Concentric simple and decorative borders (including a Greek key border) surround the periphery of the sampler with an approximately two inch wide, continuous vine with leaves and flowers as the most central border . In the middle of the sampler there is a vase and flower flanked by short rows of alphabets to the left and right. Above the vase and flowers is the a verse (Ecclesiastes 12:1) flanked by sprigs of a flowering plant. The verse reads:
Remember now thy Creator in the days of
Thy youth while the evil days come not
nor the years draw nigh when thou
Shall say I have no Pleasure in them

Surrounded by a delicate vine and leaf border, below the central vase and flowers, and flanked by flowering plants, is the signature:
Martha Ann Perry
born February 6th 182 finish
ed this sampler Feb 6th 1890

(Note that the “5” is absent from her date of birth. The “5” was most likely picked out, a not uncommon finding on samplers when girls/women wanted to demur about their age.)

Martha Ann Perry was born on February 6, 1825 in Newport, Campbell County, Kentucky to Samuel Perry (1791-1861) and Eliza McClure (1800-1868). Her siblings included Frances Mary (1818-1893), Sarah Jane (1821-1851), Lewis (1823-1850), James Robert (1826-1828), Evaline Maria (1831-?), and Margaret Elizabeth (1833-1886)

Martha Ann married Charles Pike Buchanan (1822-1890) on September 16, 1857 in Keene, New Hampshire. By 1865 they had returned to Newport, Campbell County, Kentucky. Charles Buchanan was a long term Justice of the Peace who performed many marriage ceremonies at the Courthouse in the 1870s and 1880s as well as being the Mayor of Newport from 1866-1870.

Charles and Martha Ann’s children included Samuel Edwin (1852-1922), Eva L (1855-1855), Eliza Francis (1855-?), Charles Perry (1858-1911), Arthur M. (1865-?), and Louis Lamme. (1867-1953).

Martha Ann Perry Buchanan died on March 29, 1895 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery, Section 20, Lot 1, in Southgate, Campbell County, Kentucky.