About the Appalachian Quilt Trail
The AQT is a great way to experience the variety of rural life in one of the country's most scenic areas. Along the way, stop as often or as little as you like. It's easy to spot waypoints and trail stops along the trail: just look for the painted wooden squares. We invite you to take a trip back in time as you slow down and enjoy the scenic countryside of our region. For your pleasure we have displayed the artistry of the traditional quilt on a backdrop of historic and beautiful barns. Take your time, pack a lunch or better yet stop at a local country store or diner to enjoy some local flavors. You will find a variety of historic sites, produce stands, shops, galleries and other places to entertain you along the way.
Pattern
The Quilt Pattern Mural on the Aunt Willie's Barn is the Bear Claw Pattern and is part of the Quilt Trail in Northeast Tennessee
Roy and Linda Doan chose the colorful Bear Claw pattern when Roy’s Aunt Willie’s (Willie Doan Deakins) quilts were divided among family. Several old family quilts had been stored in a trunk, and this one was chosen because of its bright, friendly colors.
History
Willie, her sister Sue, and mother, Clara Foust Doan, looked forward to “quilting days” held at the Homeplace. Sue’s daughter, Barbara Sue Hickman, recalls as a young girl the excitement of these special times. The quilting frame was set up in the dining room and the entire day was spent cutting, piecing, or quilting.
Aunt Willie’s farm and home were willed to Roy in 2001, and he and Linda purchased the original farm and Homeplace from his brothers Herbert and David and Uncle Horace. Aunt Willie and her husband, John C. Deakins, taught at Holston School from the late 1930s until the early 1970s. Like his aunt and uncle, Roy also became a teacher and recently retired from the Sullivan County School System. When they acquired the farm (now Cherry Hill Farm), Roy and Linda began growing cut flowers and taking them to the Kingsport Farmer’s Market in 2006. Thus, their business, Aunt Willie’s Wildflowers, was born.
Aunt Willie’s love of flowers and eye for beauty was evident in her well-designed and tended gardens. Several of her plants were likely starts from her mother’s or grandmother’s original plants. Linda chose to use these plants as starting plants for Aunt Willie’s Wildflowers. Willie’s planting journal from 1939/40 includes entries describing flower plantings that Roy and Linda attempt to duplicate when feasible. Through Aunt Willie’s Wildflowers, it is the Doans’ hope that “the love of all things wild that grow and blossom will pass beyond these five generations to any who would choose to share in all that God graciously bestows.”
BRIEF HISTORY OF FARM:
In 1860, Stephen Adams and Barbara Galloway Adams willed the original 65 acres of the now Cherry Hill Farm to Emmaline Adams, who soon married J.W.P. Doan. In the 1860s, JWP, his dad and brothers (all woodworkers) built the log barn and white frame farmhouse (the Homeplace) which both still stand on the property. While their house was being built, JWP and Emmaline lived in a log house behind the barn. This log house was later moved beside the well and used as a woodworking shop where JWP made most of the furniture for the house. JWP and Emmaline had only one child, Ed, who married Clara Foust, and they raised their four children, Willie, Sue, Horace, and D. Bruce, at the homeplace. The farm was divided among these children and then passed on to their heirs (the current generation; current owner, Roy, is Bruce’s son).
In the 1920s, Ed and Clara Foust Doan bought 68 adjoining acres known as “the Akard farm.” This acreage included a barn built around 1800, a double crib log structure. Through the years the barn has been used for livestock, hay, and storing small grain crops. To help pay for the new property, the Doans grew strawberries on the new land, loaded the berries onto a wagon and drove them to Bristol for sale. On this additional property, Willie Doan Deakins and John C. Deakins built their home in 1939/40. The barn and “Akard farm” was willed to Willie and John C. in 1961.
Roy and Linda plan to use the original barn for storing and drying flowers, and “maybe a barn dance or two.”