The log home of Hoyt and Laura Grant on Hwy. 11 just below Table Rock Mountain in South Carolina has joined the Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail. The quilt block pattern is an 8’ x 8’ size in red and white gingham, surrounded by red and white solid blocks called a Nine Square and were installed on the family’s Century Barn. The cloth quilt was originally made by Mrs. Grant and given to their grandson for Christmas 2014.
The Nine Square or Nine Patch, as it is also called, was a popular pattern used by pioneer women. The earliest homesteaders had neither time nor fabric to spare. Most of the quilts they made were utility quilts, quickly sewn together for warmth. The Nine Patch is one of the simplest and quickest quilts to sew because it was a good way to use up every scrap of fabric available and was used often.
The property on which the Grants live consists of 168 acres and was originally purchased in 1952 by Mr. Grant’s father, S.C. ‘Bud’ Grant. He took over the lumber mill that his father, Charlie Brooks Grant, had established, and then passed it on to his son, Hoyt. When Hoyt retired in 2006 at the age of 75, his son, Terry A. Grant, took over. Today, the property is home to the children and grandchildren and the fourth generation lumber mill.
According to former neighbors in the area, Fletcher Chastain and the Masters Family, the log crib was the first building on the site and it was built during the Civil War. The barn was built in the 1800s. There was a large 2 story house there that burned down in the 1980’s. Hoyt and Laura’s log cabin, built in 1994, is just in front of the old home site. It was called Grant Meadows when they joined Upstate Forever, an organization dedicated to promoting sensible growth and to protect special places in the Upstate region of South Carolina. This is the most photographed spot in South Carolina.
Laura Breazeale Grant grew up in Pickens, SC, the daughter of a farmer. There were 11 children in the family, three girls and eight boys. “After we had fed my Dad and my brothers their lunch, we girls sit down and sew. We would make a quilt a day. There were so many of us we had to quilt and sew all the time. My dad and brothers raised all the food we ate, we girls did the cooking and the sewing and whatever else needed to be done.”
For more information and pictures, click on www.uhqt.org.
By Cynthia Leggett