A Hine Keepsake: Addie’s Rag Rug

I’ve been meaning to write about this topic for a while now.  I can’t remember exactly when I got this photo.  It’s been a few years ago.  It’s a photo of a rag rug that my great grandmother Addie May Hine Bucklin made several years ago.  I haven’t even seen the real thing in person.  I believe it has survived the more than 60 years since Addie’s death.

I think it is in the possession of my mom’s cousin Louise.  She has taken care of a lot of old treasures, not the least of which are many old family photos.  Even though I haven’t seen the rag rug, I have seen a few things even older.  She has the hat that Louis Bucklin (Addie’s husband) had when he went to the Ohio Normal School in Ada, Ohio.  I need to get a photo of that to share as well.  It looked pretty fragile.

But this post is about Addie and her colorful rag rug.  I really like the collection of colors in this old rug.  Rag rugs are just what the name sounds like.  It’s a rug that is constructed from different colored strips of cloth that are sewn together.  I’m not sure when the rug was made and I don’t know if she made any more of these rugs.  I’ve only seen a photo of this one.

I’m thinking, though, that she probably made it in her later years.  When she was younger, she had twelve children to look after.  Who has time to make a rag rug when you have that many young children running about?  Ain’t nobody got time for that!  Then her husband Louis died in 1927 at the age of 54 when the youngest two children were only twelve years old.   She became a single mother and had to take care of the farm as well.  But she made it through all of that and always had a smile on her face!

Not really.  I always make fun of her because in most photos she has somewhat of a scowl on her face.  But sometimes she did smile, like in the photo I’m posting along with the rug she made.  It was probably around this time (1952) that she made the rug.  Plus the photo is in color as well.  A colorful rug calls for a colorful photo of the maker of the rug.

Let me tell you a little about Addie’s background.  She was the firstborn child of George Henry Hine and Susan G. Stanbrough (George and Sue).  She was born September 23, 1876, in Noblesville, Indiana.  George and Sue had five sons after her.  They moved the family down to Louisiana in 1894.  They homesteaded in the Hathaway area.  Addie married Louis Charles Bucklin on June 12, 1898, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  The next year they had the first of their dozen kids that I mentioned earlier.  I descend from their son Fred D. Bucklin.  He was the father of my mother Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.

I was born just 25 days before her death on November 25, 1960.  I have no personal memories of her, though I have gotten to know a bit about her.  I think I would have liked her.  I am a bit fond of her.  I’m glad the family has this keepsake of hers.