Giving Thanks for Preservation Efforts
By Deborah Burkett
Traditionally Thanksgiving is a time to pause and reflect upon our many blessings. And that's what I intend to do in this column but with a historical twist. Cherokee County is home for many who volunteer countless hours to ensure our history is preserved for future generations. Their efforts target such things as old family photographs, cemetery tombstones, tomato farmers' heritage, pioneer histories, military heroes, state historical markers, African as well as Native American history, historic trees and textiles.
Through all of this activity you'll find individuals and groups working to collect, document and disseminate history. A few are mentioned here along with those currently in leadership positions: Dr. Patricia Richey of Jacksonville College, Eunice Jackson DAR Regent, Major Thaddeus Beall Chapter, Emerson Griffin VFW Post Commander, Gordon Bennett and the Genealogical Society; Betty Marcontell of the Heritage Center of Cherokee County, Edna Haberle with the Vanishing Texana Museum and two of the oldest organizations in the county: the Jacksonville Wednesday Study Club, Jackie Durrett president and the Rusk Library Study Club led by Betty Townsend.
Sometimes projects initiated in Cherokee County break out, go viral; their impact felt throughout the state and beyond. Three laudable far-reaching projects come to mind: Dr. Richard Hackney's state-wide Texas African American Historical Cemetery Preservation Society; the Jacksonville Garden Club's Preservation Project for a 250 year old Water Oak in Buckner Park led by President Sandra Dickerson and the story of a textile, the Mary E. Perry Quilt, circa 1860.
The tale of the textile is quite amazing! My part in this saga began when the Alto Thursday Study Club asked me to present a program on quilts. While there I notice the mosaic beauty hanging on the wall of the Stella Hill Memorial Library. Thanks to these club ladies and Library Director Virginia Singletary the quilt had been protected for many years. Then through efforts of experts from New York to the Deep South the quilt's story was compiled.
Realizing the historical importance of the quilt all parties agreed the textile needed to be preserved. The Briscoe Center of American History at UT Austin offered to house the quilt along with others in their Winedale Collection which includes Miss Ima Hogg's quilts. Thanks to Mary E. Perry's great granddaughter Mary Decker of Jacksonville and other Decker-Whiteman descendants, Alan and Larue Decker of Tyler and Cheryl Denney of New Mexico, the mosaic quilt was donated.
But the journey of the quilt didn't stop. Recently it was one of three featured in a presentation by Briscoe Center quilt curator, Kate Adams. Her talk was one of several given at the 5th Biennial David B. Warren Symposium; a Bayou Bend sponsored event held at the Fine Arts Museum, Houston. The title for the two day affair was "Creators and Consumers: Women and Material Culture and Visual Art in 19th-Century Texas, the Lower South, and the Southwest."
In closing, I also offer a special thanksgiving prayer for those county residents who are no longer with us but whose efforts laid a firm foundation in terms of historical preservation. We, in the Cherokee County Historical Commission (CCHC), are trying to build upon their legacy and in doing so we rely on support at the state and county levels. We greatly appreciate guidance the Texas Historical Commission offers on a regular basis. Also Cherokee County resident, Senator Robert Nichols' love of history is evident and we thank him for his leadership. In addition CCHC is grateful for expertize provided by Stephen F. Austin State University faculty, especially Drs. Perky Beisel and Kelley Snowden.
Closer to home, appreciation goes to County Judge Chris Davis and County Commissioners Bryon Underwood, Kelly Traylor, Steve Norton and Katherine Pinotti. Without them the CCHC could not succeed. Also a tip of the hat to my talented CCHC colleagues, they're responsible for spearheading many county projects: Jim Cromwell (Vice Chair), Joe Daniel (Sect.), Elizabeth McCutcheon, Dr. John Ross, Diana Vega, David Adams, Dr. Richard Hackney, Shelley Cleaver, Mavis Wallace, John Thomason, Kevin Stingley, Evelyn Ezell, and Emeritus members: Terry Guinn and Ann Chandler.
The Alto Thursday Study Club in 2011 L to R: Joanne Hunter, Frances Henely, Darcy Jowell, Sybleen Minton, Hallene Thomson, Tommye Worley, Sunny Terrell, Marjorie Warner, Betty Jo Davis, Alma Wallace, Janie Daniels, Judy Landrum and Brenda Griffin.
Mary Decker (L) delivers the Mary E. Perry Quilt in an archival box to Kate Adams, Quilt Curator Briscoe Center UT Austin (R).