The lines in her face tell it all. Time-worn and tired, Martha Jane Porter Paulk appears bogged down with her twelve children and exhausted from the constant moving with her family. Her look is always like that in the few remaining pictures of Martha. Born February 28, 1861, in Texas, Martha became an orphan early on. Her family had moved north to rural Arkansas and this is where Martha lived most of her life. Her mother was probably Elizabeth Porter who died when Martha was less than ten years old (Perleberg). Yellow fever, an epidemic in both Texas and the general south at this time, was the likely cause of her early death. Yellow fever is spread by a female mosquito’s bite, leading to jaundice, liver failure, bleeding of the mouth and eyes, and bloody vomit. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, yellow fever killed upward of 150,000 Americans (Patterson).

Martha’s father, John J. Porter, remarried a woman who did not have children. Tragically, her father soon fell ill and died himself. Even though he made his second wife promise to take care of his five children, his widow left Martha, her sister, and three brothers at the cemetery in Conway County, Arkansas, the very day of his funeral; perhaps she felt overwhelmed with raising five children on her own. The names of Martha’s parents are long lost with time, but one name, James D. McMahan remains. The unmarried James, Martha’s first cousin, graciously took Martha and her siblings into his home. He quickly married Emily Knowles Johnson, perhaps to have a mother for his five newly-adopted children. Emily had five young children of her own, and the couple took in two additional orphans to raise. This act speaks measures about the couple’s generous, Christian nature.

Martha’s family surname, Paulk, is a Scottish name with common variations such as Polk or Pollock. The name refers to ancestors who once lived on the Scotland/English borderlands at Pollok, a district on the southwest side of the city of Glasgow. The name “Martha” has strong Biblical connotations. Martha was the sister of Mary of Bethany, a tidy homemaker, and a close friend of Jesus. “Martha” comes from the Hebrew verb marar, which means to be bitter. However, this does not imply that Martha was a negative girl’s name. Her parents probably picked it because it means bitter in terms of showing strength. And a strong woman Martha indeed became.

In fact, barely fifteen years old in February 1876, Martha married Selden Paulk, a 31-year-old widow who already had two kids. Martha bore Selden twelve more children, though only eight lived past infancy, a high loss at the time. As a teenager, Selden served in the Union Army during the opening months of the Civil War. He was part of the 21st Missouri Infantry during the Battle of Shiloh, one of the bloodiest days in American history. Though only a two-day battle, over 23,000 men died. As New Orleans writer George Washington Cable put it, “The South never smiled again after Shiloh” (Allen 52).  According to Martha’s great-granddaughter, Greta Schmidt Perleberg, the Paulk family were constantly on the move over the next thirty years, always in search of work, making stops in Conway County, Arkansas; Johnson County, Arkansas; El Reno, Indian Territory, Oklahoma; Ingalls, Indian Territory, Oklahoma; Vian, Indian Territory Oklahoma; and, finally, moving back to their farm on the Newton/Madison County line in Arkansas.

Martha’s life was extremely busy raising her ten children and making a comfortable home with every new move. It is surprising that Martha found the time to sew her quilt, “Whig’s Defeat,” while also keeping her large family fed and clothed. We can argue that Martha would usually sew for very pragmatic purposes, largely to make and mend her children’s garments.

Martha’s Quilt

Dating back to 1850, Martha Jane Porter Paulk sewed her “Whig’s Defeat” quilt of white cotton and colored calico. Measuring ninety inches by eighty-six inches, the quilt is about the size of a queen size comforter. It features ten red and green full diamond designs with nine half diamonds and two quarter diamond shapes. These diamond patterns look like squares tilted on their point  with concave sides that squeeze inward. The diamonds are composed of eight red triangles on the inside and eight green triangles on the outside with green three-leaf flowers on top of each diamond point. Martha sewed these small red and green triangles using a quilting technique called piecing. Here, the raw edges of the fabric face the inside, are sewn together in bands, and are then joined to the larger white background. The quilt also holds a framing, organic, floral design along three edges of the quilt. An intricate winding green vine holds fourteen pink flowers and thirteen sets of three red blossoms, meandering along the quilt and waiting to bloom. These flowers have been appliquéd, which means the sewer turned the edges under and applied the shapes with tiny hand stitches. This process is grueling and takes significantly more time than piecing because the quilter is working on the surface, which is to say each stitch needs to be even, flawless, and ideally invisible. On average, women who quilted made eight to nine stitches per inch in their sewing. 

This means Martha’s quilt holds upwards of 69,660 stitches! But that is not all. This count only considers the figural details. The white background of the quilt is itself riddled with sewing patterns, which appear only if you look close enough. Random, intrinsic designs weave through the white cotton and provide it with texture and depth, adding a secret hidden layer filled with the quilter’s time and talent.

The War of 1812 greatly restricted the availability of domestically-printed cotton fabrics.

After the war, trading problems with England lessened, and affordable fabrics became much more readily available. Notice how the white backcloth of our quilt has turned a slight yellow through use and oxidation. While the chalky background of the quilt is made of cotton, the printed and colored shapes came from calico fabrics. The calicos Martha picked are either plain, floral, or dotted. With a large family to clothe, these colored materials could have been scraps from dresses Martha made for her daughters. Calico originated in the eleventh century in southwest India, made by native weavers known as caliyans. Calico, a form of unbleached cotton, is usually fairly inexpensive because it is not fully processed. Factory workers created calico through roller printing, a technique made available during the Industrial Revolution. Roller printing machines improved the speed and efficiency of the calico production, which made the colored fabrics more affordable. Calicos are often referred to as plain calico because of their simple weave, which is not as strong or thick as other fabrics, such as percale, a more tightly woven material. Calico’s economical and practical beauty has made it into one of the most popular fabrics for quilting to this day.  In addition, Martha would have used cotton thread for her stitches since it was the cheapest option over linen and wool threads.

Quilting as a Political Expression

Political statements through sewing date back to the sixteenth century with needlewoman Mary Queen of Scots. Mary’s most famous piece was a wall hanging known as Virescit Vulnere Virtus, which means “virtue grows strong by wounding.” This tapestry served as a political complaint and a “threat to Elizabeth’s sovereignty” (Jones and Stallybrass 154). This tradition then continued into the age of the Renaissance where increasingly more women made their voice heard through their sewing in that they “plied the needle to materialize their views of the world and to be remembered as makers of objects that commemorated themselves, their families and their country’s triumphs” (Jones and Stallybrass 170).

Martha’s sewing of her politically-loaded quilt was a response to the presidential election of Democrat James Polk over Henry Clay, a Whig, in 1844. The Whig Party formed in 1834 as an opposition to Democrats. They favored modernization and supported the supremacy of Congress over the President. While Whigs were not antislavery, many abolitionists and free blacks preferred them to the highly proslavery Democrats. Quilters in the nineteenth century also saw Civil War quilts denouncing slavery or rallying for troops as a way to utilize their domestic duties for a cause. These quilts had intellectual and political purposes and worth beyond their function as a pragmatic bed covering. For once, women also had a chance to “speak” through their stitches. It was not until August 18, 1920, that the 19th Amendment of the Constitution finally became ratified, giving women the long-awaited right to vote after nearly a 70-year battle. Women’s suffrage campaigns had gained momentum in the 1840s, especially around the time of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. During this convention, organized by women’s rights activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, the 19th amendment was drafted and began to take off. American women had been frustrated over what was called the “Cult of True Womanhood,” or the belief that a woman’s place was in the home and taking care of the family. After World War I, Carrie Chapman Catt headed the National American Woman Suffrage Association; women had been working in factories during the war and this group specifically talked with President Woodrow Wilson about gaining equality for female politicians. President Wilson gave his support by saying, “I regard the extension of suffrage to women as vitally essential to the successful prosecution of the great war of humanity in which we are engaged” (“19th Amendment,” 13). The amendment passed less than a year later with a Congress vote of 304-89 and a Senate vote of 56-25. Martha’s home of Arkansas became the twelfth state to ratify the 19th Amendment. On November 2, 1920, over eight million women throughout the United States exercised their new freedom of voting for the first time (“19th Amendment,” 17).

In an interview with Martha’s great-grandson James Grauerholz of Lawrence, Kansas, he mentioned that sewing was a family affair and a shared love, passed on through generations. In fact, Martha’s granddaughter and James’ mother, Selda Paulk Grauerholz, treasured Martha’s quilt and was key to the quilt’s arrival at the Kansas State Historic Textile Museum. An avid collector of vintage clothing and sewing materials, Selda was the unofficial historical object “go-to” person in her hometown of Coffeyville, Kansas. She collected so much, in fact, that her three-story house was packed full of these timeless treasures. After a long battle with cancer, Selda passed away in 2008 at age 88. All of Selda’s items were precious for her, and she wanted her “collection,” as she called it, to find a new home after her death. Thus, Marla Day, curator for the Historic Textile Museum, and James Grauerholz, son of Selda and famous writer William S. Burroughs and executor of Burroughs’ estate, traveled to Selda’s house and sorted through her antiques. The “Whig’s Defeat” quilt came with a note attached from Selda referencing the impact of the county fair: “My grandmother made this quilt about 1880. It was brought to Kansas in 1895. Grandmother took the quilt to a county fair and won first prize.” Presenting handiwork at a county fair originated in the 1851 First World’s Fair. The fair, held in London, was called “Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations.” County fairs had been present since the early nineteenth century, but the World’s Fair helped them to gain popularity and prevalence. County fairs provided “educational and social purposes” and “women’s competitions consisted almost entirely of needlework” (Locher 5). Fairs acted as an “annual social ritual,” drawing families away from the farm to discover advances in livestock and agriculture (Everett). Women could also win premiums on their domestic art exhibits, such as sewing items or baked goods.

Martha’s life seemed to revolve around the rigorous task of being a mother and wife, and we know little about her as an actual person. Martha and her husband Selden retired to Caney, Kansas, where Martha passed away on July 2, 1941, at age 80. She is buried beside Selden in the Sunnyside Cemetery in Caney. Martha Paulk’s life could easily be overlooked and forgotten without the preservation of her handiwork. The quilt allows her memory to live on and tell us about her life, opinions, and dreams. In a way, Martha’s quilt acted as a “family livery” to express her loyalty to a political leader and event, much like what was done in the sixteenth century (Jones and Stallybrass 162). That is, the quilt holds Martha’s very own stitch in time. That Martha won with her quilt at a county fair also shows what an extraordinary seamstress she was. It was a bold move to enter a quilt at a competition that had such political implications at a time when women could not vote. The fact that Selda cherished and kept the quilt allows Martha’s political opinion to speak to us today and to give Martha that long overdue vote.

Quilts often connected women of different social classes during the 1800s. Quilting served as a shared task among women of the same town and community. It bonded mothers, daughters, neighbors, and friends. The meaning of the word “quilt” comes from the Latin word culcita meaning “a stuffed sack, mattress, or cushion.” Today, we know quilts as “warm bed coverings made of padding enclosed between layers of fabric and kept in place by lines of stitching, typically applied in a decorative design” (“Quilt, n.”). Beyond providing warmth, quilts allow a seamstress to showcase her talent. And quite frankly, they also speak: “The needle could be a pen,” write Peter Stallybrass and Rosalind Jones, for women who wished for more freedom than the little they were allotted (144). Harriet Powers, an African-American quilter in the mid-1800s, for example, became famous for the rich religious narratives embedded in her quilts. More than simply providing warmth, Powers’ quilts are artful commentaries on theological concepts and showcase her skill and knowledge. Also, the Civil War provided a new agenda for women’s quilts, which often spoke out against slavery or in support of abolitionism. This is the case for Martha’s “Whig’s Defeat” quilt. According to Jones and Stallybrass, “thread and cloth were materials through which they [women] could record and commemorate their participation not in reclusive domestic activity but in the larger public world” (134). Female quilters of the late 1800s have a history of political activities, often leaving clues in their work and journals that are secretly begging for someone to discover them.

James Grauerholz, Martha’s great-grandson, donated the quilt as a gift to the Historic Costume and Textile Museum on May 15, 2010. It arrived in exquisite condition. Quilts of such elaborate pattern as Martha’s display the work of their skilled makers. While Martha might have used the quilt for practical purposes as well, she made it in such a way that her work had much more to say than her place as a woman in the 1800s would allow her.

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