Sampler
Maker's Name
Bryant, Paulina
Location
Pleasant Hill, Mercer County, Kentucky
Date Made
1844
Maker's Age
36 years old, born February 10, 1808
Dimensions
14 ½ x 11 inches
Medium
Silk on linen with cross stitches
Provenance
The sampler was made by Paulina Bryant in 1844. According to Pleasant Hill documents, it probably reached New York by way of the “Rochester family” as Mary Rochester was a good friend of the Shakers, especially Paulina. Elsie H. Wilcox (granddaughter of early missionaries at the Waioli Mission House, Abner and Lucy Wilcox), bought the sampler for $10.00 from A. A. Schmidt in Albany, New York in 1922 and along with other Shaker artifacts, brought the sampler to Hawaii when the grandchildren helped restore the Mission House in the 1920s. The sampler is highlighted in photographs of the Mission House at https://vacations.hawaiilife.com/blog/kauai/historic-waioli-mission-house-hanalei. (Interestingly the first permanent paster at the Waioli Mission House in 1834, and credited for Southern architectural influences in the rebuilt church, was William Patterson Alexander (1805-1884)… a Centre College graduate from Paris, Kentucky.) The sampler remains owned by the Waioli Mission House, aka, The Waioli Corporation.
Description
The sampler has seventeen rows of alphabets and numbers intermittently separated by narrow and simple crossbands typical of Pleasant Hill Shaker samplers. The signature line reads:
SISTER PAULINA BRYANT
BORN FEBRUARY 10 1808 IN FAYETT COUNT
Y STATE OF KY CAME TO PLEASANT HILL
MARCH 25 1810
BEGAN APRIL 29 1844 FINISHED JULY 22 1844
When Susannah Paulina Bryant was born February 10, 1808 in Fayette County, Kentucky, her father, John (1753-1823), was fifty-five years old and her mother, Nancy Porter (1778-1811), was thirty. Her siblings included Clairyce (1803-1825), Matilda (1804-1843), William Perkins (1806-1860), and Thomas (1809-?). (There is the suggestion that John Bryant had been widowed prior to his marriage to Nancy Porter and Paulina may have had five half siblings born of that prior marriage.) Nancy Porter Bryant died when Paulina was three years old. Interestingly, Paulina’s sampler documents that Paulina arrived at Pleasant Hill as a two year old, twenty months before her mother died on December 15, 1811. Given her title of “Sister”, the advanced age at which her sampler was made (thirty-six years old), and census records, the possibility of her spending her entire life at Pleasant Hill is suggested. Pleasant Hill documents suggest that John Bryant brought his entire family to Pleasant Hill in 1810 and that the Bryant family was one of three or four of the first families to gather together at Pleasant Hill to establish that community.
In a doctoral dissertation by Shaker scholar Karen Nickless of The University Of North Carolina, Asheville and related to Roger Kennedy (longtime caretaker at the Waioli Mission House) in a July 6, 2005 email, Dr. Nickless writes: “Pauline Bryant became an Eldress in the 1830s. In 1885 another sister wrote to an apostate about her. She had visited Eldress Pauline and said ’you know she always tried to keep the bright side up and look forward with a hopeful heart, her courage has not wavered nor her trust in God, but, today she is unable to look at or talk about the present or future state of society without tears in her eyes.’ (The Pleasant Hill community was in some kind of financial trouble in the late 19th century.)” This may have been the cause of Paulina's angst.
There is no available history of Susannah Paulina Bryant marrying or having children.
Susannah Paulina Bryant died in 1886 at seventy-eight years old in Mercer County, Kentucky and is buried in the Shaker Cemetery alongside her father and other Bryant relatives.
SISTER PAULINA BRYANT
BORN FEBRUARY 10 1808 IN FAYETT COUNT
Y STATE OF KY CAME TO PLEASANT HILL
MARCH 25 1810
BEGAN APRIL 29 1844 FINISHED JULY 22 1844
When Susannah Paulina Bryant was born February 10, 1808 in Fayette County, Kentucky, her father, John (1753-1823), was fifty-five years old and her mother, Nancy Porter (1778-1811), was thirty. Her siblings included Clairyce (1803-1825), Matilda (1804-1843), William Perkins (1806-1860), and Thomas (1809-?). (There is the suggestion that John Bryant had been widowed prior to his marriage to Nancy Porter and Paulina may have had five half siblings born of that prior marriage.) Nancy Porter Bryant died when Paulina was three years old. Interestingly, Paulina’s sampler documents that Paulina arrived at Pleasant Hill as a two year old, twenty months before her mother died on December 15, 1811. Given her title of “Sister”, the advanced age at which her sampler was made (thirty-six years old), and census records, the possibility of her spending her entire life at Pleasant Hill is suggested. Pleasant Hill documents suggest that John Bryant brought his entire family to Pleasant Hill in 1810 and that the Bryant family was one of three or four of the first families to gather together at Pleasant Hill to establish that community.
In a doctoral dissertation by Shaker scholar Karen Nickless of The University Of North Carolina, Asheville and related to Roger Kennedy (longtime caretaker at the Waioli Mission House) in a July 6, 2005 email, Dr. Nickless writes: “Pauline Bryant became an Eldress in the 1830s. In 1885 another sister wrote to an apostate about her. She had visited Eldress Pauline and said ’you know she always tried to keep the bright side up and look forward with a hopeful heart, her courage has not wavered nor her trust in God, but, today she is unable to look at or talk about the present or future state of society without tears in her eyes.’ (The Pleasant Hill community was in some kind of financial trouble in the late 19th century.)” This may have been the cause of Paulina's angst.
There is no available history of Susannah Paulina Bryant marrying or having children.
Susannah Paulina Bryant died in 1886 at seventy-eight years old in Mercer County, Kentucky and is buried in the Shaker Cemetery alongside her father and other Bryant relatives.
Owner/History of Owner/Credit Line
Waioli Corporation
AKS Catalog Number
2020-067
Sources
Data from the Waioli Mission House
Doctoral Dissertation, Karen Nickless, University of North Carolina-Asheville
Vacations.hawaiilife.com
Grovefarm.org
Savingplaces.org
Ancestry.com
Doctoral Dissertation, Karen Nickless, University of North Carolina-Asheville
Vacations.hawaiilife.com
Grovefarm.org
Savingplaces.org
Ancestry.com
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