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The logo for the Lee's Summit Quilters' Guild is the quilt block called Order Number 11. This is the history of that quilt block.
This quilt story begins in 1863 when the Border War raged along the Kansas and Missouri border. The competing forces were the 'Bushwhackers' who were local young men led by William Quantrill and the organized forces of The Federal Government reinforced by the Jay Hawkers who were raiders from Kansas. Towns were burned, businesses and homes looted on both sides of the border and by members of each faction. The Bushwackers seemed to have the upper hand (especially after the raid on Lawrence) until General Ewing (Head of Union Troops in the area)issued Federal Order No. 11. The gist of the order was that everybody in four counties of Missouri along the border had to move to a town with a Federal Garrison or leave their homes within 15 days. Federal troops would enforce the order and homes, barns, feed, and hay would be burned - Murder and looting were common methods of insuring the moves and provide compensation for the Union troops.
Six miles East of the present town of Lee's Summit (which didn't exist then) was the home of the Kreeger family. Francis Kreeger was a 10 year old girl who had helped her mother finish a fine quilt the previous winter and was appalled when a Union Trooper jerked that quilt off her mother's bed and tied it behind his saddle. The family loaded up the few possessions that were left and started East on the present path of Highway 50. Franny and her younger brother drove two milk cows behind the buggy and they were off for a two year visit with relatives in Lafayette County.
For most of the rest of her life, Franny tried to forget those days. She married George Washington Haller, they had two daughters and lived in Blue Springs and Independence. One day relatives picked her up and drove in a 1920's touring car along the route in a few hours that had taken her family several days in the 1860's. Franny was energized to recreate the quilt that she and her mother had made that winter. Her memory was good, but not perfect. Her quilt was unlike any that anyone had seen before and it was named the Order Number 11 quilt, after the Federal Order and is used as the logo of the Lee's Sumit Quilters' Guild.
This information compiled by Ivan Slaughter
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