Nanny's Rag Rug
This crocheted rag rug was made by Nina Anna Statia White (Dudding), in the 1930’s, probably between 1935 and 1940.
The rug is 47 inches in diameter and is made of scraps of cotton cloth. Cloth scraps were cut or torn into long strips about one inch wide and the strips were tied together to make a long, thin piece of cloth. The strip of cloth was then crocheted -- also called "hooked" -- using a big, usually wooden, crochet needle. Here and here are articles describing how to make a crocheted rag rug.
The genealogy behind this rug
Maurice Dudding: b. 6 March 1869, Putnam County, WV; d. 26 October 1929, East Feliciana Parish, LA.
Nina Anna Statia White: b. 16 October 1872, East Feliciana Parish, LA; d. 11 February 1957, Centreville, MS. She was known by friends as “Miss Dolly” and by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren as “Nanny.”
They were married in 1893 in East Feliciana Parish, LA, and made their home around the town of Norwood. Mr. Dudding farmed. They had nine children: three sons, two daughters, an infant who died shortly after birth, and three more daughters. The oldest daughter was Annie Lee Dudding, b. 11 April 1899, Norwood, LA; d. September 1983, Cleveland, MS.
Annie Lee Dudding, b. 11 April 1899, Norwood, LA; d. September 1983, Cleveland, MS.
Clarence James Richardson, b. 12 March 1896, Norwood, LA; d. 13 February 1972, Centreville, MS.
They were married 15 Sep 1920, Norwood, LA. They had four children: two daughters, a son, and a daughter. Their second daughter was Annie Lee Richardson, b. 21 October 1924; d. 18 March 2007. She was know as “ Baby” or “Babe.”
Annie Lee Richardson, b. 21 October 1924, Norwood, LA; d. 18 March 2007, Knoxville, TN.
Joseph Augustus Schlatter, Sr., b. 1 August 1915, Shaw, MS; d. 29 November 2005, Knoxville, TN.
They were married 11 November 1943 in Centreville, MS. They had two sons. Their first son was Joseph A. Schlatter, Jr., b. 12 December 1944, Centreville, MS.
Joseph A. Schlatter, Jr., b. 12 December 1944, Centreville, MS.
Thelma Rose Golden, b. 9 November 1942, Anniston, AL.
They were married in Oxford, AL, 30 July 1966. They had two children: Joseph A. Schlatter, III, and Stephanie Hope Schlatter, who are twins born 3 October 1968 in Frankfurt, Germany.
History of the rug
According to Annie Lee Richardson Schlatter – granddaughter of Maurice Dudding and “Nanny” White Dudding – this rug was “hooked” by Nanny, her youngest daughter Mary Dudding, and by her two granddaughters, Annie Lee Richardson (Schlatter) and Mary Christine Richardson (Hemphill) before World War II. The Richardson family moved from Norwood, LA, to Centreville, MS, in 1933 (?). Clarence Richardson (father of Mary Christine and Annie Lee Richardson) had lost his job in the Great Depression. He borrowed money from the National Recovery Administration, moved to Centreville, and opened a grocery store that he operated until a few years before his death in 1972.
Nanny did what everyone else did at the time – she saved every scrap of cloth and old clothing for use in quilts, in patching clothes, and other uses that required a scrap of cloth. This rug is made from scraps of cloth that Nanny saved over the years.
Nanny and her husband, Maurice Dudding, lived in Norwood, LA. He died in 1919 and she moved in with her oldest daughter, Annie Lee Dudding and her husband, Clarence J. Richardson. She lived with them for the rest of her life. Nanny was part of the Richardson household. She had a room to herself; she cooked, cleaned, sewed, looked after the children (who were her grandchildren) and did her share of the household chores. Nanny taught her granddaughters – including my mother, Annie Lee Richardson (Schlatter) – to sew, quilt, cook, and to do other household duties.
After the Richardson’s moved from Norwood, LA, to Centreville, MS, they purchased a fairly large house in which they lived until the house was sold in the mid-1980’s following Annie Lee Dudding Richardson’s death in 1983. Nanny’s room in the Centreville house was a large bedroom in the back of the house. Her room was furnished with a double bed, two small oak chests, a large chest of drawers, Nanny’s long box, a rocking chair, and one or two straight chairs.
This rag rug was on the floor of her bedroom in front of her rocking chair. After Nanny died in 1957, the rug stayed where it had been for years. When her daughter, Annie Lee Dudding Richardson (b. 1899, d. 1983) died, the house was sold and her granddaughter, Annie Lee Richardson Schlatter (b. 1924, d. 2007), acquired the rag rug. She kept it in her home in Knoxville, TN. After her death, her son, Joseph A. Schlatter, Jr., acquired the rug then.
In December 2010, the rug passed from Rose and Joe Schlatter to their daughter, Stephanie, who took the rug to her Washington, D.C., apartment. Thus, as of December 2010, this rug has served five generations:
- Nanny (Nina Anna Statia White Dudding; b. 1872, d. 1957)
- Clarence J. Richardson (b. 1896, d. 1972) and Annie Lee Dudding Richardson (b. 1899, d. 1983)
- Annie Lee Richardson Schlatter (b. 1924, d. 2007) and Joseph A. Schlatter, Sr. (b. 1915, d. 2005)
- Rose Golden Schlatter (b. 1942) and Joseph A. Schlatter, Jr. (b. 1944)
- Stephanie H. Schlatter (b. 1968)