Habecker / Carpenter Farm: 1150 Carpenter Road.  Lititz, PA

(Previously Known as Frog Run Farm)

 

Above: Habecker / Carpenter Farm on Google Maps Street View.

-----------

 

Satellite View:

Blue pin, top: Habecker / Carpenter Farm (Frog Run Farm)

Purple pin: Pine Hill Graveyard (Habecker & Carpenter Burials) 

Blue pin, bottom: Harriet and Uriah Carpenter's Retirement House

View this farm in a larger Google map.

The Habecker / Carpenter farm was a portion of a 600-acre tract warranted to John Jacob Snavely in 1723. On January 24, 1733, the rights for 334 acres of this parcel were transferred to Melchior Erisman (ca. 1693 – 1740), who lived in Lancaster Township.

On February 24, 1740, Edith Erisman, the widow of Melchior, received a patent for 538 acres in Warwick Township, which included the 334-acre tract. In 1760 Edith's estate deeded 63 acres of the tract to her son-in-law Christian Meyer, and the balance of 271 acres to son-in-law Jacob Habecker (1719 - 1789). Jacob married Anna Erisman ( ca. 1724 – ca. 1759). Jacob was born in Trub, Canton Bern, Switzerland. All of these familes associated with this land were Mennonite to this date.

Jacob Habecker, mentioned above, probably built the two-story stone house on this farm in the 1760s. He is buried up the hill from the farmhouse in the Pine Hill Graveyard. Some of the land presumedly passed to Jacob and Anna Habecker's son, Jacob Habecker (1756 – 1827). This Jacob Jr. married Maria Roth (1769 – 1848). They are also buried in this farm's graveyard.

Jacob and Maria Habecker's daughter Mary (1798 – 1876) married Miles Carpenter (1791 – 1876). Mary and Miles occupied the farm, which eventually passed to their son Uriah Carpenter (1825 - 1900) and wife Harriet Miller (1831-1915 ). Both couples are buried in the family graveyard.

In the 1900 federal census, Uriah and Harriet's son Wayne M. Carpenter (1855-1944) and wife Lizzie Burkholder Carpenter (1857-1944) were occuping the farm, which was still owned by Wayne's parents Uriah and Harriet, who were living in their newly-built retirement house on the hill overlooking the farm. This same year, 1900, Wayne bought his father's farm located nearby at Brownstown at auction. In 1902 Wayne and Lizzie moved to Virginia. 

_________________________________

 

Harriet and Uriah Carpenter:

Lancaster County's Most Dynamic Duo of Quilting:

"Harriet, with the help of her husband Uriah, was undoubtably the most innovative Lancaster County quiltmaker yet known."

Above quote: Patricia Herr, Quilting Traditions: Pieces from the Past, Schiffer Publishing, 2000, page 71.

Above: 1897 Rainbow quilt made by Harriet Carpenter for grandson Warren Carpenter Hess. Collection of Esther Hess Miller: Image: Quilting Traditions: Pieces from the Past, by Patricia Herr, Schiffer Publishing, 2000, page 79.

Harriet and Uriah Carpenter lived in the main farmhouse at the Habecker / Carpenter Farm until their retirement, when they moved to a smaller house which they built on the edge of their farm.

Harriet made at least 20 quilts, with the assistance of her husband Uriah, who designed many of the quilts. The quilts are remarkable for their innovative designs, which depict night skies, rainbows, maps of the United States, and other subjects.  The Carpenters made many of these quilts for their grandchildren. Harriet had been Mennonite, and later joined the Church of the Brethren. 

_________________________________________________

 

1896: Retired Farmer, Uriah Carpenter, Wins First Prize for his Night-Sky Quilt:

Above: 1896 Night Quilt by Harriet and Uriah Carpenter. Collection of John B. Doughton. Image: Quilting Traditions: Pieces from the Past, by Patricia Herr, Schiffer Publishing, 2000, page 78.

Below: Uriah Carpenter wins first prize for this Night Quilt at the 1896 Lititz Fair. Below: Newspaper clipping: Lititz Record: Sept, 11, 1896.

 

___________________________________________________________________________

 

Uriah Carpenter Wins Another First Prize for Another Quilt, One Year Later, 1897:

Above: Retired farmer Uriah Carpenter wins another first prize for another quilt, this time at the 1897  Lititz Fair.
Newspaper clipping: Lititz Record: Sept, 10, 1897.

__________________________________________________

Below: The Retirement House Where Uriah and Harriet Carpenter Made their Prize-Winning Quilts,

On a Hillside Overlooking their Farm (Frog Run Farm)

Above: Harriet and Uriah Carpenter's Retirement Home as Seen on Google Maps Street View.

It's at 1017 Handsome Place, Lititz, on a hillside above their farm.

_____________________________________________

Below: Harriet Exhibits her Needlework at the 1896 Lititz Fair

In 1896 Uriah Carpenter won first prize at the Lititz Fair for his Night Quilt, shown above. Uriah probably designed the Night Quilt, and Harriet stitched it, as they did for other quilts.

This same year, 1896, Harriet created a needlework exhibit for the Lititz Fair's commercial exhibit space, indicating she was a professional needleworker. Antique quilts have surfaced from various Lititz-area farms with ornate needlework that likely was stitched by Harriet, including quilts from the Risser family and the Bollinger family. Newspaper clipping: Lititz Record, Sept. 4, 1896.

____________________________________________________________________

Below: 1910: A Lititz Newspaper Article about Harriet Carpenter's Quilting Fame:

Above: In 1910 Lancaster County had thousands of expert quilters. But Harriet Carpenter was known as one of the best. This article appeared in the Lititz Record newspaper, February 7, 1910. Her husband, Uriah Carpenter, had passed away ten years earlier. He designed numerous quilts which Harriet quilted, and he had won first prizes at the Lititz Fair for his / their quilts.

It was not unusual for retired farmers to assist their wives with quilting and household projects. But Uriah and Harriet were Lancaster County's most dynamic duo of Lancaster County quilting.

_____________________________________

A ca. 1795 Dutch Cupboard,

Owned by Mary and Miles Carpenter here at the Habecker / Carpenter Farm,

With their Initials M. C.:

Above: Images courtesy Horst Auction Center. Cupboard sold Feb. 11, 2017, to an unidentified bidder.

This cupboard was likely a gift to Mary (Habecker) Carpenter from her parents at the time of her marriage, ca. 1818. This kitchen dresser, as they were known, exhibits several characteristics that suggest its construction may predate their marriage by a generation. The drawer configuration, the recessed-panel stiles, and the rat-tail hinges are typical of cupboard construction of the late 1700s.

This kitchen dresser and the farm descended from Mary and Miles Carpenter to their son Uriah Carpenter. There is little doubt that either Uriah or his wife Harriet added the date and decorative Victorian initials to the glass panes. These initials are similar to the embroidered letters that Harriet stitched onto several quilts. The cupboard remained in this Carpenter family until it was sold at Horst Auction Center on February 11, 2016, to an unidentified bidder.

__________________________________________________

Uriah Carpenter's Grain Bag, from the Habecker / Carpenter Farm:

 

Above: Uriah Carpenter's grain bag, made of homespun tow linen. The flax for weaving the linen for this bag was undoubtedly grown on the Habecker / Carpenter farm. Most farmers did not decorate their grain bags with such elaborate decoration, but Uriah Carpenter is remembered for his unique creativity.

These bags were used for transporting grain to the mill for grinding into flour. The names on the bags prevented farmers' grain being mixed-up at the mill. (Grain bag: Clarke Hess Collection)

_____________________________________________________

A Habecker Grain Bag. This one is from Switzerland.:

This Swiss grain bag is from the Trub region of Switzerland, in Canton Bern. The bag is stamped with a coat of arms of a Habegger / Habecker family. Today the bag is in the collection of an American Habecker.

Uriah Carpenter's mother was a Habecker. Both the above bags share motifs: a crescent moon, eagles, and sheaves of wheat. (Photo: Clarke Hess. Bag: Private collection.)

_______________________________________

The Pine Hill Graveyard on the Habecker-Carpenter Farm,

With a Memorial for Uriah and Harriet Carpenter.

(Harriet's information is engraved on the opposite side of this pillar.)

Photograph: Ann Lizette Bomberger Watson

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Harriet and Uriah Carpenter's Grandson:

The Renowned Folk Woodcarver, Miles Burkholder Carpenter:

He had Lived here at Frog Run Farm.

Above: Woodcarvings by Miles Carpenter at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D. C.
Indian Woman (ca. 1970) and Monkey Dog (1967)
Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchases made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.

Creativity runs deep at Frog Run Farm, which is the Habecker / Carpenter farm.  Harriet and Uriah Carpenter are considered Lancaster County's most innovative quilters (see Trish Herr's quote above). In addition, the farm has also been home to their grandson, the woodcarver Miles B. Carpenter, who became an important 20th-century folk artist.

The 1900 Federal Census indicates that Miles Carpenter was living here at Frog Run Farm with his parents, Wayne M. Carpenter (1855-1944) and Elizabeth Burkholder Carpenter (1857-1944). Miles' grandparents, Harriet and Uriah, had previously moved out of this farmhouse when they built their retirement house up the hill overlooking the farm, where they created the much-celebrated Carpenter quilts. Miles was born on a farm near Brownstown, Lancaster County, where his parents lived before they moved here to Frog Run Farm.

In 1902, Miles and his parents left Lancaster County to live in Waverly, Virginia. Miles operated a sawmill and ice business there, in Sussex County. When Miles was middle-aged, he began a woodcarving hobby that established him as one of Virginia's most celebrated folk carvers of his era.

Miles Carpenter is also remembered as a first cousin of printer / historian Harry Stauffer, of Farmersville, Lancaster County.

________________________________________