Name |
George Sylvester Martin |
Birth |
Dec 1868 |
Donnellson, Lee County, Iowa [1, 2] |
- son of Philip Martin (1830–1910) and Elizabeth Schmidt (1829–1913), both born in Prussia, Germany
|
Gender |
Male |
Census |
15 Jun 1900 |
Nez Perce, Nez Perce County, Idaho [1] |
- George S Martin, Head, W, M, Dec 1868, 31, M, 4, Iowa, Germany, Germany, Editor
Janet D Martin, Wife, W, F, Dec 1876, 23, M, 4, 2 children born and living, Kansas, New York, Kentucky
Mary G Martin, Daughter, W, F, May 1897, 3, S, Oregon, Iowa, Kansas
Lenore Martin, Daughter, W, F, Julu 1899, 11/12, S, Washington, Iowa, Kansas
|
Anecdote |
- Janet Dove Maybee was six months old when her parents and four brothers and sisters joined an 1877 wagon train in Kansas for the long, tedious journey West. The family settled in the little village of Weston, Umatilla County, Oregon, at the foot of the. Blue Mountains. A family of seven required a lot of bedding and Janet's mother Mary Jane always had a basket of quilt pieces handy to work on. Little Janet was fascinated with these blocks, and at a very early age, she learned to sew together simple blocks. Her love of quilting lasted all of her life.
Janet attended school in a little schoolhouse, which her father built on a corner of his homestead. (This building still stands.) On May 10, 1896, Janet married George Martin, a young man from Missouri. They had four children. In 1908 they moved to the booming town of Mabton, Yakima County, Washington. There they opened a general mercantile store and sold everything from groceries, dry goods, and hardware to coal, oil, and shoes. Each year salesmen brought a huge, new sample book of wool swatches for men's mail-order suits. Janet then made the old samples into quilts. She made log cabin quilts, quilts of just the square samples sewn together, and crazy quilts, which she embellished with variations of the feather stitch. The store sold other fabrics, and Janet used the cotton remnants and scraps from her three girls' dresses to make quilts.
Quilting bees were an important social function in Janet's life. When a quilt was ready to go on the quilting frame, she would set it up in the parlor and invite her friends to help quilt. These early quilts were utilitarian. Janet sent each of her children to college with a special quilt for their dormitory bed. When Janet became a grandmother, she made a quilt for each of the grandchildren. Not realizing the value of these early quilts, the family used them until they wore out, left them behind in moving, or cast them aside in favor of more modern bedding.
In the 1930s Janet started making quilts for the beauty of the quilt, not for family bedding. Sometimes she bought new fabric. Some quilts are signed with her name, the date, and the recipient of the quilt. Today, her family cherishes all these quilts; some have been handed down, mother to daughter, granddaughter to great-granddaughter. Janet died April 19, 1957, in Poulsbo, Kitsap County, Washington, leaving a wonderful legacy of beautiful quilts.
|
Info |
|
Reference Number |
6000 |
Death |
30 Nov 1953 |
Yakima, Yakima County, Washington [2] |
Person ID |
I5970 |
Maybee Society |
Last Modified |
7 Apr 2024 |
Family |
Janet Dove Maybee, b. 8 Dec 1876, Agnes City, Kansas d. 19 Apr 1957, Poulsbo, Kitsap County, Washington (Age 80 years) |
Marriage |
10 May 1896 |
Weston, Umatilla County, Oregon |
Children |
+ | 1. Mary Geneva Martin, b. 6 May 1897, Weston, Umatilla County, Oregon d. 8 Jun 1985, Monroe, Snohomish County, Washington (Age 88 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
+ | 2. Lenore Martin, b. 22 Jul 1899, Waverly, Washington d. 1 Sep 1971, Okaloosa County, Florida (Age 72 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
+ | 3. Esther Eileen Martin, b. 9 Apr 1902, Mohler, Lewis County, Idaho d. 10 Dec 2000, Poulsbo, Kitsap County, Washington (Age 98 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
+ | 4. George Maybee Martin, b. 18 Jun 1906, Mohler, Idaho d. 21 Feb 1994, Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, Yakima, Washington (Age 87 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
|
Family ID |
F1508 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
Last Modified |
7 Apr 2024 |