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Taft GreerFromTimes Gone BybyRobert W. Harman "Taft was born in 1903 near Trade, Tennessee, which is just across the North Carolina state line. He has a remarkable story in that he has been weaving on a hand loom for nearly sixty years or better. Now that in itself is quite a feat, however here is the real story behind the loom. Way back in the year 1801, Taft says his great-grandmother was newly married and a loom-maker came around to see if the new couple needed a loom. He boarded with the couple for nearly two weeks, working everyday preparing wood to build with. At his departure he had constructed a fine new loom so the family could have clothing and bed spreads. He charged the high price of one dollar and fifty cents. The loom was passed down and Taft can recall with a smile how he watched his own grandmother weave the beautiful old patterns, which included the one pictured. "Walls of Jericho." He would wait until his grandmother [Nancy Osborn Greer] left her weave shed then he would slip out and attempt to weave. He messed up her patterns so much that she saw to it that he learned proper weaving. Now this was a boy of seven years I am speaking of. Taft went on to acquire the skill and patience needed to produce the fine spreads that he now weaves. He also makes his own dye from roots, herbs, and walnut hulls, not to mention his secret mixings, for special colors. It is a real joy to watch him card and spin his own wool at the old-time spinning wheel. He attends fairs and crafts shows all over the country demonstrating his art of hand-weaving." Photograph and information from "Times Gone By", by Robert W. Harmon, a glossy booklett about 8 1/2 X 11 of 15 pictures. No date of publication. |
He was one of the few Confederate soldiers from Trade and very rare in that he came back to Trade after the war. Most Confederates found Trade too dangerous after the war. He went west sometime after his family was reared, but Nancy remained at Trade. She was a master weaver on a great hand loom and taught her grandson, Taft Greer, that ancient skill and the growing of flax and the ways of making woolen clothing and intricate breadspreads with beautiful traditional patterns, from sheep to finished product. She used this skill to support her family. Nancy lived to a ripe old age and there's a 1930 Doris Ullman photo of her at age 101 (and still working) in Allen Eaton's famous 1930s book, Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands, published by the Russell Sage Foundation.
Taft continued weaving until his death, sometime in the 70s. Taft came to Washington and demonstrated weaving at the Smithsonian in 1968. He was the last family keeper of the overshot weaving technique that had been handed down in the Osborn family for generations. And Nancy and Taft were the very last weavers scholars know about who learned in a family tradition. Yes, there are later weavers, but they are all from craft school origins, not family tradition. Nancy's loom, which has a date of 1803, is still at the old home place on Greer Mountain. It is interesting that some census takers had them in the 9th District, others in the 3rd. I see no evidence that they ever moved. The district line was hard to discern up on the mountain. Now the 9th is abolished and it is all the 3rd.
This was posted to the JCTCuzins mail list by Joe Wilson.