SOME OF THE ANTIQUE CRAGUN HOUSE QUILT COLLECTION
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When life gives you scraps, make a quilt!
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Pinwheel Quilt

​Sugar Creek Art Center Display July 2025

​On Thursday, July 3rd 2025, the Sugar Creek Art Center in Thorntown, IN
​hosted a warm and welcoming First Thursday Gallery Reception,
​featuring stunning antique quilts from the
Boone County Historical Society’s "Cragun House Quilt Collection."

Among the highlights:
The "Pinwheel Quilt", crafted by the Booher Sisters, circa 1880's
and The "Lone Star Quilt", circa 1880's
The "Album Quilt", created by members of the Presbyterian Church in
Lebanon, IN, circa 1930s
These remarkable pieces, full of history and artistry,
remained on display throughout July 2025

​Sugar Creek Art Center
127 South Pearl Street, Thorntown, Indiana 46071,
Email: [email protected]

Thank you to Sugar Creek for celebrating local history through art!
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Album Quilt
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Green & Red Pinwheel
BCHS Quilt wins another Blue Ribbon at the
2024 Boone County 4-H fair!

For another year running, one of the society's historic quilts was entered in the antique quilt division at the 
Boone County Extension Homemakers’ Open Show, 2024
and brought home a blue Championship ribbon.
Jane Hammock, President of the Boone County Historical Society
entered the historic quilt.
This one like many of the society's collection was
made by the Booher sisters in the late 1880s.
It is a Pinwheel design, green and red with 2" and 1/2" borders.
This magnificent quilt was found in the Cragun house along with others
when the house was transferred to the historical society in
​1983 by the Cragun family.
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The quilt is in pristine condition and is registered with Indiana Quilt Registry.
    ​
The Indiana Quilters Trail Shop Hop 2024
was a success!

Thank you to everyone that stopped by our beloved
Cragun House to see the 30+ Cragun Quilt Collection
that were all hand pieced. Many were quilted by the Booher sisters - Adelaide (Cragun), Emma, Margaret, Minnie and Martha -
in the upstairs turret room.

     We love showing off our quilts!

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Drunkard's Path
BCHS Quilt wins a Blue Ribbon at the 2023 Boone County 4-H fair!

The Boone County Historical Society is the proud owner of the Cragun Quilt Collection.
This collection of 30+ quilts was all hand pieced and quilted by the Booher sisters.
When Adelaide Booher Cragun moved into the current Cragun house (1893) at 404 West Main Street in
Lebanon, the upstairs turret room became the sewing room.
Her sisters, Emma, Margaret, Minnie and Martha, often came to this room and quilted.
There were still newspaper pattern pieces and cotton fabric pieces in the room,
ready for quilting, when BCHS received the home.

This particular quilt, Drunkard’s Path, is a difficult pattern to piece and quilt due to the curved path. This quilt was done in the colors of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, blue and white. These quilts were completed by women to show support for the cause and were often auctioned to raise funds. In the words of the 4-H judge, “ Quilt is in remarkable condition, although there is a lot of fading. The circular stitching is well done. Quilting stitches are even and very well done. The scalloped edge is complementary and well exacted.
I wish the teal fabric had not faded, but this quilt has been well maintained.”
The quilt features the path in blue and grey. The three borders are white and blue with the outer border being white with a scalloped edge. The outer binding is blue. Even with fading, the exquisiteness of this hand pieced quilt, over a hundred years old, is evident. Amazingly it lives in the exact location where it was made, and stitched by the owner of the home. It is special indeed, well deserving of the champion ribbon in the
antique quilt division at the Boone County Extension Homemakers’ Open Show, 2023

Make an appointment today to view the incredible collection of antique quilts housed at the Cragun House.
Call the message line at 765-483-9414 or email: [email protected]