Tenney Quilt

A photo of the Tenney Quilt appears at the left. There are 700 signatures on the quilt, representing 530 separate people who had some connection to the little town of Tenney, Minnesota (some names are repeated). In addition to those 530 people, there are several fictional names, including Mother Goose characters, as well as literary characters that appear in the literature of the time. A large square in the center contains the name, “Larson’s Store,” my grandfather’s General Store.

The quilt, made in 1928 by the women of Tenney, was originally owned by my great aunt, LaVanche Polifka Solvie Gill, whose photo appears on the cover of the book. The quilt was then given to my mother, and then passed along to me, the author of THE TENNEY QUILT.

The Tenney Quilt is 73” x 86” and made with white muslin front and back. Names are embroidered in blue, with a simple redwork design in the middle of each square. Not visible on the photo is a 2-inch border on the top and bottom, royal blue in color. The quilt is in near-perfect condition after 80 years, never having been used as a bed covering.

This quilt is a visual representation of a town that was once a bustling Red River Valley railroad town. Today, Tenney is Minnesota’s smallest town, with a population of six people, and the smallest town in America to have a municipal government. Tenney is located on State Highway 55 in central Minnesota, just a few miles from the Minnesota/North Dakota border.

It is my hope that THE TENNEY QUILT will help honor and celebrate the lives of the “ordinary” women who were extraordinary each in their own way and could be any of our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and great grandmothers.