Vintage Crocheted Bedspread

Bertha Imlay Schnable. Do you recognize that name? Probably not. However, she was an interesting and early resident of Oscoda County. She cooked on river boats for the early logging camps and later ran the Loud Company store in Comins with her husband George. In 1911 she moved to the McCollum lake area. After the death of husband George Imlay she married Frank Schnable. She and Frank rented cabins he built on the lake. The area was very remote at that time and not easy to reach, but people apparently did as that is how they supported themselves. Upon her death in 1950 she willed her property to the state of Michigan. This is the site of the campground and lake access at McCollum lake. There is a plaque there honoring Bertha Imlay Schnable.

Why am I telling you about someone you never heard of? What does she have to do with the 2019 Northern Michigan Relief Sale? Good questions. Here is the answer.

Mrs. Schnable was accomplished at crocheting. We know this because a beautiful bedspread she created will be auctioned this year. It can be viewed on this website under Auction, 2019 Comforters and Other Items. Take a look at this incredible, white, 8 pointed star design with a tassled edge. It has been re-donated to us to sell again. The amount of work to make this 88×102 bedspread is daunting. It looks like the day it was made. Perhaps it was so special a gift that it was never really used but kept as a cherished item. It’s age is unknown but probably dates to well before 1950 as Mrs. Schnable was in her nineties when she died. Be looking for this piece of history at the sale.