The sampler is worked in shades of red, green, blue, black, brown, gold/rust, and yellow on a natural color linen and cotton ground and consists of ten rows of uppercase block alphabets; two rows of lower case block alphabets; two partial lowercase block alphabets, a-e; one partial uppercase block alphabet, A-V; and rows of numerals, 1-15, 18, 19, 1/ 0-15, 18, 1-15, 1/ 1-15, 13, 1-4, 15, 6-9. The bottom five rows of the sampler contain two signature lines and letters that may represent initials of family, members of the Shaker community, or more likely schoolmates (“PR”, “JR” are also seen on the Mary Ann Ewing/Elizabeth Spaulding sampler but not shared with initials on the Mariah Boil sampler.) The signature line reads:

BETSYBURNETTWASBORN JULY THE
1*4*1806MSBBJBMSPPNHASPBLCPRPBLC(?”I”)
MHSLBTLLEWCRARLMSHMTPRJRCB
TVNRSR (followed by a row of alphabet)
Betcyburnett waf born julythe141806

The sampler and the lower signature line are enclosed on four sides with a single cross-stitched border. It is finished on four sides with a ⅛” to ¼” hem.

Similar to other Shaker samplers is the sampler’s plain, unadorned format reflecting the simplicity and practical nature of Shaker life. Betsy’s sampler does however show errors that are less commonly seen in the other Shaker samplers documented on AKS, (lack of proper spacing in the signature lines, misspelling of her first name in the lower signature line, and occasional inverted letters). Her use of “f” rather than “s” in “was” in the lower signature line reflects an older English language variant.

Betsy Burnett (Mary Elizabeth) was born July 14, 1806, in Mercer County, Kentucky, the daughter of Bond Burnett, Jr (1765-1837) and Elizabeth Zeruah Small (1771-1845). (Her father’s first name may include “Benjamin” per the 1820 Mercer County Kentucky census.) Her siblings included Micajah (1792-1879), Charity (1792-1870), William (1795-1850), Matthew (1797-1870), Andrew (1799-1824), and Zachariah (1802-1879).

In 1809, she, her parents, and siblings arrived at the Shaker Community of Pleasant Hill in Mercer County, Kentucky. Betsy did not take her permanent Shaker vows and The Pleasant Hill records indicate that she "absconded" on May 29, 1829 (correspondence between Bill Subjack and Becky Soules, Curator of Collections, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill).

On December 22, 1831, she married Rev. Thomas Henderson Small, Jr. (1810-1901) of Big Sinking Creek, Wayne County, Kentucky, a Cumberland Presbyterian clergyman, in Mercer County, Kentucky. (See ancillary images.) They had nine children between the years 1832 and 1850 including John Burnett (1832-1855), Henry Clay (1834-1904), Matthew Thomas (1836-1922), Elizabeth Jane (1839-1865), Eliza Ann (1841-1872), Loretta Sarepta (1843-1867), Ray (1845-1921), Emily L. (1847-1873), and Harriet A. (1850-1934).

In the ancillary images there is a labeled “ID Card” for both Betsy and Thomas in the Oregon Pioneer Index stating that Thomas Henderson Small and his wife Elizabeth Burnett had (at some point) moved to Sweetwater, Monroe County, in eastern Tennessee. Subsequently, on September 27, 1852, they removed from Tennessee (“on account of slavery”), via the “Plains Route” (an eastern segment of the Oregon Trail), to Oregon. On September 7, 1853, after a one-year journey, they arrived in Waldo Hills, Oregon, (on the east side of the Willamette Valley), where they became ensconced in the community. Thomas’s “ID Card” noted that they were Republican and had nine children.

Mary Elizabeth “Betsy“ Burnett Small died on October 21, 1882, in Silverton, Marion County, Oregon and was buried in the Small Family Burial Ground in the same city. (On August 8, 1883, in Yamhill County, Oregon, Rev. Thomas Henderson Small, Jr. married “Fannie E.” Green (1839-1893) from Wayne County, Kentucky, ergo the “reunion” mentioned in the ancillary newspaper clippings. See his obituary as well.