Emma Leah's Dresses and Pinafores 9-Patch c.1862-3

The summer Emma Leah Smith turned seven, she and her mama and two baby brothers left Cincinnati and moved to Gramma annd PawPaw's farm in Cherry Grove, Ohio. And Emma's Daddy went off to fight in Mr Lincoln's War.

Emma wasn't entirely sure what a war was, or why Mr. Lincoln was a man of importance ---mostly she just missed her big strong daddy. He was a lawyer in a city firm, but he told Mama, ''I may be a lawyer but I can fire a rifle, Lucinda. You go home to your parents, help your father on the farm."

Grandpa had lost two hired hands to the Union army recruiters. He told his wife, Gramma Mattie, "I may be too old to fight, but I know how to run a farm and feed my family, good times and bad." Emma Leah thought he was ancient, worn and weathered like the plowed cornfields that spread north from the river on the family farm. Here in Cherry Grove Mama no longer tended the babies, quilted, and read her Bible like a lady. She grew up here, she knew how to till and sow, how to weed, and later harvest the crop

Gramma was in charge of the house and the family now. That first scary morning she looked at Emma and said, ''I have a schedule, granddaughter, you'll be my helper. Would you like that?"

Emma nodded dubiously.

"Good. First thing in the morning, soon as the sun comes up, I milk the cows. You'll come along and feed my chickens and the goats, gather the eggs."

Emma loved the goats and admired the sometimes feisty hens. 

"Yes, ma'am."

''Good. After breakfast we'll tend the kitchen garden. Planting time now. I have some flower seeds saved, so you can sow them, to make our garden  pretty. Then, come the hottest hours, when your brothers are down to nap...."

''What, gramma?''

''Afternoons when it gets real hot we'll do our sewing. I'm making  a quilt for the Sanitary Commission, for the soldiers."

"I never sewed before, Mama says I am too little."

"You'll learn, child. A woman needs skills, you're never too young for that.''

''Can I make a quilt too? Or a dress for Dolly?" Emma Leah held up her treasured china doll.

"I think we should start with some piecing, child. You can use your mama's scrap bag. You can make a Nine Patch quilt for Dolly."

Emma smiled. Mama's bag had many wonderful pieces saved from Emma's pinafores and dresses. Maybe some bits from daddy's shirts, too.

And so the long summer days were filled, the war so far away. Southern Ohio was hot and humid that year, the goats and pigs and the chicken coop smelled to high heaven, city bred Emma Leah thought. The fruit and vegetable canning seemed endless. Sometimes Emma escaped to the swimming hole in the crick, where she and Dolly would cool their hot toes and wade in the fresh clear stream. And every afternoon, Emma and Gramma quilted for an hour or two.

When Emma started school in September, she tucked the newly completed 9-patch quilt around Dolly and said goodbye for the day. "I'll make you a dress, Dolly. I didn't forget. Be good!"

.....................

This is Dolly's quilt. Her dress was never made.

the end