The sampler has eight rows of alphabets (with limited numbers in the second row) separated by differing lines of stitchery. See inverse verso and the verso in the ancillary images. The signature reads:
A. P. Churchill Work done in Nazare(th) June 3.

(The accession documents at the Filson Historical Society make reference to family members attending the Nazareth College, Kentucky. Whether this is the Female Academy of Nazareth in Nazareth, Kentucky is unclear.)

Abigail “Abby” Prather Churchill was born on March 9, 1817, in Louisville, Kentucky when her father, Samuel Colonel Churchill (06/18/1779-01/03/1863), was thirty-seven years old, and her mother, Abigail Pope Oldham (05/01/1789-07/05/1854), was twenty-seven. Abigail Prather was the seventh of seventeen (17) children born to her parents over a twenty-nine year period. Five of her siblings died as children with the remainder reaching adulthood.
Her oldest sibling was Mary Eliza Churchill (1804-1842) and her youngest sibling was Julia Maria Preston Pope Churchill (1833-1922). She was raised at “Spring Grove”, the family home of Samuel and Abigail Oldham Churchill. Extensive and fascinating details concerning the construction, family life, history, and the ultimate demise of “Spring Grove” are beyond the scope of this website but are available upon request or at the Filson Historical Society.

The importance and stature of the Churchill family and their marriages to other prominent early Louisville families cannot be overstated. Their contributions to Louisville and Kentucky history is however far beyond the scope of this website. Excellent information can be found online and at the Filson Historical Society. The following relates the earliest entry of the Churchill family into Louisville history and is directly copied from genealogical material found on Ancestry.com where extensive Churchill family information is also available.

“A Sesqui-centennial history of Kentucky
The Churchill Family
Armistead Churchill, Jr. born in Middlesex, Va. in 1733, was the founder of the Louisville family of that name. He was a captain of the Farquier Militia in 1759 and served in the Revolution with the rank of colonel. Col. Churchill married Elizabeth Bakewell in 1761. They settled in Farquier County, and to them a number of children were born. In 1787, when their youngest son, Samuel, was eight years old, the Churchills started for Kentucky with their family and their slaves.
Armistead Churchill came through Cumberland Gap and across the Wilderness Trail on a coach, driving four-in-hand. On reaching Louisville he was completely disgusted with the settlement, according to a tradition in the family, and would have turned back the next day, but for three reasons, the badness of the roads over which he had traveled, the Indians that might be encountered in the forests, and the fact that the Ohio river flowed down instead of up toward Virginia.
Making the best of things he stayed, settling on land nearby and southeast of the city on a plot of ground, which later became known as "Churchill Park" and was presented to the city by his great, great grandsons, Charles T. and S. Thruston Ballard and R.C. Ballard Thruston. Armistead Churchill was buried there.
Samuel and Abigail Oldham Churchill had sixteen children, and their youngest, Julia, who married Dr. Luke P. Blackburn in 1857, lives in the city at her home corner of Third Street and Park Avenue.
Among their other children are the following, who figured in Louisville's society and civic life: Mary Churchill, who married Charles W. Thruston, mother of Fanny Thruston, who married Andrew Jackson Ballard were the parents of the Ballard men mentioned above.”

Abigail Prather Churchill married Meriwether Lewis Clark (01/10/1809-10/28/1881) on January 9, 1834, in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. (Meriwether Lewis Clark was the son of General William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition). (Undated photos of Abigail Prather and her wedding gown are in the ancillary images.) They had seven children in twelve years: William Hancock (1839-1922), Samuel Churchill (1842-1862), Mary Eliza (1845-1847), Meriwether Lewis II, (1846-1899), John O’Fallon (1848-1863), George Rogers (1850-1878), and Charles Jefferson (1852-1896).
She died as a young mother on January 14, 1852, in St Louis, Missouri, at the age of thirty-four, and was buried on 16 January 16,1852 in Bellefontaine Cemetery, Saint Louis, Missouri. (See ancillary images)

Note: Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston was one of the Filson Club's (precursor to the Filson Historical Society) greatest leaders and benefactors. Initially trained in geology at Yale University, Mr. Thruston spent his early manhood in eastern Kentucky with the Geological Survey. After attaining significant financial success, Mr. Thruston retired and devoted himself to historical and genealogical studies as well as philanthropy. While president of the Filson Club, (from 1923 until his death in 1946), he acquired the headquarters for the Club, donated his substantial collection of Kentucky history books and manuscripts to the Club and provided exemplary leadership. It is fitting that AKS can display the sampler from Mr. Thruston's ancestor, Abigail Prather Churchill.