spacer158 QBC-1: Book One | QBC-2: Book Two | QBC-3: Book Three | QBC-4: Other Collections
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    Updates
  • 081231—Chronoloby
    Added 1893ÐHalldór, 1905ÐIngólfur
QBC-1: Book One
  • Elspeth's Alaskan Adventures Collections
  • Elspeth's 11 Quilts
  • Elspeth came from America
  • Born in America's heartland
  • Family was old New England stock
  • Grandparents met in Oregon in the late 1880s
  • William had done some time on the river
  • Trip California in the 1920's
  • Play the Quilt Mystery Game
  • Elspeth's Journeys Book One
  • Quilt 1. Elspeth's Alaskan Honeymoon Sampler Quilt
  • Elspeth's Journeys
QBC-2: Book Two
  • Quilt 2.  Life in Fairbanks & gold mining in the Creeks
  • Quilt 3. Gold mining on the Goodpasture
  • Quilt 4. Icelandic Christmas in Alaska
  • Quilt 5. Jake offers comfort in time of need – Alaska Babies
  • Quilt 6. Alaska Wildlife Babies
  • Elspeth's Journeys
QBC-3: Book Three
  • Quilt 7. Native Life with Brown Eyes
  • Quilt 8. Alaska Interior Native Lifestyles & Crafts
  • Quilt 9. Alaska Wild Flowers
  • Quilt 10. Alaska Highway of '42
  • Quilt 11. Alaska Native Stories

QBC-4: Other Collections

Two Quilters Havin' Lotsa Fun Collections

  • Quilt 1. Dawn & Peggy living in Delta Junction, Alaska
Purple Legged Women & Other Collections
  • Stuff from the Archives

Elspeth's Alaskan Adventures Collections

Being a series of quilt block collections suitable for either a lap quilt (lap-rug), or a full sized bed quilt.

Elspeths LogoAs Elspeth's travels to Alaska, with William, she observes this new and adventurous land and records her impressions, feelings, and experiences in her letters. Although the letters are sent by various methods and over the many days of her journeys, she is filled with the wonder of the new land.

Elspeth's Quilt Blocks

She tires to capture this wonder and awe by the creation of a quilt blocks as she travels along the trail in the wagon. Thus the blocks she creates become a very special log of her new life and adventures in Alaska.

Elspeth's 11 Quilts

  1. Elspeth's Alaskan Honeymoon Sampler Quilt
  2. Life in Fairbanks & gold mining in the Creeks
  3. Gold mining on the Goodpasture
  4. Icelandic Christmas in Alaska
  5. Life with Jake – Alaska Babies
  6. Alaska Wildlife Babies
  7. Native Life with Brown Eyes
  8. Alaska Interior Native Lifestyles & Crafts
  9. Alaska Wild Flowers
  10. Alaska Highway of '42
  11. Alaska Native Stories

Elspeth came from America

Born in America's heartland

  Elspeth (b. 1901) in Calloway County, Kentucky west of the Tennessee River.
   Elspeth came from a large family. She was a middle child with two older sitters, both married, and two older brothers. There are two much younger sisters, Dauphine and Cleopatra, and two little baby brothers, the twins Jonathan and Benjamin.
   Her oldest brother, Seth Lloyd, is a mining engineer some where in South America. The second eldest sibling, her brother, Daniel James is a sailor in the U. S. Navy. He is serving as a gunner's mate on one of the old-line battleships, out of Norfolk, Virginia.
   Dawn Elise, Elspeth's oldest sister, lives on a cattle ranch in the west Texas hill country. While her closest sister and friend, Margaret Sarah lives in Chicago and is an aspiring artist and 1920s feminist.

Family was old New England stock

  Her family originally came from New England. They were from old stock that come over on one of the first boats and suffered through those first brutal years. According to her great-great grandfather, her bloodline also includes some Native American Algonquin or Iroquois.
   Her great great grandma came from the Connecticut River Valley (b. about 1825).
  One of her grandfathers was a whaling captain out of New Bedsford. He had sailed Alaskan waters during the time of the voyages of the Cutter Bear. (he U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear was active in Alaska waters from 1885 to the 1920s).

Grandparents met in Oregon in the late 1880s

  Elspeth Martha Walker (Elspeth's grandmother) came to Oregon in the late 19th century.
   She also was a quilter and a letter writer to her "Dear Friend" who lived in that mythical land "Back East".
   She met and married the whaling captain. Who later became a maritime revenue agent in Astoria, Oregon and eventually a dairy farmer Linn County.
    She observed the trip of the Calliope up the South Santiam in 1871
   Some of Elspeth's (Walker)
letters were later collected (over a hundred years later).
   The letters were used in a quilt show and historic homes tour, and mystery quilt contest (see attached proposal).

William had done some time on the river

  William, Elspeth's husband. came from a family in southern Missouri. Originally his family came from the Georgia seacoast. William has done some mining in Colorado and Utah before coming back to Kentucky and meeting Elspeth.
   William has also worked as a boy on the Mississippi as a deck crewman on the paddle wheel freighter Col. John Germain. Working the lower river down to New Orleans.

BOGGS — WARREN Wedding Announcement in Murray Times & Ledger Newspaper

Boggs-Warren wedding announcement

Going to Alaska... Sidetrip to California

  Before coming to Alaska, the young newlyweds had traveled to meet William's uncle in the gold mining country of the Sierra Nevadas in northern California. There they also visited with Elspeth's very old aunt (she was in her late 80s) who worked in a house on the Barbary Coast in San Francisco during the California Gold Rush (c. 1849-1860).

Elspeths Logo

Elspeth's Journeys Book One

Quilt 1. Elspeth's Alaskan Honeymoon Sampler Quilt

Quilted during Elspeth's Adventures with William as They Traveled the Richardson Highway from Valdez to Fairbanks In the early 1920s

In Elspeth's first letters to her friend she describes her journey from Valdez to Fairbanks in Alaska. Along the way she is making a quilt with blocks representing some of the sights she and her new husband William encounter.

Elspeth was a traditional young woman from America. She came west with her you husband to seek adventure and a new life in Alaska.

Elspeth's Letters

Letter One... The beginning...William and I Arrive in Valdez, Alaska

Dear Friend,
   It is Friday, the 6th day of our journey to the North. Aside from the storm at sea the voyage went without incident. It has been a new adventure to be aboard ship so long and William and I have fared well. Today begins the hardest but most exciting part ... The Valdez Trail. June 11, 1920 is the beginning of our new life on the frontier and our quest for riches from the land.
  Now begin also my journey quilt. As William loads our new wagon and hitches the animals, I must remember to organize our supplies so that I can reach my needles, spools and cloth. I wonder what I shall see and what memories these tools shall help me make as we travel this long road?
  It is just before dawn and the farrier has warned us of the difficult trail over the pass. We have strapped the load well and are headed up the pass, bidding farewell to the ocean waves and the smell of the sea. My needlework shall continue once through these frosted peaks of delectable mountains.
Your dear friend

Elspeth

Letter One Blocks

Quilt Block 38
1 - #38
Storm at Sea

Quilt Block 13
2 - #13
Spools

Quilt Block 3
2 - #3
Ocean waves

Quilt Block 18
4 - #18
Delectable Mountains


Letter Two... Steep Going

Dear Friend
   Can it be mid week already? This road is hard and so steep I fear we shall roll head over bottom all the way back to the ship from whence we came! So weary have we been each night we have stopped to make camp, that I have quickly prepared our meal while William tends the team and soon thereafter slept soundly 'til morn with no time to write nor stitch.
   The sites have been beyond magnificence and all the more wondrous because it is the land of the midnight sun. We must be careful to plan a time to rest, lest we go on through the night and not realize. William says that we shall soon be out of these peaks and if the wagon wheel holds. I shall be able to spend more time with my needle. For this, I shall be glad. My dear friends, quill and needle, have I missed dearly.
Your dearest,
Elspeth

Letter Two Blocks

Quilt Block 10
5 - #10
Misnight sun

Quilt Block 5
6 - #5
Wagon Wheel

   

Letter Three...  Copper Valley Pioneers

Dear Friend,
   William and I spoke with a gentleman, much gnarled in his appearance from his life here in this rugged land I suspect. He lives in a small log cabin in the hills below the pass. Having lived here long before this road was in; he is a true pioneer of this land. He says the beautiful mountain blooms I have gathered are called lupine. They are similar to what Mama grew along the porch rail in Kentucky.
   Already my hands must whirl as I piece together my ninth block. My imagination needs no prodding to supply my needle with its task. This land the old man calls the Copper Valley looks to stretch forever and we are just following a wanderer's path in the wilderness. I must remember to thank Mama for extracting from me such quantity of handwork that makes me proficient at my skill. I shall have a cover of beautiful memories for William and me to lie beneath by journeys end.

Yours dear one
Elspeth

Letter Three Blocks

Quilt Block 16
7 - #16
Log cabin

Quilt Block 21
8 - #21
Pioneer

Quilt Block 40
9 - #40
Wander's Path

 

Letter Four... The Black Bear... Salmon Spawning... and Fireweed

Dear Friend,
   Much excited were the animals this day when we came upon the sight of a huge black bear, slapping spawning salmon onto a bank for its young with huge bear paws. We gave it wide berth and continued on through the bent and broken black spruce. Odd isn't it that in this land of such grandeur it's trees are so small and corrupted. "Ugly" William says. Above us today the sky was full of geese in flight. They, like us, on their way north to a better life. This land is wild and fraught with untamed life.
   No longer do I see the beautiful lupine, now it is a taller stalk of pink blooms, fireweed I am told by the keeper of the Sourdough Roadhouse. So short are the roofs of these dwellings I fear my towering William shall strike himself senseless on the door lintel. It is good to take food with in this day.
   Square number fourteen was added to my precious pile this eve. Tomorrow I start another.


Good sleep dear friend,
Elspeth 

Letter Four Blocks

Quilt Block 7
10 - #7
Spawning (Sockeye) Salmon with eggs

Quilt Block 21
11 - #25
Bear paw

Quilt Block 31
12 - #31
Black Spruce

Quilt Block 1
13 - #1
Flying Geese

Quilt Block 15
14 - #15
Fireweed


Play the Quilt Mystery Game

The objective is to read the letters and make the blocks to record Elspeth's journey.

Start with Storm At Sea

  Elspeth started her Alaska Honeymoon Sampler Quilt with the block in the upper left corner.
  She then added blocks going from left to right. Her quilt eventually included 20 of the blocks outlined in this book.
  She quilted 5 rows, each with 4 blocks per row.

While at the same time, as a quilter, you will be able to modify the blocks to record your own, special Alaskan journey.

Make Your Own Alaska Travel Quilt

This sampler includes many different blocks. Thus you can try to discover the ones that Elspeth chose or you can select blocks to represent your own trip through Alaska.

Come To ACQC & Win

For some added fun, every one should try to discover the block and order in which Elspeth make her quilt. If you discover the correct blocks, in the correct order, stop by the real ACQC (Alaskan Chocolate Quilting Company) in Delta Junction, Alaska and we will give you a small prize.

Chronology (Working)

2008, Dec 31 Updated
Added 1893ÐHalldór, 1905ÐIngólfur
1847 Elspeth Martha Cobb (Grandma El), (EÕs grandmother), born, Christian county, Kentucky
1859 The Cobb family comes to Linn county, Oregon via Oregon Trail
1863, Octbr. 18 James Douglas Warren, ElspethÕs father born in Woodstock, Shenandoah co., Virginia.
1865 Elspeth Martha Cobb marries Franklin Walker in Linn county, Oregon
1870 Mary Jane Walker, ElspethÕs mother born Linn county, Oregon. She was born on a farm 12 miles south of Albany, Oregon
1871 Elspeth Martha Walker sees sternwheeler Calliope attempt to ascend the South Santiam River to Lebanon, Oregon. The Calliope failed.
1887 Mary Jane Walker returns to Hopkinsville, Ky. to stay with her motherÕs Cobb relatives while she attends Bethel Female College (1887-1889) studying mainly in the Normal department.
1888 The Franklin Walker family moves back to Christian county, Kentucky
1891 ElspethÕs parents married (James 27, Mary 20 going on 21) in Hopkinsville, Ky.


1892, Jan Seth Lloyd Warren, born Calloway county, Kentucky
1892, Dec Daniel James Warren, born Calloway county, Kentucky
1893, Sep Mary Jane Warren has a miscarriage
1893, Sep Halldór Jóhannsson, ÒBrotherÓ, the story teller, born in Ólafsfjörður, Eyjafjórður. He was educated in Akureyri and Reykjavik and worked for three years as a librarian in Akureyri. Initially, he tried to write modern eddic poetry and even began a moral play based on his service in the last two years of World War as a Danish merchant sailor. After travel in Italy, Corsica, and a year on the west bank in Paris, he removed to the fjord areas of Finnmark, in northern Norway, living among the Sami people. After a season with Norwegian sealers, he traveled to North America, to Smithers, British Columbia and worked as a farm labourer. It was there in 1924, he was joined by his two younger brothers, Jóhan and Ingólfur, to sail north to Alaska.
1894. Aug William John Boggs, born New Madrid county, Missouri. He was from a well-to-do family. His father was a banker.
1895, Jan James Douglas Warren, born, died Jun
1896, Dec Dawn Elise Warren, born Calloway county, Kentucky
1897, Oct Margaret Ann Warren, born Calloway county, Kentucky
1899, Oct Jóhan Jóhannsson, born Reykjavik, Is«land (Iceland), but grew up in the north country on a farm, Hvitárbakki, on the Hvitá (White) River. Hvítárbakki is in the middle of Borgarfjörður in the west of Iceland, near the Reykholtsdalur. Jóhan traveled to central Canada when he was 18 and lived for a time in Mountain, North Dakota. In 1924 he, his older brother Halldór, ÒBrotherÓ & younger brother Ingólfur, ÒInggie,Ó sailed to Valdez from Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Not having much cash left, they walked up the Richardson road to Big Delta on the Tanana. They spent time learning to be trappers, guides, panners, and working as miners in the Creeks north of Fairbanks. In the summer of Ô26 they went up river with William Boggs
1901, Jan Elspeth Martha Warren, born Calloway county, Kentucky
1903, Jan Dauphine Mattie Warren, born Calloway county, Kentucky
1903, Dec Cleopatra Marie Warren, born Calloway county, Kentucky
1904, May Some of ElÕs family attended the St. Louis WorldÕs FairÐThe Louisiana Purchase Exposition
1904, Nov Jonathan Eric Warren and Benjamin Eric Warren, twins, born Calloway county, Kentucky
1905, Feb Ingólfur Jóhannsson, born in the north country, he lived all his early life on the farm, Hvitárbakki. Inggie came to western Canada in early 1924, to meet his older brothers Halldór and Jóhan.
1907, Jun Daniel James, EÕs 2nd oldest brother, joined U.S. Navy. At the time, Daniel, only 14 and a half, was almost six feet tall.
1907-1909 Great White Fleet, Theodore Roosevelt, World TourÑ16 December 1907 Ñ 22 February 1909. Daniel James is serving as a gunnerÕs mate on one of the old-line battleships, out of Norfolk, Virginia on Great White Fleet World Tour.

2 Americans meet but a war intrudes
1917-1919 Elspeth Martha Warren attends Bethel WomanÕs College, Hopkinsville, Ky. Studies included Music, English, and Nursing
1917 William meets Elspeth in Hopkinsville
1917, August 7 William John Boggs joins US Army in Hopkinsville, Ky.
1919, June 5 William John Boggs discharged from the Army Signal Corps with the rank of lieutenant. Mr. Boggs had served in France in the AEF from June 1918 to May 1919.
1919, June 16 Elspeth Martha Warren (18½), William John Boggs (almost 27), married Calloway county, Kentucky
1919 Travel to California on railroad
1920, Janry. Travel to Linn co., Ore. to visit Walker and Cobb family relatives

Alaskan Adventure begins
1920 Go to Seattle, take steamship to Valdez, travel Richardson to Fairbanks

Mining, steaming, nursing & raising a family
1921, March 6 Jon William Boggs, born, St. JosephÕs hospital, Fairbanks, Alaska
1921, Decbr 29 Mikel John Boggs born, St. JosephÕs hospital, Fairbanks, Alaska
1923, Novbr 4 Dane James Boggs, Jeanne Marie Boggs, twins, born, St. JosephÕs hospital, Fairbanks, Alaska
1926 Elspeth begins teaching her children. She Òhome schoolsÓ all up through 8th grade. Then children went to Fairbanks for high school.
1926, Jul. William & his new friend, Jake Jóhannsson, travel up the Tanana to Big Delta on the steamer Atlas. From there rode on John HajdukovichÕs flatboat up into the Goodpaster country to look for gold. Finding good Òcolor,Ó they staked a claim & went back to Fairbanks to file their claims.
1926, Late summer William, Jake, Brother & Inggie build a Boggs cabin & a smaller Jóhannsson cabin on the claims at 2 below & 4 below, west fork Goodpaster river. During the winter, they mush back up to the claims hauling mining gear & living goods.

Panning, gardening on west fork Goodpaster
1927, May 15 Boggs family moves to cabin on Goodpaster.
1929, Summer William dies on Goodpaster claim
1930 Elspeth marries Icelander Jóhan ÒJakeÓ Jóhannsson
1930 Erik Ingolfur Jóhannsson born at St. JoeÕs Hospital in Fairbanks
1931 Elspeth Martha Jóhannsson born on in Richardson Roadhouse on Richardson Highway
1933, summer Family moved to a cabin near mouth of Delta Clearwater.
1933, winter Skara Bríet Jóhannsson born in cabin on Delta Clearwater
1936, Winter

ÒJakeÓ Jóhannsson and baby Skara (she was almost 3) die of influenza. Virgil JamesÕs original wife and 2 youngest children die of influenza.

1937 Elspeth practicing midwifery from trading post. Elspeth meets Virgil James near the Hajdukovich trading post in Tanana Crossing (later Tanacross).
1938

Elspeth marries Virgil T. James. Virgil was an Athabaskan from the Mansfield-Ketchmenlunk village. El becomes mother to VirgilÕs remaining two young twin daughters, Arlene (9), and Ruby (9). The family now includes 4 boys and 4 girlsÑJon (17), Mikel (16), Dane (15), Jeanne Marie (15), Erik (8), Elspeth (7), Arelene (9), and Ruby (10). The four older children were boarding in Fairbanks to attend high school.
St. TimothyÕs Episcopal Church constructed in Tanana Crossing.

1940-42 Four oldest children had joined the military for the war. Jon was in the Army in England, Mikel was a Marine somewhere in the Pacific, and Dane was a Navy sailor. Jeanne Marie had become a flight nurse in the Army Air force.


1942-44 Virgil works on building ALCAN in Õ42. Maintaining tasks into Õ46. Begins working for ARC when they take over maintenance in 1944. Worked on building of Tok-Slana cutoff.
1945-46 Family moves to Tok
1945, late Jeanne Marie dies in a plane crash at a base in Sicily.
1946 Jon, Mikel, Dane come back from war. Live in Fairbanks. Come down to Tok to help Virgil and Erik Jóhannsson build a big, two-story log home with 9 bedrooms and two inside bathrooms. (They still had an outhouse out back.)
1947-1949

Soon thereafter, the older boys left for outside to go to college on the G.I. Bill. With five empty bedrooms, El and Virgil begin renting rooms to the increasing numbers of travelers driving up the ÒAlcanÓ. Thus they were among the first Alaskans to run a bed and breakfast.

Erik and little El go to Fairbanks for college. Erik studies electrical engineering and Elspeth Martha becomes a photojournalist. Arlene and Ruby eventually go to college outside and become a lawyer and an anthropologist, respectively. As the older boys leave and the two older girls became married, El and Virgil begin renting rooms to travelers on the Alaska Highway, They were among the first Alaskans to run a bed and breakfast

1970Õs late Virgil has died. Elspeth is living in Fairbanks with one of her children. She reads a letter-to-the-editor in the Daily-News Miner and develops a series of Purpled Legged Women quilt blocks.
1996, July Elspeth Martha Boggs-James-James (née Walker) passed in Fairbanks
1998, July. 16

Old Richardson roadhouse, near Banner Creek, Richardson HighwayÉ Five of ElspethÕs original 1920 quilt block patterns were found by Dawn Grossmann. While exploring the old Richardson roadhouse ruins with her husband Bruce, Dawn found an old Blazo box under some logs. As they pried the box open, they discovered the patterns packed with some of ElÕs letters form her early years.
The patterns wereÑmoose tracks, spawning salmon, bear paws, raven tracks, and single wedding ring. Some of these were ElÕs original designs; others were her modifications of traditional block patterns.
ElÕs original 1920 Richardson letters were used by Dawn & Peggy in their mystery quilt game in fall Ô98.
One long letter, written in 1928, included a recipe for wild, high bush cranberry yam bread.

Ed. note Elspeth was a very hardworking womanÑIn addition to living in pioneer Alaska, raising a large family & quiltingÑShe also made copies of all the letters she wrote!
Historic full quilt sizes 84x97, 87x90, 87x107, 73x84, 78x94, 88x100, 79x100
 
   

Letter Five... A Windy Mountain Pass

Dear Friend,
   We have come through another mountain pass. To our left and our right, beautiful peaks covered with snowflakes, it seems I can see forever. Earlier there was a vicious wind from which I sought shelter inside the wagon as poor William sat along in front, wind blown and anxious. For soon we come to a ferry crossing at Rika's landing.
   I have finished my sixteenth square...one for each year of my life before William and I were betrothed.

Fondly,

Elspeth

Letter Five Blocks

Quilt Block 8
15 - #8
Snowflakes

Quilt Block 26
16 - #26
Ferry Crossing

   

Letter Six... Frontier Folk at Big Delta

Dear Friend,
   With the help of new friends in Big Delta, we and our team have come over the Tanana aboard a cleverly contrived crossing ferry. The tenacity and ingenuity of these wilderness folk is inspiring. We are proud to be among their number. Reports from the Fairbanks gold fields have been promising. William is anxious to stake us a claim.
   Two more travelers we met here. Not trodding the road as we but have crossed canoes lying ashore behind Rika's Roadhouse. They were trappers dressed in beautiful skins and with fur trim. Their talk was rough and striking to the ear and their adventures worthy of a volume itself.
   On through the flat lands of water and moose. The creatures are towering and odd looking at best. We have heard they can be deadly though ones we have seen ignore us or cantor off. The mud on the trail is covered with moose tracks hence William has tasked me to keep watch for any that may encumber our way.

For now dearest,
Elspeth

Letter Six Blocks

Quilt Block 28
17 - #28
Crossed Canoes

Quilt Block 36
18 - #36
Moose Tracks

   

Letter Seven... A Thieving Raven Brings Laughter

Dear Friend
   It has been fifteen days since we last saw Valdez harbor. We are nearing our destination. I have been watching the bold black birds that resemble crows from home. They have been brazen in their ventures toward our wagon. This morning as we loaded up, one landed on the wagon rail and stole a thread and needle. I was indignant. William laughed aloud and explained these were not enormous crows as I had thought, but ravens. He pointed out that raven's feet are black unlike crows. It was good to hear him laugh even at the expense of a precious needle. I must remember to keep my thread and needles hidden. I know not what supplies can be had in Fairbanks though I hear it is a booming town.

Excitedly,

Elspeth

Letter Seven Blocks

Quilt Block 35
19 - #35
Ravens Feet

     

Letter Eight... The End of the Trail...Fairbanks and the Gold Fields

Dear Friend,
   We have arrived! Fairbanks! It has been a long journey to our new life. Today I finished my last block. I have twenty now which will make a wonderful quilt. Once we have staked and established our claim I hope to have time to join the squares and begin the quilting. There will be much work to do, but never were two hands more happy in their work. Now on to our search for the golden nugget.

Farewell for now dear friend,

Elspeth

Letter Eight Blocks

Quilt Block 30
20 - #30
Golden Nugget

Quilt block 41
Elspeth's
Single
Wedding Ring
Quilt Block 41