Matson Insurance has partnered with Jefferson County History Center to offer exploreJeffersonpa.com readers a look into Jefferson County’s past. Today, the history of The Sartwells of Warsaw Township are highlighted.
[Pictured above: Back row, left to right – Mary Elizabeth Shaffer; Willis Sartwell; Liza Jane Miller; Walt Sartwell; Myrna Shaffer; and Joe Sartwell. Front row, left to right – Annie Sartwell; Ghordis Sartwell; John Sartwell; and Margaret Marinda Sartwell. (JCHS Collection)]
(Article submitted by Carole Briggs, Jefferson County Historical Society.)
THE SARTWELLS OF WARSAW TOWNSHIP
How are a fox stole, sixteen marbles, a quilting frame, and a minute book related to a name found on an 1878 map of Warsaw Township?
One of the interesting capabilities of the software program we use at the History Center is its ability to locate things that have a relationship. For example, keying in the surname “Sartwell” identifies 60 objects, images, documents, and books with some connection to that name. Most of them have been donated by a woman sporting the name Halcyon, a name I love to pronounce! It means calm and peaceful and comes from Greek mythology.
I met Halcyon, who lives across the Pennsylvania border in New York state when she brought several objects to Brady Craig House.
Every now and again we receive something more from her – an envelope containing an obituary or two of people who once lived here, larger envelopes of identified pictures, and sometimes a box.
The very first thing related to Halcyon, a genealogy, was in our collection when we began cataloguing in 1989.
Then, a fox stole arrived with the note that the two gray pelts had been trapped in the late 1930s near Munderf by a man named George Aljoe. Halcyon and I talked by phone, and she told me that George Aljoe was her step-grandfather. He farmed and trapped the foxes, then her mother had the two pelts made into a stole for her when she was eighteen or twenty. She reminded me that fox stoles were “all the rage” then.
Halcyon didn’t know if her father had played with the sixteen marbles, but he certainly may have! Children around the world and from time immemorial have played with marbles. While children played with marbles, mothers enjoyed each other’s company while quilting.
Margaret Marinda, Halcyon’s grandmother, may have been part of a quilting group. Women stitched quilts both to raise funds and to present to people on important occasions. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union of the county pieced a quilt in 1933 to raise funds for their organization. Margaret Marinda may have been part of the Hazen Union.
The oldest object that Halcyon has contributed is the minute book of the Baptist Missionary Society. Her maternal grandmother’s name, Ella Aljoe, is on the inside cover and the “Members of the Society” list includes 34 names. They purchased thread, buttons, shirting, and muslin, and in return, sold the shirts they made.
These objects show us a time when Richardsville was marked by peace and prosperity.
Copyright@Jefferson County Historical Society, Inc.
Throwback Thursday is brought to you by Matson Insurance in Brookville.
Submitted by the Jefferson County History Center.
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