Crazy Quilt
Olive “Ollie” Inabinet Boylston (1876-1944)
Aiken County, SC
ca. 1910
McKissick Museum Collection 2013.11.95
This is an early 20th century modernist interpretation of the late 19th century decorative crazy quilt. Made of predominantly blue and brown cottons, this crazy quilt lacks the surface design embellishments of its antecedents. It is distinguished, however, by the double pieced border the quilter used to frame minimalist abstract expressionist blocks.
Olive Inabinet Boylston (1876-1944) 2013.11.91 and 2013.11.95
Olive “Ollie” Inabinet was born in Aiken County, just outside of Salley, SC. One of eight children, she was the daughter of Lewis and Henrietta “Nettie” Inabinet. A farming family, the Inabinets owned a substantial amount of land. When her father passed away in 1926, The State newspaper noted in his obituary, “Possessing ample property, he was in a position to devote much of his time to the uplift of this community.”
Ollie married Samuel Joseph Boylston in 1892 and they managed an extensive farm in Springfield, SC. They had seven children: Wyatt, Raymond, Ruby, Lillie, Octavie, Donovan, and Elise.
Samuel and his older brother Morgan were pioneering hog breeders. They shipped hogs as far as Richmond, Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland. The extended Boylston family owned and farmed land throughout Orangeburg and Aiken counties. Newspaper accounts indicate they had at least one hundred tenants working their land. Ollie died suddenly at home in 1944 and Samuel passed away the next year. They are buried in the Boylston family plot in Springfield Cemetery in Springfield, SC.