Gottlieb Hohulin – Coverlets.
Article from
Illinois Jacquard Coverlets and Weavers
End of a Legacy
Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences
1999
Gottlieb Hohulin
1834-1915
Goodfield, Woodford County
Born in Teningen, Germany to Christian Hohulin and Anna Maria Loscher, Hohulin learned linen weaving (bed and household linens) from his father, a tradition which can be traced back many generations to the early 1600’s. Following his father’s death in 1851, Hohulin combined farming and weaving until 1859.
As a young boy Hohulin served as a bell ringer in the local Lutheran Church: at some point he became involved in a sect religion, “Evangelisch Tauf” (Evangelical Baptist). He knew families who had immigrated to the Montgomery Township (later Goodfield), Illinois area in the United States where they formed a congregation of the Apostolic Christian Church of America. In early 1860 Hohulin and others from Teningen, including the Conrad Wenger family, sailed on the William Tell from Le Havre, France to New York City; they came directly to Montgomery Township in Woodford County. Hohulin married the Wenger daughter, Augustina; that year in Dillon, Illinois.
From 1860 to 1871, the Hohulins lived in a log cabin northeast of what later became Goodfield near the Mackinaw River. He worked as a laborer for some time, then resumed weaving; he started with homespun and jeans, a heavy twill-woven cotton cloth, and before long was weaving Jacquard coverlets. All the while Hohulin farmed to support his family, which grew to include seven children: Julia, Hannah, Joseph, John, Samuel, Timothous, and Elizabeth. In 1871, Hohulin purchased forty acres of land in the vicinity of his cabin; he acquired an additional eighty acres between 1876 and 1888.
Hohulin farmed in the summer and wove coverlets when he had spare time to make extra money, supposedly receiving five dollars a coverlet, He gave many of his coverlets to local residents as wedding gifts.
Hohulin took an active role in the local German community, leading German-language services in the Apostolic Christian Church and teaching the German language, singing and Bible study. The Hohulins moved into Town in 1890. From 1897 to 1915 he ran the fence machine at the Hohulin Brothers Fence Factory, founded by his three younger sons in 1897.
At least twenty-five coverlets survive by Hohulin, many owned by descendants in the Goodfield area. Hohulin did not date these coverlets nor sign his name. All are seamless.
Hohulin used four pattern combinations, and the majority of his coverlets fit into two of them; all but one if the examples are characterized by a central star medallion on an intricate field pattern. One is a sixteen point star with tulips between each ray; the field is covered with diamonds filled with snowflakes or checkered; the top and bottom borders have a leaf shape forming an ovoid design while swirling acanthus leaves form the wider side borders. Ten of Hohulin’s extant coverlets are this design; two examples lack the center medallion but are otherwise identical. The second design combination employs an eight point star within a large circle, all on a field of roses and lilies; the boarders are a rose vine pattern boldly outlined by a Greek key design. With this design, a bird perched on a tree branch in the two cornerblocks served as Hohulin’s “signature”. Thirteen coverlets of this design are documented.
Two of the surviving Hohulin coverlets are unique in design. One incorporates a strange circular central design on a field of squares filled with lines and arrows, bordered by wide foliate borders enclosed by narrow geometric bands. The coverlet pictured here is the most dramatic of the extent examples; with a complex series of elaborate borders and geometric patterns.
Arnold, working in Wheeling, Cook County was another Illinois weaver to use a center medallion in his coverlet designs. One coverlet attributed by family tradition to Rassweiler of Cedarville, Stephenson County; and woven during the time that Hohulin was active; has leafy borders identical to those by Hohulin and follows the basic design formula Hohulin used-a central design on a geometric field-but otherwise is quite different.
Henry F. Stager, active in Mount Joy, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania between 1843 and 1860, wove at least one Jacquard coverlet nearly identical to Hohulin’s eight pointed star medallion pattern. A very similar star design used as repeated field pattern appears on at least three earlier extant Jacquard coverlets by other Pennsylvania weavers.
Hohulin’s loom was dismantled several decades after his death. One of his grandsons remembers hearing an uncle describe the elements of the Jacquard attachment head, with needles hanging on strings and punched cards that would only let certain needles pass through. A great-grandson now owns the cylinder, a wooden four-sided block with thirty-eight rows of eight shallow holes hollowed out on each face. The punch cards cycled up and over this piece as it rotated; the needles passing through the holes directed the lifting of warp threads to create the desired woven design.