Feed Sack Dresses

Last week’s Decoration Day story and the comments it inspired mentioned all the girls getting a new dress.  For most ladies on the Cumberland Plateau for many, many years, the best source of fabric for new dresses or any new sewing project for that matter came from feed sacks and flour sacks.  I wanted to write an article about this ingenious recycling trend so I did a little research and learned some amazing facts both historical and current.

Historically speaking, cloth sacks were first used in the early 1800’s when the wooden boxes and barrels that had previously been used to move food stuffs became impractical.   They were bulky and difficult to carry and they did a poor job of keeping out pests.  However, making sacks that were strong enough to carry these products wasn’t practical until the lock stitch was invented in the mid 1800’s. 

Initially, sacks were made of heavy canvas with labels printed right onto the fabric.  Even these bags were re-used by industrious families.  We still have examples of quilts made of these plain white bags.  Fertilize continued to be packaged in the plain white bags.  But the best was yet to come. 

Sack manufacturers eventually realized that they could market to the women of the family by weaving beautiful prints, stripes, plaids and even solids.  Soon feed sacks and flour sacks had a market all their own.  How many of you have heard some man in your family tell of having to re-stack feed in order to find the particular print his mother or sister was looking for?  My Daddy remembers having to do this for his sister’s Decoration Day dress at least once. 

A coarse cotton weave replaced the initial canvas sacks and it was used for everything from bedding to dresses, curtains to dish towels.  A lady’s dress would require 3 matching or coordinating sacks while a single feed sack could make a child’s dress.  There was no shame in wearing these clothes for the fabric was used by everyone.  And all the homes of the day reflected the use of these sacks throughout.  Your neighbors assumed you were sleeping on feed sacks, scratchy though they might be.   In fact, flour sacks were sized and woven especially for pillow cases.  They were perfectly sized and some were even woven with an attractive border on the end.

The people of the Plateau have long been accustomed to making do with what they have.  A land that did not easily accommodate growing cotton and no great grazing ground for sheep probably meant even the earliest Plateau settlers struggled for textiles.  But we are survivors and we will find a way.  Bringing home a sack made of some usable material was a godsend.  Even had no one else in the nation thought these were worthwhile, I’m sure we would have treasured them. 

If you read this, or hear your grandmother’s stories with disdain, take a tour around the internet.  Vintage fabrics (especially feed sack fabrics) are quite the collector’s items now.  And if you’ve got a feed sack quilt hidden somewhere in your closet you may have more of a treasure than you realize.  Hey, if you have such a quilt, please snap a photo and send it along to me.  You can post it through Facebook – the link is on the right-hand side of the blog.

Decoration Day at Campground

The history of Decoration Day across the United States is somewhat contended but we have clear documentation that a Confederate Decoration Day was observed even during the early days of The Civil War. The stories that survive of Plateau Decoration Days are from the early parts of the 20th century.  The caliber of this annual celebration is worthy of notice. 

For those of you who have not had the opportunity to enjoy a proper Decoration Day, please allow me to explain.  At Campground on the first Sunday in June, the extended church family come together to place flowers on the graves, to remember those who’ve passed away, and to celebrate the lives we remember there.

Today, beautiful floral arrangements can be purchased in plastic and silk. But in the early days, the flowers were made by hand of crepe paper and wire then dipped in paraffin wax to help weather-proof them.  As with so many holidays, the culture of the day eventually extended far beyond remembering the dead.  Every girl wanted a new dress for the day.  For years, these were made from feed sacks but as more fabrics became available, the girls would try to pick enough strawberries to buy the fabric.  Strawberries came-in around the first of May so that allowed plenty of time to make the dresses. The young men were sure to attend the festivities for all the young ladies would be done up in their very best and would be quite a sight to see. 

The church yard would be full on this special day.  As late as the 1950’s, people came in horse-drawn wagons which were a great tool for you could not only carry your dinner with you but it made a convenient table.  At noon, families would always gather together for a special meal.  While some ate at the church, others would gather at a relative’s home for a hearty meal, before returning for an afternoon of visiting.  As family members had to move away to find work, they never forgot the holiday and would return from wherever they were living.  One cousin, Mrs. June Howard was raised in Monterey.  She remembers that as a little girl the family didn’t keep a car so they had to hire a ride; they really only got to go to Grandma’s about once a year and it would always be on Decoration Day.

Folks would come to visit whether their kin were buried at Campground or not.  The Beasley and Copeland families from the Elmore Community are remembered for having fine saddle horses.  Anyone who had such a horse would ride up and down the road along the cemetery showing off their mounts.  In addition to the wagons and saddle horses, a lot of people walked to The Decoration.  As more cars were available in the community, the roads would be lined for miles with parked cars.

Some pastors took the opportunity to preach from the porch steps or from a parked wagon – after all, there would be people in attendance that would not hear the gospel message within the church walls.  And there would always be all day gospel singing. 

As years have passed and we’ve become busied by other things, the crowd at Decoration Day has dwindled.  What do you think – is there value in spending time remembering our family?  Is it important to know our extended family or is it enough to know your Mom, Dad and siblings?

I truly want to hear your thoughts and certainly your memories of Decoration Days. 

What do I think?  Well, I write this blog each week in order to learn about and to remind you of our history, our heritage and our family.

Building Campground

When we refer to “Campground” we don’t usually differentiate between the church and the community.  That’s because, contrary to Hollywood’s portrayal of pioneers and early America, the church was historically the center of the community.  And that certainly seems to be the case when we recall memories of Campground.

In days with very limited transportation, no phones and a lot of hard work just to survive, church meetings were the prime times to visit neighbors, catch up on news and generally socialize.  So your church family was as vital as your biological family – and it functioned much the same way.

After many years in the little log cabin, Campground built a white board building to house the church – as far as I can understand, the school remained in the log building until it was closed in the 1930’s. The community came together to donate and cut the timber then assemble the simple building.  The architectural design of buildings in that era amaze me and I’m hoping some kind reader will leave comments to help us really understand it.  The foundations of these buildings consisted of large rocks stacked (without mortar binding) to the necessary height to both level the building and raise it out of reach of bugs.  Buildings were not always underpinned, allowing the wind (and occasionally small animals and children) to get up under the building.

This design was amazingly successful.  In fact, there are houses standing today with just such a foundation.  However, in the case of the church building, there came a day when the wind blew the building off its foundation.  Men from the church hoisted it back in place, but it was no longer as stable as the original construction so they shored it up with poles and continued having regular services in it.

I have to wonder what it would feel like to walk by such braces and enter the building – and I can’t help but wonder how excited the preacher would get in such a building.  Perhaps there’s an observation about faith in that – I sure hope I would be able to sit down and worship and not question how safe I might be in God’s house!

That little gust of wind prompted the congregation to look toward building a new church house.  Well, like I mentioned earlier, churches are like families.  In families we love each other no matter what, but we don’t necessarily always agree. And a story survives of at least one old lady who couldn’t see doing away with a perfectly good building just because it was unseated from its foundation.  Tilda Key Elmore stood up and declared, ‘My daddy helped build this building.  If it was good enough for him, it’s good enough for me!’ But Aunt Tilda (pronounced Tildee of course) wasn’t overly offended by being overruled; she did continue as an active member of the Campground church until her death in 1978.

The building was started with thirty cents in the coffers.  It was completed and stands today.  If you would like to see it, Pastor Josh England and the whole congregation would welcome you Sunday at 11:00 (Sunday Schools starts at 10:00)!

God declared feast days in Mosaic Law and Baptists have taken that to heart.  We’ll feast for just about any occasion.  The annual celebrations hold many fond memories, so next week we’ll talk about Decoration Day

Campground - the community and the church

One of the beautiful things about doing family or regional research is relying on the past work of others.  For Fentress County historians, Mr. Luther Atkinson chronicled a ton of photos and information that we can now refer to.  Additionally, The Mount Union Missionary Baptist Church has a booklet of the church’s history 1870 – 1995 that I am relying heavily upon.  While Luther Atkinson is credited as “helping compile the information for this book,” no specific author or editor is noted.

Last week we talked about a church plant from Mount Union.  So I thought we’d take a little step back and look at the history of this church’s formation.

We’ll need to try to differentiate between Campground and the Mount Union Church.  Many of us will always refer to them as one and the same.  The church is simply an integral part of the Campground community.  But there is a rich history in the forming of the Missionary Baptist church.

The “Campground” seems to have no beginning – there are unnamed graves in the cemetery that no one can date.  Located at a good spring and amid a lush forest, the campground area is said to have been a stopping point for many travelers.  At some point, camp meetings began to take place, undoubtedly as eager preachers sought to spread the gospel among these wayfaring strangers.  Eventually, the camp meetings became regular, annual events and would be known as the “Wilderness Meetings”. 

I can imagine living in a time without telephones, email, or social media – and even in a place lacking regular church meetings – these annual revivals would have been the social event of the year.  People came from all around, set up camp, visited with distant neighbors, swapped stories and sought spiritual rejuvenation.

By 1840, the Campground community had grown and established such permanency that a small log building was erected to serve as church and school.  The school would continue educating the community’s children until the mid-1930’s. 

In the meantime, the little log church building would serve as a center of worship for 3 different denominations.  There was a Presbyterian congregation, a Methodist congregation and a Baptist congregation. 

Four families living in the area in the latter half of the 19th century claimed the Methodist faith.  The Peters, Todds, Normans, Shillings and Crosses would worship at Campground until Bruner’s Chapel was formed in 1882 in Clarkrange.    The Presbyterian congregation disbanded some time later. 

Carson Key records that about 1902 a large, wood-framed church was erected which would be replaced by today’s brick building in 1940.

Now I need YOUR help… The Mt. Union history book refers to “Three Forks (Nether Church)” as being affiliated with Mt. Union prior to the 1870 organization.  In fact, it states that, when the church was originated, “Rev. S.S. Looper, pastor of the Three Forks Baptist Church with deacons of said church… officiated in the organization.”  Do any of you have any information on this Three Forks or Nether Church and how they were affiliated with Mt. Union?  There is currently a Three Forks church in Alpine, TN.  Is that the same church?  I would certainly appreciate if you would click “comments” below if you have any information on this.

Campground - the community and the church

One of the beautiful things about doing family or regional research is relying on the past work of others.  For Fentress County historians, Mr. Luther Atkinson chronicled a ton of photos and information that we can now refer to.  Additionally, The Mount Union Missionary Baptist Church has a booklet of the church’s history 1870 – 1995 that I am relying heavily upon.  While Luther Atkinson is credited as “helping compile the information for this book,” no specific author or editor is noted.

Last week we talked about a church plant from Mount Union.  So I thought we’d take a little step back and look at the history of this church’s formation.

We’ll need to try to differentiate between Campground and the Mount Union Church.  Many of us will always refer to them as one and the same.  The church is simply an integral part of the Campground community.  But there is a rich history in the forming of the Missionary Baptist church.

The “Campground” seems to have no beginning – there are unnamed graves in the cemetery that no one can date.  Located at a good spring and amid a lush forest, the campground area is said to have been a stopping point for many travelers.  At some point, camp meetings began to take place, undoubtedly as eager preachers sought to spread the gospel among these wayfaring strangers.  Eventually, the camp meetings became regular, annual events and would be known as the “Wilderness Meetings”. 

I can imagine living in a time without telephones, email, or social media – and even in a place lacking regular church meetings – these annual revivals would have been the social event of the year.  People came from all around, set up camp, visited with distant neighbors, swapped stories and sought spiritual rejuvenation.

By 1840, the Campground community had grown and established such permanency that a small log building was erected to serve as church and school.  The school would continue educating the community’s children until the mid-1930’s. 

In the meantime, the little log church building would serve as a center of worship for 3 different denominations.  There was a Presbyterian congregation, a Methodist congregation and a Baptist congregation. 

Four families living in the area in the latter half of the 19th century claimed the Methodist faith.  The Peters, Todds, Normans, Shillings and Crosses would worship at Campground until Bruner’s Chapel was formed in 1882 in Clarkrange.    The Presbyterian congregation disbanded some time later. 

Carson Key records that about 1902 a large, wood-framed church was erected which would be replaced by today’s brick building in 1940.

Now I need YOUR help… The Mt. Union history book refers to “Three Forks (Nether Church)” as being affiliated with Mt. Union prior to the 1870 organization.  In fact, it states that, when the church was originated, “Rev. S.S. Looper, pastor of the Three Forks Baptist Church with deacons of said church… officiated in the organization.”  Do any of you have any information on this Three Forks or Nether Church and how they were affiliated with Mt. Union?  There is currently a Three Forks church in Alpine, TN.  Is that the same church?  I would certainly appreciate if you would click “comments” below if you have any information on this.