Neighbors And Friends: Quakers in Community

About the Book

Lynda Salter Chenoweth purchased a quilt in 2001 in the town of Petaluma, California. Thirty-nine names were inscribed on the quilt’s blocks along with the words “Columbiana County”, “Ohio”, and the date 1853. Lynda spent the next several years conducting research that revealed the lives of those named on this quilt. The first result of her research was a book titled Philena’s Friendship Quilt, A Quaker Farewell to Ohio released by Ohio University Press in the fall of 2009. This book concerned the quilt itself, Quaker signature quilts in general, and the life of the quilt recipient, Philena Cooper Hambleton. Neighbors and Friends: Quakers in Community shares and documents the information that Lynda collected about all of the people named on Philena’s quilt, as well as members of other families who were important in the community where Philena lived. These families included the Clemsons, Coopers, Duttons, Galbreaths, Griffiths, Hambletons, Mendenhalls, Votaws, Wards, and Windles—all of whom lived in Butler, Hanover, or West townships in Columbiana County, Ohio, during the 19th century. The stories of their lives, as presented here, are told within the context of early migration into Ohio, anti-slavery activism, religious upheaval within the Quaker community, the daily hardships faced by Ohio’s settlers, and the Civil War.

About the Author

Lynda Salter Chenoweth is a quilt historian and a quilter who has lived in Sonoma, California, since retiring from the University of California at Berkeley.