Goshen College Library Gallery to feature mystery quilts from Oyer attic, March 12-July 7 

Exhibit opening reception: “Quilts from the Attic”
Date: Sunday, March 12, 2006
Time: 2-4 p.m.
Location: Goshen College Good Library Gallery
Cost: Free
Event sponsor: The Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee of Goshen College

GOSHEN, Ind. – The attic of an historic house often holds many mysteries. When Goshen College Professor Emerita of Music Mary Oyer moved out of her Goshen home on the corner of South Eighth Street and College Avenue in 2004, 28 quilts and comforters from between 1900-1920 were discovered in the attic. Had they been made for use by missionary families-in-transit, for whom the house was built in 1903? Or were they Oyer family heirlooms?

The next exhibit at the Goshen College Good Library Gallery, “Quilts from the Attic,” will feature the best quilts from the collection, as well as a few made by Mary’s mother, Siddie King (Mrs. Noah) Oyer. The showing opens March 12 and will continue through July 7 in the Library Gallery, with an exhibit opening reception from 2 to 4 p.m. on March 12. The display is free and open to the public.

“Each quilt is both interesting in its own right and also contributes to an intriguing story and mystery that may never be solved,” said exhibit organizer Ervin Beck, Goshen College professor emeritus of English.

When Oyer moved from her historic home across from Goshen College campus, to Greencroft Retirement Center in the fall of 2004, friends helping her pack went to the third floor of the house to clean out the attic. Among the many stored items was a surprise: they discovered several large wooden boxes containing five comforters and 23 patchwork quilts. Although Mary was familiar with one or two of the handmade items, she did not recognize the rest. Since a few were packed in a box bearing the family name, some might have been King or Oyer family quilts brought to Goshen from Hesston, Kan. Or some could have been made by Siddie King Oyer herself.

According to Beck, another possibility is that some of the quilts were stored in the attic from the years 1903 to 1924, when the house served as a temporary residence for Mennonite missionaries who had returned to the U.S. or in transit to foreign countries. The house was built by the Mennonite Mission Board in 1903 – the same year that the Elkhart Institute moved to Goshen and became Goshen College – and for 21 years, until 1924, was a temporary home for Mennonite missionaries to India, Argentina and elsewhere. If the quilts are from that era, they “must have come from a number of different Mennonite communities in Indiana and elsewhere, and consequently illustrate the wide variety of designs and materials that characterized Mennonite quilting about 100 ago,” Beck said.

Siddie King Oyer (1884-1963) was born to Amish-Mennonites Levi and Barbara Yoder King of West Liberty, Ohio. As a young woman, she wanted to do city mission work and so worked for the Hilty family, who were Mennonite mission workers, in Idaho. They recognized her abilities and helped her enter Hesston (Kan.) College. After studying there, Siddie King became the college’s dean of women at the same time that Noah Oyer was dean of men. Eventually Noah became academic dean of Hesston College, and they were married in 1918.

In 1924, when Goshen College re-opened – after having been closed by the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference over doctrinal issues – the Oyers moved to the house on South Eighth Street in Goshen and Noah began serving as academic dean and professor of Bible at Goshen College; he also pastored College Mennonite Church. But in 1931, while making plans to go to New York City to continue his work on an advanced degree, he contracted typhoid fever and died.

To support her family of three young children, Siddie took the post of matron of the men’s dormitory at Goshen College. “Throughout her lifetime she wrote to us every Sunday evening when we were away from Goshen,” said Mary. “With a bowl of popcorn at her side, she reported on the state of the garden and her progress in preserving its produce. She kept us informed of her friends and ours and of the activities of the church. But most of all she was there, faithfully sustaining our home.”

Following retirement in 1949, Sidde King Oyer found pleasure in making quilts; three quilts she made are included in this exhibit. “My father’s life was much more public than hers because he was part of the administration that reopened Goshen College after a painful closing, and his students often spoke of his contribution to their lives. In a quieter way mother also touched the lives of those around her,” said Mary.

The Library Gallery, located on the lower level of the Wilma and Harold Good Library on the campus of Goshen College, is open during the summer from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday. It is closed July 3 and 4 for the holiday.  

Faye Peterson is the curator for this exhibit, with assistance from Barbara Smucker, David Pottinger, Joe Springer and Beck. The exhibit is sponsored by the Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee of Goshen College.

Editors: For more information about this release, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

###

Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.