The 1929 Kelsey Quilters
The Brave Sisters Who Found a Safe Place to Worship and Raise Families in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
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Four days before Christmas in 2018, I received the call that my husband, Jim’s Aunt Mary Hamberlin, had passed away in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was eighty-six and not in excellent health, but it came as a surprise to me. When I got the call from her daughter, I felt terrible that I could not go. Mary had been my aunt for over fifty years. I had attended Glenn’s funeral seventeen years earlier when he died of cancer. Glenn and I worked together on family history. Researching in the 1980s, we both enjoyed the Temple. Glenn had worked for many years in the Salt Lake Temple as an ordinance worker. My first thought was of the sweet reunion they would have. Glenn is the youngest brother of my father-in-law, Doyle Carlos Hamberlin. We had lost Doyle in 1973. Mary is the great-granddaughter of George Q. Cannon and Elizabeth Hoagland and was a great “lady.” I reflected on the time I visited with them as I attended BYU Education Week with three sisters from my ward. We took a side trip to Salt Lake City because I had an appointment with J. Richard Clarke, who at the time was a member of the Seventies over the Family History Department. It was about some Temple work I wanted to do on my Thomas Jefferson Line. It was across the street from the Temple, and Glenn was going with me for moral support. I was very nervous. When I arrived at the Temple, fasting for my meeting with Brother Clark, my heart was beating so fast, similar to the feeling of needing to bear your testimony and you are unsure what you will say. Shortly after the session started, I got this calm, peaceful feeling when I looked up and saw Glenn.
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About the Book
It is a true story of how a 1929 quilt was found in the closet of Mary Cannon Hamberlin folded over a strong hanger along with twenty-two extra blocks covered in plastic and sent to the only relative that her daughters thought might know who the women were that had made it. The woman they sent it to was a convert to the Church. She had done the Family History of both her husband and herself. She had been to Kelsey and met some of the women. Her love of Family and Temple work led her to discover the histories of forty-six women who not only had made quilts together but had been related to each other and to her and her husband's family. The women were all converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from the southern states in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They had all come together in a place called Kelsey, which became the mother colony of the Church in Texas. Wilford Woodruff encouraged the saints to stay in Texas and not make the move to Salt Lake. They sent Missionaries to Kelsey to oversee the education of these new saints. The personal histories of these women help her to overcome the loss of her husband and strengthen her testimony of Jesus Christ so much that she knows that she has to share it with their families. As she researches, she meets others who love these women too. Their Stories also help her to remember and record her own memories and maybe it will help others do the same.
About the Author
lives in Mesa, AZ has over 40 years of experience doing Family History research. Married James Wesley Hamberlin in 1965. Joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints after having a stillborn son in 1967. An event that changed her life and that of her future family. Now a widow since 2021. Filled a Service Mission in 2022 at Mesa Temple. was An Ordinance worker for 10 years.