The Baby Bonnet

I’m fortunate in that my family has heirlooms from our ancestors. To me these things are priceless and a connection to our past.  It’s always thrilling to me to read a letter, hold an object that someone in the family owned, or look at a painting that one of them painted.

In 2008 I came into possession of a baby bonnet. My aunt Edna Cleghorn Pittman owned it and after she died her children gifted it to me. When Aunt Edna came into ownership of it is not known. It was given to her by her Mother – Jessie Emily Teal Cleghorn or by her aunt – Edna Earle Teal.

The bonnet was folded and placed inside a small rectangular box that had at one time held hosiery or handkerchiefs.   There was a handwritten note on the top of the box.

 1922

This is Mother’s little brother’s bonnet made by her Mother. It is about eighty years old.

Edna E. Teal

 

The box that the baby bonnet was found in.

It’s wonderful that Edna Teal documented when it was given to her. It gave me a date and from that date I could determine who it had belonged to. Susan Emily Moseley was Edna Teal’s mother and Mary Ann Amanda Stamps was Susan’s mother.

Susan Emily Moseley was the oldest daughter and oldest child of Mary Ann Amanda Stamps and William Spivey Moseley. The other children were Nancy, Eliza, Georgia Kansas, Charles Benjamin, and Joseph Kendrick. Here is where I encountered the problem. Charles was born 25 December 1858 and Joseph was born 7 May 1866. Charles is 16 years off the date of 1842 and Joseph is off the date by 24 years.

There is the possibility that Susan was wrong about the age of the bonnet or for who it was initially made for. Susan died on 13 May 1917, which is 5 years before the note was written by her daughter Edna. At the time of her mother’s death Edna Teal was living in China and was unable to make the funeral.  Now there are two possibilities when Edna received the bonnet. It could have been given to her by Susan when Edna was home on furlough from China and Edna wrote the note on the box at a later date. Or the more plausible possibility is that it was given to her by her father Benjamin Jefferson Teal in 1922.  Ben Teal died 28 December 1925. I don’t know if Edna knew about the bonnet before it was given to her. If it was given to her by Ben then he could have gotten the age of the bonnet wrong.

In documenting the bonnet I’ve considered many scenarios. There is the possibility that the bonnet could have been made for one of Mary Ann Amanda’s brothers by their mother Sarah Freeman (Stamps). 

Sarah Freeman Stamps and Moses Witt Stamps had 9 children. Mary Ann Amanda was the oldest. Her siblings were Nancy, Eliza, Sarah, Georgia, Charity, Martha, Christopher, and William.

Christopher Columbus Stamps was born on 20 May 1841 and William Thomas was born 17 March 1848. So Christopher’s birth comes closest to the 1842 date. If it was made for Christopher then it’s 173 years old and if it was made for Thomas it’s 166 years old.

Then of course you have the possibility that if Ben gave the bonnet to his eldest daughter Edna he could have been saying that it was his grandmother that made it for his mother. Edna could have misinterpreted it as it being her mother Susan.

I have little information on Ben’s mother Judith Marshall Porter at this time. I know she was born in North Carolina on 14 February 1820 and died in Carroll County, Georgia on 9 February 1905. I don’t know if she had brothers or sisters

If the bonnet was made by Mary Ann Amanda Stamps (Moseley) then it would be 156 years old if made for Charles or 148 years old if made for Joseph.  

In my heart I feel it had to belong to Charles Benjamin Moseley or Joseph Kendrick Moseley. No matter who it was originally made for I’m happy that it has survived.

This bonnet was probably made by Mary Ann Amanda Stamps Moseley for her son Charles Benjamin Moseley or her son Joseph Kendrick Moseley.