In memory of William H. GernandAuthor of the memorial page is Cemetery Manager

Westminster, a prosperous county seat, was home to a wide variety of craftspeople. There were cabinetmakers, jewelers, blacksmiths, tinsmiths, tailors, and weavers like Gernand.

In 1850 William Gernand lived in Frederick County where his father, also a weaver, resided, but by 1852 he was residing in Westminster at “The Forks,” the intersection of West Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Gernand bought the machinery and some material to start his weaving business from a

Hanover, Pennsylvania, weaver named Kump and continued using some of Kump’s designs to make the bed covers for which he became famous. More than twenty coverlets with his identifying “block” in the corner have been discovered. One of Gerand’s blocks is pictured here. Although it does not include the buyer’s name, many did, an indication that the buyer had chosen a specific pattern and color combination. The coverlets were a combination of cotton and wool, rectangular in shape and two loom-widths across. They fully covered a typical 19th century double bed.

In addition to making coverlets, Gernand also made “plain and fancy” carpeting according to an advertisement he placed in a local 1855 paper. He probably wove and dyed the fibers in his home, selling his wares there or in a local dry goods store operated by his uncle, Emanuel Gernand, a former weaver himself.

By 1879 ill health forced the relatively young William Gernand to stop working, and he

died four years later. It is highly likely that the chemicals he used for dyeing and the

inhalation of wool and cotton fibers over many years affected his lungs. Workers in the

textile industries during that era did not recognize the hazards of their occupation.