Residence, 517 W. Main Street

#95 Stars

Quilter Mattie Ryan Blackwell

Sponsor Cissy Terry

The quilter, Mattie Ryan Blackwell from Florence, South Carolina, met her husband from County Cork in Ireland and married him in 1885. Her sister was born on the night Sherman burned Columbia during the War Between the States. Their mother and father could see Columbia burning from Sparrow Swamp near Darlington, South Carolina. Over sixty years after her marriage, she registered to vote for the first time in her life but died in early 1953 before getting a chance to vote for Eisenhower. Fortunately, her descendants honored her life by sponsoring the Stars quilt.