It’s that time again–thanks for joining me for The Quest Continues, your one-stop shop for Black History Quest updates! It’s your host and fellow Pionerd, Mariah, with a recap of the most recent episode, some updates, and a sneak peek at what comes next.
Black History Quest: Who was Zilla?
For July’s episode, we partnered with Christopher Melton, the Executive Director of the North Lincoln County Historical Museum. Christopher conducted a deep dive into an object in NLCHM’s collection that they knew very little about: a quilt made by a Black woman known only as Zilla or Ziller.
As part of his quest to find out more clues about Zilla, he conducted research into the Poes, the local White family who donated the item to NLCHM. That research corroborated that the Poes indeed lived in Wallowa County, and may have uncovered their connection to Zilla through Missouri census records. These discoveries suggest that Zilla did exist, despite the lack of evidence beyond that.
If it weren’t for the donation, we likely wouldn’t have any idea that Zilla had been in Oregon at all. But thanks to this research, it does seem that she was here in Oregon at some point, and that the beautiful quilt at NLCHM was created by her.
As we all know, the quest never ends; there’s more we hope to learn about Zilla and her experience here in Oregon. We asked Christopher what his next steps for this research might be:
- Connect with archives in Missouri & Virginia, to see if they have information on Elihue or Zilla
- Learn more about the history of slavery in Missouri, which was a border state, and people there held slightly different opinions than deeper south. This likely won’t provide anything fruitful, but it would give more context to what life might have been like in Grand River in the 1880s
- Go back to the original artifact – try to find experts who might be able to help identify symbols or anything else of note about the quilt. There is a long history of Black artisans using quilts to communicate through symbols and designs, especially during the era of the underground railroad, and crazy quilts are known to contain stories. I don’t know how to interpret those, hopefully someone with more knowledge might be able to identify something interesting?
- See if I can locate any of Andrew Jackson Poe’s living descendents – they might have stories about their great-grandfather and Zilla? Or someone might have some of the letters she wrote to Andrew Jackson?
- Try to get in contact with current owners of properties – see if I can explore or if they have found anything.
Connecting the Dots
Beatrice Morrow Cannady was highlighted in our episode with Larry Landis, OAC’S Black Students in the 1920s: The Influence of Beatrice Morrow Cannady. Want to learn more about her and her pioneering work here in Oregon? Join me at the Architectural Heritage Center (AHC) this Friday to celebrate Oregon’s Advocate for Change, or check out this great online resource created by AHC, detailing her extensive speaking engagements around Portland.
Up Next
This fall, we’re bringing back a crowd favorite (and the original host of the show): Zachary Stocks, Executive Director of Oregon Black Pioneers. A pink box of letters was recently donated to our archive, so Zachary will dig into the contents to see what story they have to tell.Make sure to join us live on Wednesday, September 24th at 7:00 PM on Facebook or YouTube to find out more!!
Be A Part of BHQ
If you have stories or insights to share about anything featured on Black History Quest, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts with us!
Want to be a future history investigator? Send an email to hello@oregonblackpioneers.org!
Can’t get enough of these stories? Check out our previous episodes of Black History Quest archived on YouTube.
Signing off,
