The Abigail dolls shown in two of the various color options are currently being displayed at the Brown County Historical Society.
Dakota Bruton
One woman’s dream during the Great Depression brought generational success, renown and a former first lady to her family’s doorstep.
Portia Sperry was a college educated teacher and civic leader in Fort Wayne in the late 1920s. When her husband’s piano factory closed during the Depression, Sperry took it upon herself to move her family to rural and primitive Brown County where they were able to survive.
She was determined to rise above her husband’s unemployment and their current living situation by searching for various part time jobs around the county. Eventually she landed a job at the Nashville House, a hotel at the time, because the gift shop needed a manager. It was there that Sperry developed the Brown County Folks gift shop to sell locally made goods.
Sperry made the Nancy Hanks doll to sell at the shop, but it did not have much success. She worked on the details of the Abigail doll for over a year before finding the perfect combination of shape, stuffing and wool batting. She also designed Abigail to have hinged arms and legs so they would move freely.
Sperry struggled with designing the face for the doll, so she asked local artist L.O. Griffith for help. He drew Abigail’s face and Sperry developed a plate that could be printed and hand painted by Griffith’s wife.
Sperry also employed other local women to manufacture the dolls, providing housewives with a way to make extra money for their families during the economic downturn.
The next step in Sperry’s plan was to package the doll. She was inspired by the shape and size of the Quaker oatmeal box . If she placed two of them end to end and covered them in wallpaper and a handle, they would make the perfect size carrier for the dolls. With this in mind, she called the president of Quaker Oats to ask if she could buy just the boxes from the company. After a few phone calls, he confirmed that they would be able to fashion a double box for her. Sperry began selling the Abigail doll in her shop for $3,50, a very steep price at the time. The first year of selling the doll brought the business to a profit for the first time. The doll was successful enough that she was able to give around $2,000 of her earnings to the women who helped with manufacturing, according to the Abigail doll’s official website.
Abigail was sold in Brown County Folks gift shop for 52 years.
Sperry’s love of books mixed with the rising success of her creation inspired her to create a companion book that children could read about Abigail’s adventure moving with her family from Kentucky to Brown County in the 1830s. The book is currently manufactured by the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis.
In 1934, former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt made a stop in Brown County to check out the art, local businesses and to shake hands with Brown Countians. She visited the hotel and shop and recognized the Abigail doll at first glance, it was one of the local treasures that she bought and took back with her to Washington D.C.
The Abigail doll has had its fair share with Washington D.C. run-ins. In 2015 the Smithsonian Museum opened its American Enterprise exhibit, the first major exhibition that highlighted the essential role of business and innovation in forming the American experience, according to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Both of Sperry’s dolls, Nancy Hanks and Abigail along with the accompanying book were displayed in the exhibit highlighting how creation of the doll helped women find work during the Depression.
While Abigail dolls are no longer being made in Brown County, they have remained a product of the Sperry family. Portia Sperry’s granddaughters Sarah Mitchell and Abigail Sperry are still reproducing the authentic dolls using the same design Portia used.
They can be purchased online for $250 at abigaildoll.com/purchase/purchase.php.
