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The James Boag buried at Forest Home Cemetery must be my great grandfather. Information posted by Dick matches up perfectly. We don’t know if his middle initial was T. or G. We know he was from Canada, but don’t have any other info on the family or where they lived. His son, George, was an only child.
George Roak Boag married Florence Force and had three children, George Roak Boag, Bett Ellen Boag, and James Thomas Boag. My father was James Thomas Boag, who was only 4 when his father died.
On an interesting historical note, the James Boag in Forest Home Cemetery was married to Ellen Roak from Maine. Her nickname was Nonnie. She started a business called Boag Ribboncraft which she ran through the 1920’s. Her roses and other flowers made from ribbons were sold in shops in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. I’m told her ribbon roses were famous in Paris. During the height of the Boag Ribboncraft’s success, Nonnie and her family moved to Keystone Avenue. After the stock market crash, they moved back to Park Avenue, but I don’t know which address. If anyone runs across ANY information on Boag Ribboncraft or products they produced, please contact me.
James’s son, George, started Quilts by Boag in the early 1930’s, pioneering the pre-cut quilt industry. He developed a method using metal dies on a punch press to cut multiple layers of fabric into identical shapes. The quilts were sold at high end department stores and through mail order. When my grandfather died, my grandmother was forced to sell the business, so the company passed out of the family. The company operated until WWII forced the owner out of business because of the scarcity of fabric. We believe most of the dies ended up in scrap metal drives for the war effort, but a few of them survived in a cardboard box in someone’s basement for years.
The surviving dies and a Boag catalog resurfaced in the early 80’s, when the owner contacted Hearthside Quilts and offered to sell them. Hearthside Quilts ended up reissuing the catalog from 1933, complete with handwritten notes from Grandpa George to Grandma Nonnie! Two years ago my husband and I took a trip to Hearthside in Vermont and saw some of the dies, still in pristine condition. Quilters can place special orders to have quilts cut from the surviving dies. I ordered the Tulip Garden quilt and was able to specify fabric choices. The have dies to make the following quilts pictured in the catalog: Tulip Garden, Kentucky Rose, Iris, Dutch Tulip, Baby Wreath (Dresden Plate style), and the Daisy Chain.
I’ve been lucky enough to locate the Poppy Basket quilt on eBay, which was made by a gifted quilter. I’m searching for other quilts or quilt kits made by my grandparents. Contact me if you have any leads!
What I’d love most of all is to locate the die for our original Boag family seal designed for the business, a medallion of roses with the name BOAG below them and a cascade of several ribbons below. It may have been with the original dies, but if so, it’s lost. The other possibility is that the dies for the seal remained at the print shop that produced the seals in gold foil. Quilts were packaged in an ivory box, wrapped in cellophane, and secured with a gold Boag seal.
Even if the family doesn’t have the Boag quilt dies, it’s nice to know where they are. If you’re interested, go to http://www.hearthsidequilts.com and view the photos of finished quilts. The made up some of the Boag quilts and posted lovely pics. Quilts may be custom ordered if you’re interested. They also have the reproduction of the Quilts by Boag catalog, but you will have to request it by email since it isn’t listed on the site.
Cathy
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