For over a century, the Alabama Department of Archives and History has collected artifacts that tell the story of the people of Alabama. Sometimes, single items tell multiple and multifaceted stories. Ada Chitwood Jones’s sock-top quilt, made in 1934 in the Fort Payne area, is a wonderful example of how a common object can help us explore a combination of Alabamians’ collective history, creativity, and sense of community.
Ada Chitwood was born in Arkansas on December 27, 1903, one of Andrew and Lucy Chitwood’s seven children. Originally from North Alabama, the Chitwoods had moved to Arkansas for work. By 1910 they returned to Alabama, settling in the Fyffe community of DeKalb County. In 1920 Ada married James Jones. The couple had two sons, one of whom survived to adulthood.
During her twenties, Ada Jones began quilting after taking classes offered through the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service. Formed in the 1910s, the agency taught practical agricultural and technical skills to the state’s farmers and their families. The service quickly expanded to include classes in “woman’s work,” and female extension agents traversed the rural communities of Alabama giving demonstrations on topics including quilting, canning, and nutrition. Jones fell in love with quilting in one of those classes.
Quilting was both a social and practical endeavor in Alabama. Women came together to quilt as a form of entertainment and socialization. But their work sessions served another important purpose as well, particularly during the Great Depression. Jones and other DeKalb County women made and gave quilts to needy families in the community. It was a practice Jones continued for the rest of her life, providing quilts to friends and family alike.
The Extension Service instructors encouraged participants to gather scraps of cloth to make their quilt tops. Repurposing fabric was a common Depression-era practice. Jones’s sister-in-law, Ruby Mae Chitwood, worked in the office of the W. B. Davis Hosiery Company, one of several manufacturers around Fort Payne, the self-proclaimed “Sock Capital of the World.” From scraps, salesmen’s samples, and remaindered socks, the women procured enough material for Jones to produce two quilts. She hand-stitched the sock tops together to form her unique, multicolored quilts. The Extension Service provided fabric for the backing, and Jones filled the quilts with cotton ginned from the family farm.
During her twenties, Ada Jones began quilting after taking classes offered through the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service. Formed in the 1910s, the agency taught practical agricultural and technical skills to the state’s farmers and their families. The service quickly expanded to include classes in “woman’s work,” and female extension agents traversed the rural communities of Alabama giving demonstrations on topics including quilting, canning, and nutrition. Jones fell in love with quilting in one of those classes.
Quilting was both a social and practical endeavor in Alabama. Women came together to quilt as a form of entertainment and socialization. But their work sessions served another important purpose as well, particularly during the Great Depression. Jones and other DeKalb County women made and gave quilts to needy families in the community. It was a practice Jones continued for the rest of her life, providing quilts to friends and family alike.
The Extension Service instructors encouraged participants to gather scraps of cloth to make their quilt tops. Repurposing fabric was a common Depression-era practice. Jones’s sister-in-law, Ruby Mae Chitwood, worked in the office of the W. B. Davis Hosiery Company, one of several manufacturers around Fort Payne, the self-proclaimed “Sock Capital of the World.” From scraps, salesmen’s samples, and remaindered socks, the women procured enough material for Jones to produce two quilts. She hand-stitched the sock tops together to form her unique, multicolored quilts. The Extension Service provided fabric for the backing, and Jones filled the quilts with cotton ginned from the family farm.
Women came together to quilt as a form of entertainment and socialization. But their work sessions served another important purpose as well, particularly during the Great Depression. Jones and other DeKalb County women made and gave quilts to needy families in the community.
Within their stitches Jones’s sock-top quilts contain family history, provide a window into Depression-era rural life, and serve as tangible examples of the benefit of the Alabama Extension Service. The quilts also serve as a reminder of the once-thriving textile industry in North Alabama, which at its height employed thousands of workers in dozens of mills. By the 1990s many of these facilities closed their doors, unable to compete with foreign manufacturers in an era of global free-trade agreements. This affected not only textile employees but also Alabama cotton farmers who provided the mills with raw material. A generation later, Fort Payne’s hosiery industry is witnessing a welcomed revival with manufacturers like Zkano, whose innovative and sustainable socks have gained national attention.
In 1945 Jones gave the two sock-top quilts to her son, Tommie, as a wedding gift. In the mid-1990s, recognizing the uniqueness of the quilts, the family donated one each to the Alabama Department of Archives and History and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Jones died in 1997, but her story lives on in her simple yet stunning sock-top quilts, artifacts that can teach future generations a great deal about life in Alabama.
This feature was previously published in Issue 131, Winter 2019.
About the Author
Ryan Blocker is museum collections coordinator at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. She was co-curator of “Sewn Together: Two Centuries of Alabama Quilts,” a 2017 collaborative exhibition of the Archives and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.
In 1945 Jones gave the two sock-top quilts to her son, Tommie, as a wedding gift. In the mid-1990s, recognizing the uniqueness of the quilts, the family donated one each to the Alabama Department of Archives and History and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Jones died in 1997, but her story lives on in her simple yet stunning sock-top quilts, artifacts that can teach future generations a great deal about life in Alabama.
This feature was previously published in Issue 131, Winter 2019.
About the Author
Ryan Blocker is museum collections coordinator at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. She was co-curator of “Sewn Together: Two Centuries of Alabama Quilts,” a 2017 collaborative exhibition of the Archives and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.
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