Quilt by Elizabeth Bogert Haring known as
Betsey (1811--1890) Dated 1869
Collection of the Bergen County History Museum
Anonymously donated in 1948
When 16 she married Petrus David (or Peter) Haring of Tappan or Harrington, New Jersey, about 21, on July 5, 1828. In a few weeks Betsey gave birth to son David Peter in September and had three more boys and a girl over the next 18 years. Those children married Blauvelts and Onderdonks, further creating Dutch genealogy that only the local Holland Society can hope to fathom.
The 1860 census lists Peter as a Farmer with $8,000 worth of land
and Betsey as "Mistress." Daughter Anna was married by then; the younger boys
worked the farm.
The Harings lived in a house still standing at
327 Tappan Road in what is now Norwalk.
A cow, a rooster and cats on the table.
Betsey's pictorial quilt reflects a farm life.
Self portrait?
"Betsey Herring made this quilt while in her 57th year of age 1869"
Betsey occupied some of her 79 years in making quilts. She died on the last day of 1890 at her daughter Anna Maria Onderdonk's home in nearby Westwood. Her 1889 will lists seven quilts for children and grandchildren: A silk bed quilt worth $10 and six others valued at $6. This one may be her "album quilt" left to Anna.
"Betsey Bogert, wife of Peter D. Haring," is
buried in the family cemetery in Norwood near her farm.
A man in a horse-drawn sleigh, a Turkey and some birds.
The images are embroidered with labels.
This one says "Sleigh Riding" at the top.
The birds that look to be swans are labeled "Gees" and "Geese Pond"
"The eagle of America"
Betsey lived close to the Hudson River in
Northeastern New Jersey. The map shows what was once
New Netherlands, the Dutch colony in North America.
The star is Bergen County.
Betsey's Dutch community was important to her 200 years after Nieuw Nederlandt became an English colony in 1674.
A table with a "Decanter"
and on the left
"Flower of the Dutch mans pipe Meersham"
Dutchman's Pipe plant
In 1833 when Betsey was in her early twenties New York writer Washington Irving took a trip into New Jersey.
The Tappan Sea (Tappan Zee) a wide spot in the Hudson River.
After crossing the Hudson on a ferry he arrived in Tappan, New Jersey.![]()
"Drive up Tappan Strat [Street]---number of dutch wagons...Women with Dutch sun bonnets---people talk Dutch---neatness of houses....Drove thro' Tappan---still, quiet little village....we pass thro' Harrington----very neat Dutch stone cottages. Ask an old lady whom we meet on the road to whom such and such belong---we find one was hers---compliment her on its neatness---quite a picture".
Many Harings lived along the Tappan Road.
Library of Congress, HABS photo, late 1930s.
House begun in the late 18th century.
The Old North Church, about 1940
Historic American Buildings Survey photo from the Library of Congress
People who lived in northern Bergen County had severalDutch Reformed churches tying neighbors together(although doctrinal issues seem to have driven them apart.)No one has done a study of the influence of the Dutch Reformed churches in the Hudson Valley upon quilts, but there does seem to be a style associated with Dutch surnames. In a 1994 paper the Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey discussed "Characteristics of Signed New Jersey Quilts 1834-1867" pointing out design elements."The early 1850s marked the beginnings of original applique design, and by the late 1850s and early 1860s these designs became more personalized, especially in the northeastern counties. This new style emerged when quiltmakers began to record everyday activities...Three quilts in particular---all from northeastern Bergen County [including Betsey's]---are examples of such personalized designs."The boat is labeled "Chinees Boat," the wreath "Ring Fan""A woven and appliqued strawberry basket is representative of the [local] strawberry trade which reached its peak just before the Civil War."
"Strawbary Black Bary Baskets" reads the label.
Bergen County was New York City's garden.
Bergen County strawberry basket for
transporting berries to market.
For their paper Rita Erickson & Barbara Schaffer created a timeline map showing how signed quilts originated in southern New Jersey in the Delaware Valley before 1844 (triangles) with Bergen County quilts (I added the yellow) appearing after 1858 (stars) in the Hudson River Valley up by New York state. These northeastern New Jersey quilts have more in common with New York samplers than with Philadelphia's albums. For that difference we can probably thank New York's proximity but also the common Dutch culture along the Hudson.
Betsey Haring's quilt is quite unusual in the format she used.
Most of her blocks include a central dot and rotating branches full of images,
almost like a windmill. The images, the birds, strawberries and the dog? (or cat),
are familiar in albums from the area.
"Buggy" from Betsey's quilt
My observation about regionalism in sampler albums has long been: "If there's a horse on it, it's from New York," but I am rethinking:
..."It's from New York or northern New Jersey."
Beginning in February I am going to post patterns for a New York-style sampler in Civil War style. There will be a horse, a butterfly, a dog etc. Look for Ladies' Aid Sampler next year.
International Quilt Museum Collection
Dog with a basket (a strawberry basket?) from a New York
quilt attributed to Dutchess County along the Hudson.
Maybe we should call it Hudson River Dutch style.
"Ring Fan"
See Rita Erickson's & Barbara Schaffer's paper "Characteristics of Signed New Jersey Quilts 1834-1867," which was published in On the Cutting Edge (Oral Traditions Project 1994).
See more about Betsey's quilt: