The sampler has eight rows of alphabets and numbers separated by mildly decorative crossbands. Below the alphabets and numbers are a flower and a flower basket adjacent to the verse:

Take up your cross and seek the Lord
While it is calld today
Now hear the Saviors Precious Word
Why will you still delay

The verse appears to be her own translation of New Testament proclamations such as Matthew 16:24-26. The last seven letters on row six are out of character with other scripts on her sampler (and may read “ACCDGMN”). This presumed experimentation with an alphabet style extends into the first half of line seven where she skips and duplicates letters in the remainder of this cross stitch alphabet.

The verse and adjacent motifs as well as the alphabets and numbers are flanked to the right and left by a vine and flower pattern while the uppermost border appears to be a mildly decorative crossband, similar in appearance to one seen at the bottom of the sampler below another basket of flowers and the signature which reads:
Mary E. Walker Daughter of Thomas & Nancy Walker was born
Nov th18 1822 and worked this Sampler at Miss N Flemings school 1837

Miss N Flemings school is new to Sheryl DeJong’s extensive Kentucky school database.
See the inverse verso and the verso in the ancillary images.

Mary Ellen Walker, maker of the sampler, was born in Perryville, Boyle County, Kentucky November 18, 1822, into an illustrious pioneer family, she being the daughter of Thomas Walker (1801-1836) and Nancy Hutchings (1803-1834) and the great-great granddaughter of Dr. Thomas Walker, namesake of her father. (The lineage to the sampler maker is: Dr. Thomas Walker>Thomas Walker, Jr.>Alexander Walker>Thomas Walker>Mary Ellen Walker (sampler maker, great-great granddaughter of Dr. Thomas Walker, again, namesake of her father)(see below article from The Advocate-Messenger, October 2, 2017). The family may have moved to Washington County, Kentucky in 1836 prior to sampler being made in 1837. Her siblings included Emily Miller, (1825-1866), Caroline M. (1828- 1903), Gabriel Hutchings (1831-1864), and Thomas I. (1834-1840).

Mary Ellen Walker married William Green (1802-1858) on June 26, 1838 in what was then still Mercer County, Kentucky and become the mother of the following children: Thomas Walker Green (1839-1874), William Wallace Green (1843-1933), Nancy H. (1845), Mary Frances (Fannie) Green (1847-?), Elizabeth “Lizzy” Green (1849-1913), Emily “Emma” Green (1851/1853-1933), William Green (1855-1895), and Carrie Green Caldwell (1857-1927). There is a questionable son, Franklin (1857-?). Census records show Mary Ellen lived in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky in 1860 but had removed back to Perryville, Kentucky by 1870.
The family is found fully enumerated together only once in the United States Census, that being in Boyle County for the 1850 Census as family #153 in which William Green (1802-1858) was listed as a “trader.” In 1860, Mary and her children are found in Perryville residing next door to local tailor Addison Parks in the household (#913) of merchant W. C. Campbell. Son Wallace, then seventeen years old, was working as a clerk for Campbell. The War surely touched the family, as their neighbor’s home was requisitioned as surgeon’s headquarters during the Battle of Perryville in 1862. Wallace was by then a doctor and the only pharmacist in Perryville. After the War, Mary Ellen resided with her son, Dr. Wallace Green. According to the 1973 National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form for the Perryville Historic District, the William Green house was still standing in downtown, designated as structure #43.

William Green died July 8, 1858, and Mary Ellen Walker Green died October 16, 1894. Both are buried in the "old city cemetery" in Perryville, Kentucky.

Thomas Walker Jr., grandfather of the sampler maker, was an original founder of the community of Perryville, and the son of legendary Virginia explorer & physician Dr. Thomas Walker Sr. (1715-1794) having joined the Loyal Land Company, in 1750 led the first English expedition through the Cumberland Gap, into what would become Kentucky. Dr. Walker built a cabin, the first such residence built west of the Appalachians by a white European, and claimed lands near present day Barbourville, Knox County, Kentucky where a Kentucky State Park commemorates his exploration of thousands of acres of land in the wilderness of Kentucky some nineteen years before Daniel Boone and decades prior to Lewis & Clark. Dr. Walker named the Cumberland River, Cumberland Mountain, and Cumberland Valley in honor of Prince William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland. The Cumberland Forest was later renamed the Daniel Boone National Forest in 1966 after Scottish immigrants to the area complained about atrocities committed by Cumberland in Scotland in 1746. His son, Thomas Jr., arrived at Harrodsburg in 1781 with James Harbison and constructed a fort on the Chaplin River.

AKS is very appreciative of the scholarly work done by Private Collector #7, by Brenda Edwards of The Advocate-Messenger, and Carolyn Crabtree, a central Kentucky genealogist and historian who did the research for the below The Advocate-Messenger article. This article is reproduced here to further disseminate Ms. Edwards’ and Ms. Crabtree’s work.

“Descendants of Perryville’s Walker Family”, 
by Brenda Edwards
, from The Advocate-Messenger, October 2, 2017

"Alexander Walker and his wife, Charlotte Laws, were among the pioneers who settled in the Perryville area while it was a part of Virginia. His father, Thomas Walker*, came to this area with James Harbison (Harberson) and others before the Revolutionary War.
Alexander and Charlotte had five children and numerous grandchildren who moved on to Missouri, Tennessee and other states. Alexander and Charlotte were married Dec. 7, 1798, in Mercer County. She was born Oct. 13, 1779, in Fauquier County, Virginia, and was a daughter of Thomas Laws and Jane Kenton. Alexander was born June 8, 1772, in Perryville, and died Oct. 29, 1854 in Boyle County. He is buried in Harberson graveyard on the Mathilda Myers farm. Charlotte died in Feb. 1851 in Boyle County. She is buried in Harbison Station Cemetery.
The Walker couple had five children: John Hamilton, Thomas Walker, James Harbison, Jane A., Nancy, Andrew Jackson, and Amanda.
John went to Tennessee. John Hamilton Walker was born Jan. 18, 1800, in Mercer County, and died April 15, 1872, in Rogersville, Tennessee. He was married twice. He and Talitha Taylor, daughter of Leonard W. Taylor and Sarah “Sally” Blagrave, were married Dec. 11, 1821, in Mercer County. Talitha was born Aug. 13, 1803, and died August 27, 1835.
John and his second wife, S. Mary Givens, daughter of James and Jane Givens, were married Jan. 26, 1837, in Mercer County. Mary was born Dec. 13, 1779, in Kentucky. She died in April 1872 in Rogersville, Tennessee.
Census records show John and Mary were in Rogersville, Hawkins County, Tennessee, in 1850, 1860, and 1870. During that time, John was a tavern keeper, Indian agent, and a register for the county.
He was referred to as “Colonel” in 1870, and “Brigadier General” in another reference. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. John made a request in 1865 to President Andrew Jackson, asking that he be pardoned after the Civil War so he could work and support his family. John said in the request he held an appointment under President Buchanan, but never fought or engaged in the persecution of any loyal person. He was 65 years old when he applied for the pardon saying he had small means of support for his family and was ready to become a loyal citizen in the United States. He agreed to take the oath of amnesty, which was not permitted while he was under arrest. (No further information is known on the request).
John and his first wife, Talitha, had six children:
• Sarah Jane Walker was born in 1822 and died in 1880. She and David C. Wilson were married May 24, 1843, in Boyle County. David was born Aug. 22, 1816, in Boyle County, and died Feb. 28, 1889. He was the son of Samuel Wilson and Mary “Polly” Templeman. Their five children were born in Boyle County: Talitha was born March 5, 1845, in Boyle County. She and Daniel C. Huston (1840-1888) were married in Boyle County. Mary Ellen Peace (1848-1924), John Templeman (1851-1925), Samuel Alexander (1853-1915), and Frances Walker was born in 1855.• Martha Ann (1829-1876).
• Francis Marion “Franklin” (1827-1864), who married Margaret Kelso, died July 22, 1864, during a Civil War battle in Atlanta, Georgia. He was an attorney prior to the war. They had five children: Lapsley Green Walker (1854-1939), Mary Ella (1858-1936), Hugh (1860-?) and Francis Marion Jr. (1863-1931).
• Silas Taylor (1829-1864). He was a painter in 1850 and 1860 in Hawkins County, Tennessee. • Mary Elizabeth (1832-1909).She was in Hawkins County, Tennessee, in 1850.
• Taylor was born in Aug.. 19,1835 and died in Nov. 10, 1935, in Perryville.
John and his second wife, Mary, had three children:
John Harvey (1838-1855), Virginia “Jennie” (1840-1915), and America who was born in 1842. She and Samuel Powell of Tennessee, were married Oct. 15, 1861, in Perryville. She died in 1878 in Rogersville, Tennessee.
Two stayed in Kentucky. Thomas and Andrew J. Walker stayed in Kentucky.
Thomas Walker was born Dec. 19, 1801, and died Oct. 13, 1836, in Perryville. He is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery. He and Nancy Hutchings (1803-1834), daughter of Gabriel and Elizabeth Taylor Hutchings, were married Oct. 17, 1821, in Mercer County.
They had five children: Mary Ellen (1822-1894), Emily Miller, (1825-1866), Caroline M. (1828- 1903), Gabriel Hutchings (1831-1864), and Thomas I. (1834-1840).
Andrew Jackson Walker was born Sept. 23, 1813, in Mercer County and died in 1869, in Perryville. He and Nancy Rochester Tadlock, were married April 30, 1840, in Mercer County. She was born Jan. 25, 1820, in Perryville, and was a daughter of Carter Tadlock and Cynthia Barrie. Nancy died Aug. 31,1885, in Perryville. Andrew and Nancy had nine children:
Carter Tadlock (1841-1898), was married to Mary Warren Hart. They had a daughter, Katherine Kent, who was married to Duke Marvin Godbey Sr. Marvin and Katherine had a son, Duke M. Jr., born August 11, 1912, in Perryville.
Duke Jr. was married in 1937 to Kathryn Purdom, daughter of Robert W. and Eva K. Kirkland of Forkland Kathryn was born Oct. 4, 1911, in Forkland, and died April 12, 2005, in Danville. She is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery.

Other children of Andrew and Nancy Walker are:
Mary Jane (1843-1857); Maria Rochester, born in 1846; Blanch Burton, born in 1849; Nancy James (1852-1858); Alexander (1854-1858); Charlotte Ann (1858-1926); and George Thomas (1861-1931).
Amanda went to Missouri. Amanda Walker was born about 1817 in Mercer County, and died after June 1880, in Missouri. She and Joel Compton (1815-1860) were married Dec. 17,1838, in Mercer County. They were listed in the 1850 Boyle County Census, and in 1860, 1870, and 1880 Census in Johnson and Jackson County, Missouri.
They had eight children born in Kentucky: Jane L. (1841-1926); Mary, born about 1843; Sally W., born about 1845; Nancy P., born about 1845; Jackson, born about 1847; Charles, born about 1850; Charlotte F., born about 1851; and Emily, born about 1853.
Little is known about the other three children of Alexander and Charlotte Walker. James Harbison Walker was born in 1904. Jane A. was born in 1807, and married Washington Latimore on May 28, 1822, in Mercer County. Nancy was born in 1809 and she and James Pleasant Givens were married on April 18 1933, in Mercer County. He was born in 1804.
(Editor’s note: Carolyn Crabtree, a local genealogist and historian did the research for this article.)"