Leather fire bucket . Painted black banner with yellow letters: "Farmer's Bank." has foliate designs on both ends of banner. "No. 9" is painted below banner in black. Stitched leather construction. Metal D rings and leather loops attach 1in wide leather handle and bucket. Tag found inside bucket: "Water Bucket of C W Richenbach Property of Union No 1". Tag is for 1931 Union Fire Company annual dinner. Tag is now in object file.
Silver-plated speaking trumpet, engraved, "Presented by the La Fayette Hose Company of Baltimore to the Union Fire Company of Lancaster." Two decorative bands 8.5in apart encircle the horn with moveable wire rings to attach or suspend the horn. Embellished with flowers and leaves.
Trumpet is mounted on a base with mouthpiece now covered.
Button from the 1967 Lancaster County Firemen's Convention. Emblem for Quarryville fire Company 1 in center with "Q F C 1" on it. In white letters on red background: "Quarryville Fire Co. June 3 1967 Quarryville, PA." On red ribbon (1.625in w x 4.875in L) in silver letters: 47th Annual Convention Lancaster County Firemen's Assn. Quarryville, PA."
Badge for the Lancaster COunty Firemen's Association convention. White button rimmed in red with red fire engine pictured in center. In blue letters: "Denver Fire Co. No. 1 June 4 1966 Denver, Pa." On 1.625in wide red ribbon in white letters: "46th Annual Convention Lancaster County Firemen's Association Denver, Penna."
Badge from the Lancaster COunty FIremen's Association convention. White button rimmed in red with red fire truck pictured in center. In blue letters: "Shawnee Fire Co. Marching Unit June 5, 1965 Columbia, Pa." On 1.625in wdie red ribbon in gold letters: "45th Annual Convention Lancaster County Firemen's Association Columbia., Penna."
Badge from the Lancaster County Firemen's Associaton convention. White button rimmed in red with red fire engine pictured in center. In blue letters around edge; "Friendship Fire and Hose Co. No.1 June 1. 1963." On 1.625in wide red ribbon in white letters: "43rd Annual Convention Lancaster County Firemen's Association Elizabethtwon, PA."
Badge from the Lancaster County Firemen's Association convention. White button rimmed in red with red fire engine pictured in center. Red star above and below. In blue letters around edge: "Columbia Fire Department June 6, 1964." On 1.625in wide blue ribbon in gold letters: "44th Annual Convention Lancaster County Firemen's Association Columbia, Penna."
Badge from the Lancaster County FIremen's Association annual convention. 1.75in button, white background. Red fire engine with 1812-1962 in red letters. In black letters around edge "Hope Fire Engine and Hose Company No. 1." On 1.5in wide red ribbon in gold letters "42nd Annual Convention Lancaster COunty FIremen's Association Manheim, Penna. June 2, 1962."
Pieced quilt of silks, cotton batting, glazed cotton back, cut in 2 halves, made by Quaker Deborah Simmons Coates, wife of Lindley Coates (1794-1856). Has 19 horizontal bands of dress silks (many produced by Harmonist Community) in alternating triangles arranged in Birds in the Air or Flying Geese pattern using the template method. Large triangles of varying patterns alternate with large triangles with 3 smaller appliqued triangles of contrasting patterns. Colors are browns, tans, beiges, electric and royal blue, peach and green. Each quilt half has a green silk binding on the three outside edges, and tan silk on the inner vertical cut edge. Quilting patterns are clamshell, diamond, cross in a square and diagonals.
At quilt center is a cream-colored triangle with an abolitionist stamp depicting a kneeling enslaved Black male in chains over the words: "Deliver me from the oppression/ of man." This stamped triangle was cut in two when quilt was divided; image now hidden by modern binding. According to Cuesta Benberry research, this image of a kneeling enslaved person originated with the English ceramic firm of Wedgwood in the late 1700s. See items 08.242 and 42.76.11 in the collectiosn of Metropolitan Museum of Art for seals with a similar motif. The Wedgwood family were ardent abolitionists, decorating various ceramics with this image, resulting in its rapid adoption by American anti-slavery groups. Used in many forms and media over the years, it remains the logo of the still-existing Pennsylvania Abolition Society and appears on organization's official publications.
Lindley and Deborah Coates, of West Grove, Chester Co., married there on 12/16/1819 but lived near Christiana in Sadsbury Twp., Lancaster Co. They attended Sadsbury Friends Meeting House near Christiana. Ardent abolitionists, their home was what is now designated station #5 on the Underground Railway. Lindley became President of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840, before William Lloyd Garrison. Deborah Coates became a Hicksite Quaker minister according to historian Beverly Wilson Palmer. Hicksites were the more radical Quakers, named after leader Elias Hicks.
Provenance
Quilt passed to son Simmons (1821-1862) & wife Emeline Jackson. (Deborah Coates lived w/ widow Emeline on her Chester Co. farm (Evergreen Hall in West Grove) for many years following Simmon's 1862 death. See census records). Descent to their daughter Elizabeth Jackson Coates who married Marriott Brosius, U.S. congressman from Lancaster. The quilt was then divided between their two daughters, donor's maternal grandmother Graceanna Brosius Biddle and her sister Gertrude Coho Reinhartson. The two halves were then reunited when given to donor, Marjorie Ayars Laidman. Deborah S. Coates was donor's great great great grandmother.
Overall good condition. Two halves of quilt (with recent inside binding on cut edges) are "mounted" on cotton muslin, side-by-side. Silks show significant deterioration -- cracking, splitting and abrasion -- with some losses. Binding also has deterioration with some losses. (See 1985-86 condition report by conservator Linnea Davis.)
Documented in Quilt Harvest #448-B (records in Archives).
Object ID
G.86.05
Place of Origin
Sadsbury Twp.
Credit
Gift of Marjorie A. Laidman, Heritage Center Collection