Civil War-era quilt finds a fitting home in Holley

By Ginny Kropf, correspondent Posted 13 August 2019 at 7:50 am

Roy Bubb bought the quilt during auction to benefit Cobblestone Museum

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Ann Raskopf of Olcott and Roy Bubb of Holley renewed acquaintances after meeting on a bus trip in May to view cobblestone structures in the Rochester area. They first met at the Cobblestone Society’s annual membership dinner and fundraising auction, where Bubb was the successful bidder on a Civil War-era quilt she donated.

HOLLEY – Roy Bubb had long been looking for a suitable coverlet for his bed, which dates back to the Civil War era, when he decided, for the first time, to attend the Cobblestone Society’s third annual membership dinner and fundraising auction last spring.

When Ann Raskopf of Olcott inherited a trunk of heirloom quilts, she was faced with the dilemma of finding a proper home for them – one in particular, a Love Apple quilt dating back to the Civil War era.

The two would meet when Raskopf, a member of the Cobblestone Society Museum at Childs, decided to donate the quilt to the Cobblestone’s membership dinner and fundraising auction on April 30.

Bubb is also a member of the Cobblestone Society and when he attended the auction, the quilt caught his eye.

His bedroom set came from the family of Holley resident Corinne “Kitty” Potter Moore, who had been given the furniture as a wedding gift by her grandparents prior to the Civil War. When the last heir in the family died, the contents of their house were left to Bubb.

For some time, he had been looking for a new quilt for his bedroom.

Raskopf, in the meantime, had shirttail cousins in Jamestown who owned a four-story home. When she helped clear it out, they found a trunk in the attic, which a cousin said hadn’t been opened in years and he didn’t know what was inside.

Inside were four quilts. One was tattered (which Raskopf eventually sold at a garage sale for $15); another was called a Nine-Patch pattern; one was the Love Apple quilt; and one in a Wild Geese pattern, she has decided to keep.

Raskopf contacted quilt appraiser, Linda Hunter of Lockport, who spent several hours talking to her about the quilts, which are all hand-appliqued.

The Love Apple design is a Pennsylvania Dutch influence, while the Nine-Patch has pen and ink prints from 1883 of famous people, such as Alexander Graham Bell, and the names of famous families in the Jamestown and Dunkirk areas. She decided to send the Nine-Patch quilt to a relative out of state.

Provided photo: The Love Apple quilt is shown during April 30 at the Cobblestone Society Museum’s annual membership dinner and fundraising auction.

“Then I wondered, ‘What am I going to do with the other one,’” Raskopf said. “I’d always been interested in the Cobblestone Museum, and I knew director Doug Farley from Newfane for years. Then I read online about their fundraising event.

She contacted Farley and asked if the Cobblestone would like a quilt. He told her they already had several, but they were relatively new ones.

“I told Doug I’d drive to the museum and show it to him,” Raskopf said.

The Love Apple quilt is 76 x 90 inches, in turkey red and green.

“I told Doug I envisioned this quilt in a lovely old house – maybe of cobblestone or brick – on a lovely old bed,” Raskopf said.

While Bubb’s home in Holley isn’t very old, he previously lived in an 1810 Cape Cod in New Hampshire, and then in an 1825 house in Clarendon. But his bed is from the Civil War era.

The quilt he was currently using on his bed had been made by an aunt 40 years ago, and he wanted a change so he could rotate them.

Bubb, 88, attended the Cobblestone’s auction, where Raskopf was seated near the Love Apple quilt.

“I didn’t know if anyone would be interested in something like this,” Raskopf said. “Thank heavens Roy was there.”

“Barb Filipiak of Medina started bidding on the quilt,” Bubb said. “I knew her, but I didn’t care. I wanted that quilt.”

He got it for $120, which Raskopf considers a “steal.”

“I was more thrilled when I met him and discovered he was originally from Williamsport, Pa.,” Raskopf said. “That is Pennsylvania Dutch country and this quilt, considered ‘Country Cottage,’ has a Pennsylvania Dutch influence. I guess ‘What goes around, comes around.’”

Raskopf and Bubb would meet again in May when they both went on a bus trip with the Cobblestone Museum to visit cobblestone structures in the Rochester area.

That’s when they made a date for Raskopf to visit Bubb’s home and see the 1800’s Love Apple quilt on his Civil War-era bed.

They both agree she couldn’t have found a better home for her quilt.

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