Five 24-inch pieced 8-Pointed Star blocks and four Railroad Crossing blocks were constructed using 27 different printed cottons. This quilt top was made about 1879 by Betty West, who was employed by Leonides C. Campbell and his wife, Mary, as a nurse for their children.
One of the children, Mary C. Watkins, wrote in 1939: “Betty West, our Negro nurse, made this quilt for my brother Kennedy and me. The many stitches made by stiff old fingers showes the real love she had for the two white children entrusted to her care. I treasured the quilt & have kept it all these years in loving memory of her.”
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