Uncle Eli's Quilting Party, Eli Whitney, North Carolina
Posted by: 
showbizkid
N 35° 54.383 W 079° 18.040
17S E 653344 N 3974898
This is an Alamance County Historic Marker about the origins of a local tradition, the annual "Quilting Party". It also explains how the local community got its name.
Waymark Code: WMHX0
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 07/21/2006
Views: 56
"Uncle Eli's Quilting Party" is an annual community gathering which welcomes quilts and wall hanging for display, as well as quilters to set up their frames and do live quilting. The High School class of 1921 was held in Cal Thompson's vacant cotton gin, under the direction of Professor E.P. Dixon. He named his rural make-shift school for the inventor of the cotton gin: Eli Whitney.
"Eli" became the namesake of "Uncle Eli's Quilting Party" stated at the relocated school in 1931 to boost attendance at the 1st Thursday in April PTA meeting.
The local community around this location is now called Eli Whitney, all because a schoolmaster named a school in an old cotton gin after the man who ivented the cotton gin.
The marker reads:
UNCLE ELI'S QUILTING PARTY
Began her in former Eli Whitney School
----
In 1921 Principal E.P. Dixon started high school
classes in nearby in nearby vacant cotton gin, naming
school for the inventor Eli Whitney
In 1923 high school classes relocated to build-
ing on this site. In 1928 a primary grade school
building was added for students of local one-
room type schools: Center, Manndale, Concord,
Spring, and Greenhill, along with a uniting
connector auditorium that was also used for
community events. Here began "Uncle
Eli's Quilting Party" in 1931. The one-day
quilting and quilt show continues
annually on the first Thursday In April.
The marker was placed by Alamance County and the Eli Whitney School class of 1943.
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