Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024 - 54

Frances Louisa Goodrich Revives Appalachian Craft
WEAVING
a LEGACY
How a Yale-educated missionary preserved
a fast-fading tradition in the mountains of
western North Carolina.
BY LAUREN STEPP
L
ittle Ivy Creek roared with
icy water, threatening to spill
over its banks. The torrent was
moving faster than expected,
but Frances Louisa Goodrich wasn't turning
back after traveling nearly 16 miles
through the western North Carolina
mountains in the dead of winter.
" On we go, " she shouted to her pony,
Cherokee, over the thunderous noise.
And so they went, fording the stream
and then navigating deep, sucking mud
and disorienting laurel hells to reach
the residence of Squire Wesley Angel
by nightfall. Upon arriving, Goodrich
delivered a very important parcel: wool
yarn dyed with madder and walnut root.
There was enough for Mr. Angel's wife
and daughters to weave three coverlets.
" We left our yarn and returned home
the next day, " Goodrich would later
write in " Mountain Homespun: The
Crafts and People of the Southern Appalachians, "
her 1931 memoir. " Three
weeks later, having sent a messenger to
the Paint Fork, there was excitement at
the cottage as we saw him returning with
the web in a roll across the back of his
saddle. There, in one long strip, were the
three coverlets.... "
54 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SOUTHERN HIGHLAND CRAFT GUILD
a person who was interested in elevating
the lives of women-a feminist before
that term was coined. "
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SOUTHERN HIGHLAND CRAFT GUILD
THE CALL TO APPALACHIA
In 1856, Frances Louisa Goodrich was
born into a family of Presbyterian ministers
and intellectuals in Binghamton, New
York. Though much of her childhood
was spent in Ohio, she and her family
moved abroad in the 1870s. It was during
this time that she began studying art.
Upon returning to the States, GoCoupled
with Goodrich's vision and
robust entrepreneurial talents, these blankets
would revive Appalachian handicrafts
and lay a strong foundation for the
establishment of the Southern Highland
Craft Guild (SHCG)-an organization
that today represents more than 800 makers
across 293 counties in nine southeastern
states.
" She was an artist, teacher, missionary,
leader in her community, business owner
and meticulous record keeper, " Janet
Wiseman, education director of SHCG,
says of Goodrich. " I would also call her
odrich followed her creative penchant
to the Yale School of Fine Arts, where
she earned a certificate of attendance.
(Women weren't allowed to receive a diploma
at the time.) She spent the ensuing
years studying under the tutelage of an
acclaimed New York artist and exhibiting
her own works.
Despite her success, Goodrich felt
called to do more. And so in 1890, she accompanied
a friend to a graduation ceremony
at the Asheville Home Industrial
School for Girls. During the proceeding,
principal Florence Stephenson turned to
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SOUTHERN HIGHLAND CRAFT GUILD
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Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024

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