Yesterday the expected package arrived from my friend in Montana with another piece, literally, of Cabot history.  I mentioned some time ago here that she had contacted me to see if we would be interested in having a woolen blanket made in the Haines mill in Lower Cabot.  The old blanket arrived yesterday and is everything I'd hoped.  This picture is just so I could examine it and make note of its condition.  I laid it out on the deck, folded in half.  There seem to be two pieces that were hand-stitched together.  I thought it was in two pieces because the blanket had been folded for a long time and perhaps the threads along the fold had let go, but when I mentioned it in an email to my friend, she told me she thinks the blanket was made up of two "end" pieces from the mill.  Turns out the woman who owned the blanket was Lelia L. Haines, of the mill family.  Lelia married Stephen Blaney Blodgett, a widower who lived on West Hill, a few miles out of Cabot Village.  Lelia became step mother to his nine children.

The blanket is a thin, all wool plaid, about 54 inches wide when opened.  It would be the same material used for skirts, shirts or other light-weight wool clothing.  Some edges had raveled and have been trimmed by cutting, and there were a few holes, but it is in very good condition for it's age - probably about 125 years.  

Lelia married into the Blodgett family in 1893, and I'm guessing had the blanket as part of her dowry.  It doesn't really matter how the pieces of woolen cloth were used - I'm just very pleased to know it was made at the Haines mill and has been in the Blodgett family all these years.  Lelia, by the way, would be great grandmother (or actually step-grandmother) to my friend, I believe.  I also found a picture of her husband, Stephen Blaney Blodgett.  We have many other Blodgetts in our picture files.  We'll be able to put more information together with photos as time goes on.  We have a great start with  the book, "The Blodgett Papers," by Rev. Fred Blodgett, one of S. B.'s sons, that we published a few years ago.  

History is like a giant jig-saw puzzle and pieces eventually fit together over time.  Right now I'm having a great time sorting through, identifying and dating old photos that have just come to us.  A winter's work ahead.