December 15 – A unique piece of Texas history lies about 1,400 miles away.
Nestled among the items in one of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s permanent collections is a dress with ties to Parker County.
Lela “Mae” Adams, daughter of Thomas Cavett and Aquila Rutledge, came from a poor family and was working as a telephone operator in Fort Worth to make ends meet when she met her future husband Joe.
It would turn out that her family played a key role in the country’s development, including being a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a governor of South Carolina.
Mae and her husband had four children, while Joe worked at the Swift and Company meatpacking plant during the Great Depression.
When Reta Adams, the eldest daughter, entered her teenage years, her mother wanted to give her something nice to wear.
Relatives learned that Mae had dropped out of school in the third grade because her family could not provide her with clothes and shoes.
Mae’s talent for crocheting stood out, including a bedspread she had previously made, and she decided to make a garment in 1938, presumably for her daughter.
However, she had a challenge because it was not easy to get a good crochet chord due to the depression. At that point, her husband intervened and brought home used rope from Swift and Company, and Mae washed it and prepared to use it for her dress.
Weatherford native Nadeen Murphree was a longtime friend of Mae’s, as the two would work together on various volunteer projects, and decided to find a permanent home for the dress she had received years ago.
The garment, believed to be about 80 years old, was donated to the museum in 2019 in memory and honor of Mae Adams by her children, Reta Adams Haynes, Jack Harold Adams, Patricia Adams Adams and Charlotte Adams Frazier.
