QUILT

Unknown

Ben Hardin Estate

1990.41.01

Drawn by the promotion of dry-land farming, thousands of homesteaders came to Montana in the early 1900s, increasing the population by fifty-four percent to 376,053. This influx of settlers added new layers to a population previously dominated politically and economically by the mining industry. In 1914, a referendum giving Montana women the right to vote owed its passage in part to the farm population that generally saw women's suffrage as a way to cleanse society of its evils. At that time women made up forty percent of Montana's population and the Treasure State's economic outlook was good.

Ella Hardin made this lovely quilt after she settled in Miles City. She came to the area on a cattle drive from Texas in the 1890s.