Coverlet Dating From 1859 Acquired By Doylestown's Mercer Museum

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The Mercer Museum has announced the acquisition of a more than 160-year-old handwoven coverlet from Barbie Savacool and her sister, Janie.

The "very special artifact" was made in 1859 by Samuel Musselman for Susanna High Myers, the great-grandmother of the Savacool sisters.

Musselman (1802-1874) was a weaver from Lower Milford Township in Bucks County. The Bucks County Historical Society owns more than a dozen examples of his colorful and personalized Jacquard-woven coverlets. Musselman died in 1874 and is buried in the Lexington Mennonite Graveyard, New Britain Township.

Susanna High Myers (1849-1883) was born Susanna (or Susan) Fretz High in Plumstead Township, Bucks County. She married Abraham F. Myers on Nov. 8, 1871, and the couple had three children together: Annabelle (1876-1876), Clara Myers Savacool (1877-1972), and Josephine Myers (1880-1907).

Abraham and Susanna purchased a stone house farm at the corner of Sweetbriar Road and Bucks Road in Hagersville, East Rockhill Township, Bucks County. A photograph of several people standing in front of a stone farmhouse in 1899 survives in the Mercer Museum accession records and includes Abraham F. Myers, Abraham Myers's stepson, and two of Abraham and Susanna's children, Clara Myers Savacool (along with her husband W. Elmer Savacool) and Josephine Myers.

The coverlet has an overall motif design that includes stars, flowers, and roosters within a lattice of squares. The border includes two rows of eight-pointed stars. The sides and bottom edge have 2.0 in. wide fringe in red, blue, and green.

Susanna tragically died of tuberculosis (consumption), a serious respiratory disease, at age 34 while receiving treatment at “Our Helpful Home” in Reading. A copy of a letter from Susanna to her husband, written from “Our Healthful Home” shortly before her death, offers a difficult glimpse into Susanna’s final days. In her letter, she describes her loneliness and the pain in her lungs, but asks her husband to bring her “sweet cakes” on his next visit.

The coverlet joins a larger number of objects from the Savacool family previously donated to the Mercer Museum collection, including objects that belonged to William Elmer Savacool.

You can see the full catalog record for the coverlet on the museum's digital collections portal by clicking here