Location:

Ashtabula County Fairgrounds, southeast corner, Walnut and Elm streets.

Directions:

From Interstate 90, take Route 11 south to the Route 46S exit. Continue down Route 46 to the Village of Jefferson; turn right at Fairgrounds sign on Walnut to the Floral Building (octagonal).

The quilt:

The pattern is that of the 29th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, also known as the Giddings Regiment.

This quilt was to be placed on the Giddings Road Covered Bridge and that location was published on our 2016 Visitors Guide map. However, the Covered Bridge Festival Committee opposed any additional barn quilts on covered bridges.

In September 2016, this quilt was placed on the Floral Building at the Ashtabula County Fairgrounds. The building also has a Mariner’s Compass barn quilt on it.

The fairgrounds is an appropriate location for this barn quilt. The Giddings Regiment was encamped on the grounds for several months while awaiting supplies and orders in the early months of the Civil War.

We are grateful to Rachel Scribben of Artistic Woodworks in Pierpont, Ohio, for her beautiful work on this freehand barn quilt, and her husband Jeff, for installing the quilt.

Joshua Reed Giddings:

 

Giddings (1795-1864) was an attorney, politician and U.S. consul general to Canada. During his long presence in the House, Giddings was an ardent backer of anti-slavery views and often drew attack from his peers. His constituents in Ohio returned Giddings to the House after he was censured for speaking out against slavery, in defiance of the Atherton Gag Rule.

Giddings’ Law Office is on the National Registry of Historic Places and may be viewed at Giddings Park in Jefferson. The office is owned by the Ashtabula County Historical Society and is open for tours in the summer months.

 Nearby attractions:

The Giddings Law Office, Jefferson Depot Village and Jefferson Historical Society are within a block of each other on East Jefferson Street.

Covered bridges in this area include Giddings Road, Netcher Road and Doyle Road.

The office and gift shop of the Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Festival Committee is in the basement of the Old Courthouse at 25 West Jefferson St. Hours are weekdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.