EASLEY — A new quilt panel has been added to the Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail marking the 207th addition to the attraction.
The panel, which is located on the side of the Custom Cleaners building in downtown Easley, is a replica of an original fabric quilt stitched by Diane Schonauer of Anderson.
According to the UHQT website, it was aptly named “Railroad Quilt.”
“Trains have played a very important factor in the town of Easley’s development,” the quilt’s website page reads. “Easley’s namesake was William King Easley was born in Pickens County in 1825. After the civil war Easley became a local attorney and lived in the Pickensville area. He persuaded the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railway to be established through Pickensville by raising $100,000 to invest in the railroad. The founding members of the community knew transportation was key to the development of their town. William Easley swayed the railroad company to lay a track through Pickensville. The town of Pickensville became known as Easley charted in 1873.
“Robert Elliott Holcombe became a co-founder of the town by starting off as a farmer and timber mill owner in the area. His farming ventures enabled him to establish the storeroom in 1845 as the first business in the area. He became the first mayor of Easley, financed and built the first depot in town. The railroad transformed Easley into an industrious and thriving textile town. The Easley Textile Company, later known as Swirl Inc., came to Easley in 1953. The construction of U.S. Route 123 helped establish retail and new business to Easley.”
The hand painted quilt panel was funded through a grant provided by the Pickens County ATAX Commission to the Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail.
