when we could. We lived there in that small town house for two years, while one after another general occupied it. Even if they didnt burn the house, they took everything we had left with them. They took all the cattle and the pigs; they burned the crops and took all the horses. All we had left was what we had managed to scrape together to take with us to town.
How many of you were there in the house, Mama? Ludie asked.
There were eight of us, Ludie, the four of us, Betsy and Buck, Old Moses, and Old Nanny. Our sharecroppers stayed on the land and kept farming, or we wouldnt have had any money that year, at all. We were very fortunate, though, in many ways! We had many of our own things, a warm place to sleep, and food to eat. Hallie and Fanny became well, and eventually, we were able to rebuild and move into this lovely home.
Sophronia held up the square she had embroidered, showing it to the girls, Just think, girls, of the memories of this quilt! One day, one of you will pass this to your daughter, and she will pass it to her daughter! You must always remember these fine stitches that my mother taught me!
Thanks for coming by!
In 1812, W. O. Bruce, my 4 greats grandfather came to KY on a flat boat, down the Ohio River and up the Kentucky River. He bought this swatch of land in Henry County, KY, (County tax records of 1820). The very first thing they built was the Mt. Gilead Methodist Church. By the Civil War, W. O. 1st was dead. His son John had the green part, and John's children, William Bruce, (yellow), Stamper, (pink), Jenna, (pink), and T.J. Bruce, (pink). By the 1887 map, the property was divided as shown above.
T.M. Bruce was John's brother. A swatch had been sold to Col. G. M. Jesse, and another swatch to Mrs. Cravens, prior to the war.
By 1900, Fannie inherited the land directly across the road from her father's house. Hallie and Ludie had split the land along the Kentucky River and lived there with their husbands. Sophronia Bruce died of pneumonia in 1887, and William remarried the girls' governess. William died in 1903. The name underlined, Robert Strother , was Emma's Uncle-- Emma is our next story, and she lived with her husband in Harrodsburg, KY.
The quilt, shown above, lives in Sophronia's sugar chest, in my mother's home. Sophronia @1870 is the first picture. Sophronia's wedding dress is the grey-green silk in the second picture. Other pictures are of the crazy quilt. The loveseat, (not pictured), that the girls sat upon is in my living room.
Note: Anyone that would like to unravel all the Johns, Williams, Thomases, etc. is welcome to try... After consulting several cousins, I finally dug out the Family History, completed in 1923, and it got it straight.
Here is the Henry County Genealogical Site , which also includes the map above and a brief history of the county.
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The map is part of the map for the New Castle precinct in Henry/Shelby Counties. If you would like a copy without all the drawing, it is available at the Henry County Genealogical Society under Maps.
Sophronia is also a lively legend in the family, although she died before my little Grandma was born. Her letters to her daughter, Mary Francis are still in our possession. Her last letter describes a poultice that she made to put on her chest, which was hurting, (from pneumonia). Turpentine and bees wax. I have her cook book-- and it IS a treasure trove!
Thanks for coming by!
Ha, Dowser, I remember the talented Sophronia! And I remember telling you how lovely the name sounds and that it should have been yours! What a rich history and heritage, dearest Dowser!
Dear Neetu! Thanks so much for coming by!
I always thought that Sophronia was a lovely name-- and she was a lovely woman. I probably know more about her than any of the others... I surely wish I had been able to meet her!
Thanks so much, dear Neetu-- Everyone has a rich heritage, if we only look for it!
MUCH love to you!
If life were a crazy quilt, what would your square look like?
I guess mine would have a cat on it...
Another great chapter Dowser..Horses in the chicken coop, quilts, and medical remedies. What more could there be.
Keepthem coming my friend.
Mine would have to be a moving van. I had a dream and I started to live it when my youngest went off to college. Actually, I never used a moving van. UI just sold everything I owned, but my car and items I wanted and moved on. I am retired now, but I followed the dream and learned so much about life. Thanks for sharing your story.
Interesting story. Gives a little color to the Civil War. Brings home a little history and makes it a bit more personal.
Only one more left, dearest friend.
Ahhh, Kavika-- I love you! Thank you for so many things!
The old barn, or chicken house, was torn down in the 1890s, when Grandma was a girl. They built another barn on the same foundation in the 1890s. Then that barn survived until just a couple of years ago, when the new owner tore it down, and built another one, on the same foundation. Some things change and some things stay the same. I bet it William came today and see it, all that would look familiar to him would be the dirt.
Hi, dear Jo Feller! UI? What is UI?
No matter what time of history, I always try to put my family in there somewhere-- where were they? How old were they? Where were they living? It helps me to remember details!
Thanks so much for coming by! Are you a NV refugee too?
A mistake. I hit two keys at the same time and didn't realize it. It should have just been I.
Yes, I am a refugee. My NV ID will remain a secret, but I will tell you I followed a posted link to get here. In time, you will probably know who I am on NV. I just want a new place and a new start and to get away from the baloney that is spewed there.
Mum's the word! This is a great place for a new start, for sure!
Well, I am glad that you're here! Take care, and I will look forward to seeing you again!
Up to the top.
Thanks, dear Perrie!
I do love the home made quilts. My Grandmother used to tell me every piece of fabric in them was a memory.
And I do love these stories. I am so fortunate to know so many talented people, and very thankful for all of them.
Me too! sleeping under one of them is sleeping under a lot of love....
Me too, dear Leotie, me too!