Linen Bag's and more

By Pete Kauffman -
I learned a lot about Barbace from Harriet Armstrong. Somehow I hooked up with her around 1994 with a series of letters. She had "lost" Barbace and asked me to help her relocate it. Susan Coover Long, a sister of Ann Elizabeth Kauffman was her great great. She lived outside of Pittsburgh. She sent me some correspondence from Norman Keefer, an author who wrote a history of Mechanicsburg as well as a linen bag embroidered by Ann Elizabeth Kauffman. It had been given to her mother Naomi Merkel Long, daughter of Robert Long, son of Susan Keller Coover, Elizabeth's sister.
There was a note with the linen bag.
You can see the signature of Ann Elizabeth Kauffman at the bottom. In this note, Ann says that the flax that is used to create this bag was grown at the farm "Barbace", from which the cemetery was named. The date, 1803 is a date associated with Salome Keller but interestingly she was born in 1792 and died in 1883. The date 1910 was when Ann Elizabeth created these bags. She was 79 at the time and died the next year. Since I published this, Aunt Nancy sent me some pictures of a linen bag that she got from Aunt Mabel. Mabel was a sister of Katharine Barton. She and her step sister Ruth lived in Hazelton. When we were young, we would drive there with the family from Erie. I last saw then when Margee and I were first married and lived in State College. Anyways, here are the pictures.
Notice that the bag has the initials MB and the dates 1803 and 1915. I assume that 1915 is when the bag was made. I do not know the significance of the 1803 date but we will continue our research. I have one last piece of linen.
This has the name of Salome Keller Coover, the mother of Ann Elizabeth and the dates of her birth 1792 and death 1883. It has the name of Ann Elizabeth who went by Elizabeth Coover Kauffman. And it has the name, Edith Kauffman, who of course is our great aunt, Edith Belle. Also it has the initials of MVZ and the date 1927. This is when it was made. Just who is MVZ? Well, the hint is the Z. That would be the Zug's. One of the Coover sisters, Sarah, married Harry Zug. Their son Charles Keller Zug married Marietta Veasey. So this is Marietta Veasey Zug.

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