After 70-plus years in Lewis County, a unique quilt made with real Confederate currency is returning to Georgia next week. Before it leaves Lewis County, its story is being told one last time.
Nancy Etheridge Lasley of Chehalis is the great-granddaughter to the quilt’s original owner, Thomas Ryal Brantley.
Lasley is donating the quilt to the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, Ga. Affiliated with the Smithsonian Institute, the Southern is one of metropolitan Atlanta’s premier museums.
Family tradition is that Thomas Brantley was a small boy as the Civil War ended.
When Confederate soldiers began returning home to Hancock County, Ga, a number of his uncles and cousins were not among them. Survivors straggled through in a seemingly endless stream.
Young as he was, Thomas took it upon himself to stand by the road and count and greet each returning veteran.
Some soldiers thanked him by handing him their muster out pay, Confederate bills they knew were worthless.
When he finished counting, Thomas had 138 bills. Most had face values of $10 or $20, drawn on the Confederate Treasury.
The $3 bills were written on the Chattanooga Bank. None was worth the ink used to print it.
Thomas begged his mother, Jane Middlebrooks Brantley, to preserve his currency in a quilt.
She is supposed to have completed the quilt sometime before 1870. The bills are sewn like fabric pieces onto cotton backing in long, even stitches. The top is finished with pastel edging.
But that’s only half the story. How did this Confederate quilt get to Chehalis?
Thomas Brantley grew up, married, and kept a store in Hancock County. In 1913 his wife died, leaving him a little daughter, Mae Alma, to raise alone.
Mae married into another longtime Georgia family, the Etheridges. Frank Etheridge moved his young family to Lewis County where he and a brother founded and until 1952 operated the Etheridge Mill and Lumber Co. on Chehalis Ave.
In the 1930s, Thomas retired and came to live with his daughter, bringing his Brantley family Bible, a pair of cockspurs, and the quilt. Nancy Lasley still has all three items.
Upon Thomas’s death in 1944, the quilt went to his daughter Mae. She rolled it carefully into a canvas bullet sack and stored it in her basement. Her son and later granddaughter Nancy knew it as “the money quilt.”
The quilt remains in remarkably good condition. Over the years Lasley has loaned it to occasional museums — it was displayed for a time at the Lewis County Historical Museum — but mostly she’s kept it rolled in sheeting, now and then showing it to her children just as Thomas Brantley did.
“I feel like since this item was out here for 70 years, but was generated in Hancock County, it’s time for it to go home,” Lasley said.
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Southern Museum Staff Enthusiastic About Money Quilt
Mike Bearrow, curator of the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, Ga., says his staff is “very, very, very interested” in the Thomas Ryal Brantley quilt being sent from Chehalis “because of its story and uniqueness.”
While the quilt hasn’t yet been officially accepted, Bearrow says based on Thomas Brantley’s history “all assumptions are the quilt is an authentic Civil War artifact.”
Bearrow explains when a museum receives a donated item, a process begins similar to adopting a child. The curator needs to ensure his museum is the best repository for the piece. Donors “need to feel in their hearts we’re the best home for it.”
Prior to dotting the ink, the museum will call in experts to verify that, yes, the bills are 1860s currencies, the materials date from Civil War times, and the stitching is 1860s work.
Once the quilt is accepted, a large part of Southern’s contribution will be preservation. From the moment the quilt was finished, says Bearrow, “The clock started ticking. The reality is that it will turn back to dust. We slow down the time clock.”
According to Bearrow, things stored in dark places with bugs kept away will last indefinitely. The trick is to balance preservation with the public’s right to see historical treasures.
With textiles there’s high potential for light damage, so Bearrow’s staff rotates fabric artifacts. A recently donated 65th Georgia Infantry flag, for instance, will be kept in dark storage one year out of every three.
Bearrow recommends treating any heirloom “just as you would treat Grandma” — that is, don’t handle them roughly and provide them a stable environment. The Southern endeavors to keep artifacts out of extreme light, temperatures, and humidity.
So far the money quilt has lasted probably 145 years, Bearrow said.
“We want it to last triple that.”
