Ashby, Proctor, Iden and Reed/Reid
This post explores the social and family connections between the people whose names were inscribed on the "Apple Pie Ridge Star Friendship Quilt." It is now in the collection of the Warren Heritage Society, Front Royal, Virginia. For additional background, please see the two previous posts to this blog.
The inscription, "Margaret C. Swayne, Ohio, 1853" took this researcher on a tour of mid-nineetenth-century Ohio records before finding most of the other inscribed identities living in the town of Front Royal, Warren County, Virginia, at the time the quilt was made. Knowing that Margaret's niece was the sister-in-law of the first reported recipient of the quilt connected Margaret (Brown) Swayne to at least one member of the quilt's community.
We learned that Margaret originally lived in Virginia, and was married in a Quaker meetinghouse on Apple Pie Ridge, an area well-known by the makers of several other historical Quaker quilts that used the pattern. The Swayne family retained their Quaker membership after moving to Ohio and becoming members of Stillwater Monthly Meeting. Their children appear in Quaker records through at least 1878, and probably beyond.
There are many possibilities for how Margaret's "Ohio" inscription ended up on a Virginia quilt. The inscription could have been written by someone else, or Margaret might have traveled to visit friends and relatives in Virginia (or vice versa) who were making the quilt. Historical Friends often traveled for purposes of social and religious purposes. It is also possible that Margaret sent her inscribed quilt "square," (as quilt blocks were often described at the time), through the mail.
Apple Pie Ridge Star Friendship Quilt, 1853, on display July 2026
at the c. 1787 Balthis House, Warren Heritage Society, Front Royal, Virginia.
(Photo by Mary Holton Robare)
Although closer inspection is warranted, there appear to be very few repeated fabrics on the quilt with just two exceptions: the "Anna Reed" and (her daughter) "Matilda Reed" blocks have the same fabric as do the blocks inscribed, "Susan B. Reed" and (her niece) "Elizabeth Reed." Margaret Swayne's fabric does not appear to be repeated.
However the state of Ohio became represented on this quilt, all of the other inscribed identities were residents of Virginia. How were they connected? Two of them, Mary Proctor and Susan Reed, had family members that appear in records of the Front Royal United Methodist Church in Virginia. (FRUMC). Mary Proctor's father and step-mother were recorded as members in 1856. A Marcus B. Reed, possibly Susan's husband, was baptized in the church on September 5, 1856.
The Front Royal Methodists described removals from their membership roles in terms similar to those use by mid-nineteenth-century Quakers. For example, "removed by certificate," "removed to Missouri, and, "expelled on charge of drunkenness." Deaths, however, were sometimes described more descriptively as "died in peace," and "died in triumph."
Apple Pie Ridge Star Friendship Quilt, detail.
Block inscribed, "Mary Proctor."
In 1850, Mary Proctor (1832-1908) married Jacob N. Sloat. Although Margaret dated her block "1853" the quilt was probably started earlier, when Mary's maiden name was inscribed. According to US Census Records, Jacob Sloat was a house carpenter. Mary and Jacob would eventually have ten children. By 1880, at least three of their sons also "worked at carpentry," like their father. One daughter was enumerated as a "Nurse," and another as a "Domestic Servant." Mary died at the age of seventy-six in 1908 at the Front Royal home of her daughter Lucy (Sloat) Venable.
Apple Pie Ridge Star Friendship Quilt, detail
Block inscribed, "Susan B. Reed."
According to files held by the Warren Heritage Society, Susan (Ashby) Reed (born1821) married Marcus B. Reed (or "Reid," as the name is variously spelled in historical records), in 1840. Her name is clearly inscribed, "Susan B Reed" but I have yet to find an explanation for that middle initial. Nonetheless, this "Susan" is the most-likely inscribed identity. She is connected to several of the other names on the quilt. Besides the church connections, there were family affiliations.
Susan was the daughter of George Ashby and his second wife, Martha Riley. She had become a ward of her uncle, William Riley, after her father's death. William gave his consent to the Warren County Clerk's office for her to marry, probably because she was considered underage at the time. Online family history trees are notoriously incorrect and it seems so especially for Susan, perhaps because her parents died when she was young. It is worth noting that some family historians suggest that Susan gave birth to eleven children and adopted a daughter for a total of twelve.
Apple Pie Ridge Star Friendship Quilt, detail
Block inscribed, "Anna Reed."
Identifying Susan as the wife of Marcus B. Reed leads us to connecting most of the other inscribed names on the quilt. Her husband's brother, Robert Payton (or, "Peyton"), Reed married Anna Iden (1824-1891). Usually documented as "Ann E.," luckily, at least one family record refers to her as, "Anna" so this spelling on a quilt block is not a big discrepancy. Two of Anna's daughters - the ones born before the quilt's inscribed date of 1853 - had their names written on quilt blocks when they were children, ages two and four. This was not an uncommon practice on mid-nineteenth-century signature quilts. You can see Anna's family with the girls all grown up in the photo, below.
Anna Iden Reed, second row, fourth from left, in picture dated 1888.
Matilda Reed, second row, fifth from left and Elizabeth Reed, (aka Gertrude "Bettie"), second row, sixth from left,
had their names inscribed on the Apple Pie Ridge Star Friendship Quilt.
This brings us to a distant Quaker connection. Anna Iden descended from generations of devout family members of the Religious Society of Friends. However, her father, Mandley Iden, chose to follow the "Primitive Baptist" faith. According to one family historian:
"Mandley Iden (1796-1993), son of Jacob and Elizabeth Iden, resided in Farquier[sic] County, Virginia, near Marshall, Virginia, and was a neighbor of John Marshall, the first Chief Justice of the United States. Mandley Iden aligned himself with the protestant faith known as "Primitive Baptist" and all of his children became members of that church."
Anna, Robert and their first eight children moved to Missouri sometime between 1850 and 1860. Once there, they reportedly had four more, making an even dozen!
Apple Pie Ridge Star Friendship Quilt, detail
Block inscribed, "Matilda Reed."
We have been able to connect the people whose names are inscribed on the Warren Heritage Society's Apple Pie Ridge Star Friendship Quilt through family, church and geographical proximity, but questions remain. Was there one unifying connection? Did they all even know each other, or were all of them known separately to the quilt's maker, from a variety of social connections?
Apple Pie Ridge Star Friendship Quilt, detail
Block inscribed, "Elizabeth Reed."
One last, tantalizing thought: Anna Iden and two of the three daughters she had prior to 1853 (when the quilt was dated) are represented on the quilt, but one is missing. Where is the name of the eldest, Maria Dallas Reed? One wonders if her name was inscribed on a quilt block that ended up in a different quilt!
Selected Notes & Sources:
All detail photographs of the Apple Pie Ridge Star Friendship Quilt are courtesy of the Warren Heritage Society / Laura Virginia Hale Archives, Front Royal, Virginia.
Thank you to Hannah Fletcher-Perez, Lee Meadows and Liz Rishel at the Warren Heritage Society, to family historian Kirk Sweeney, and members of the Facebook Group, "Antique Signature Quilts," for sharing their time and expertise.
"Family of Robert P. and Anna Iden Reid 1888." Photograph identifications listed below are keyed to annotations written on the photo, n.d.: 1) James H Reid 2) Dallas Maria Reid Masterson 3) Matilda Reid Turner 4) Gertrude Reid 5) Mandley Snowden Reid 6) Mollie Reid 7) Laura Reid Denham 8) William Reid 9) Lucy May Reid 10) Robert Lee Reid. Sweeney Family Tree, Ancestry.com, accessed 23 August 2026.
"Membership Record - Front Royal Church (1856-1880)," Warren Heritage Society/Laura Virginia Hale Archives, Front Royal, Warren County, Virginia.
"Reed Family File," Warren Heritage Society/Laura Virginia Hale Archives, Front Royal, Warren County, Virginia.
Sons and daughters of Randall Iden; the authentic history of the Iden family dating from 1280 A.D. to the present year, 1941 A.D., compiled and edited by V. Gilmore Iden. See: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89066168303&view=1up&seq=64 Accessed 20 August 2026.
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