This quilt, known as The National, was made in 1888 at the request of the Clay Hay G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) Post in New Carlisle to raise funds for the post’s Civil War veterans.

Twelve women – eleven wives and one sister of prominent Union officers – each contributed one square for the quilt. The women used their own dress fabrics and decorated the squares with patriotic and military symbols, the officers’ names, and their own initials. Julia Grant, wife of Ulysses S. Grant, included pieces of her husband’s suits in her square.

The post members solicited squares for the quilt border from each state’s governor, but only California’s governor, Robert W. Waterman, responded to the invitation. Waterman offered to buy the finished quilt for $1,000, but the post declined, hoping to raise more money through a raffle. They should have taken his offer. The quilt raised little money, and the raffle winner, John Quincy Adams Smith, paid just 50 cents for his ticket. Today, the quilt is priceless.

The National Quilt, 1888
Assembled by Society of Kings Daughters
Salem, Columbiana County
Silk, cotton, pieced, embroidered, and painted
76" wide x 76" long
H84381