The sampler has a wide vine and flower border along its left, right and top borders surrounding six centrally located rows of alphabets and numbers separated by decorative crossbands. These rows of alphabets and crossbands are surrounded by a complex, decorative square border, incomplete on its left side.
The signature line is immediately below the centrally located rows of alphabets and numbers and reads:
Worked by Mary Jane Mitchell. Halifax KY.

Below, in the bottom third of the sampler on the left, is the sentence:

To log cabin frugality we
Owe our indePendence

Below this is a tree and political motifs including a keg, with the phrase “Hd Cider”, and a log cabin.
To the right are two trees and a flag with the word “Liberty” in its lower third as well as the words:

Wm. Harrison

The sampler shows no tack marks or other evidence of framing. The back of the sampler was originally covered with an unusual cotton backing (see ancillary images). Lynne Anderson, Ph.D., Director, Sampler Archive Project, has seen samplers with such a backing and says these are usually seen on unframed samplers (as is Mary Jane’s sampler). Jennifer C. Core of the Tennessee Sampler Survey, (www.tennesseesamplers.com), suggests that the cover was placed well after the sampler was made to protect it from further sun damage.

The Mary Jane Mitchell sampler is undoubtably related to three other AKS “SJP” group samplers, Catherine Allen, Nancy P Ford, and Mary Charlotte Ford. All the samplers show a wide floral and decorative perimeter on three sides, central rows of alphabets separated by decorative crossbands (several styles of which are shared between the four samplers), and the lower one-third of the samplers show the signature line. While the lower one-third in the two Ford samplers show two different houses and motifs, the Allen and Mitchell samplers are remarkably similar in this area. Both have the line:

To log Cabin frugality We owe our indePendence

This may have several meanings but most likely reflects the persistent pioneer spirit of America’s early “westward” settlers.
On both samplers there are nearly identical log cabins, (please see the Description in the Catherine Allen AKS entry for details regarding the log cabin), with trees and grasses to its right and left and the inscription “H Cider” ("H" being short for "Hard") is seen over a keg. During the 1840 presidential election, Whig candidate William Henry Harrison, at the age of 67, was thought to be too old to hold office. Editorialist John de Ziska ridiculed Harrison in the Baltimore Republican, writing, “Give him a barrel of hard cider, and settle a pension on him ... he will sit the remainder of his days in his log cabin by the side of the fire and study moral philosophy!”. The Whig party seized upon the mockery and used it to their advantage. They put the slogan “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” on a wide range of campaign paraphernalia to portray the aristocratic Harrison as a man of the people. The strategy worked and Harrison won the election, although the victory was short-lived. He only spent thirty-one days in office before dying of pneumonia. This widespread use of slogans and imagery on mundane items such as the cup and teapot seen in the ancillary images is considered the first modern election campaign for the U.S. presidency.

The inscription to the right is “W. H. Harrison” on the Allen sampler and “Wm. Harrison” on the Mitchell sampler. Below the Harrison inscription on both samplers is an identical, but as of yet unidentified structure. The flag and its inscription of “Liberty” are unique to the Mitchell sampler. Again, the political motifs refer to the Whig presidential rally of William Henry Harrison in Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky as referenced in the handwritten note by the Private Collector #27’s great grandmother, Kate Barner Brite (see the Catherine Allen AKS discussion). Political samplers are unusual and particularly so in the backcountry of the first and second quarters of the 19th century. Another example is the Eliza Jane Womack (1828-1901) Tennessee sampler which has anti-Whig sentiments. Please see https://tennesseesamplers.com/viewsampler.php?samp_id=058 .

The “SJP” on the Nancy P. Ford sampler may be the teacher for the Charlotte Ford, Nancy P. Ford, Catherine Allen, and the newly discovered Mary Jane Mitchell samplers. Who “SJP” represents remains unknown but Private Collector #27, a scholar of Warren and Edmundson County, Kentucky history, has further researched the initials. Catherine Allen has no known “SJP” relatives, but there is a singular “SJP” female living in the area during this time period. Sarah Jane Perkins (02/19/1809, Kentucky- 01/14/1873, Rockfield, Warren County, Kentucky, buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Rockfield, Warren County, Kentucky), married Hardin G. Perkins, 1807-1885, also buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Rockfield, Warren County, Kentucky. There is however no history yet available of Sarah Jane Perkins Perkins being an embroiderer or teacher, but Sarah Jane Perkins would have been 34 years old in 1843 when the “SJP” group of samplers were made. Further research is pending. Lynne Anderson, Ph.D., Director, Sampler Archive Project, in private correspondence by AKS, suggests that “SJP” may have been a Ford relative or a private instructress hired by the families and teaching at the Ford family plantation, Pleasant Retirement. (Note that: Mary Jane Mitchell and Sarah Jane Perkins are 5th cousins, once removed; no definite relationship between Catherine Allen and Sarah Jane Perkins could be established by AKS at this time; Charlotte and Nancy Ford were only 11th cousins, 2 times removed to Sarah Jane Perkins.)
An alternate explanation for “SJP” and the schooling of the girls can be found in the AKS Description section of Charlotte Ford and Nancy Ford.
Mary Jane Mitchell’s sampler refers to Halifax, Allen, Kentucky, a small unincorporated community, near Scottsville in Allen County, Kentucky. Halifax is approximately twenty to twenty-five miles south of the Ford home (Pleasant Retirement) in Edmundson County. Whether Mary Jane lived at Pleasant Retirement and her sampler was completed contemporaneously with the Ford and Allen samplers, or was done slightly before or after, and perhaps at another location is, as of yet, undetermined.

Mary Jane Mitchell is seen in an approximately 1875 picture (see ancillary images), very graciously supplied to AKS by the owner, Private Collector #27.

Mary Jane Mitchell was born on July 5, 1831, in Scottsville, Allen County, Kentucky to Henry Shelby Mitchell (1806-1880) (a constable and Baptist preacher) and Malinda Burton (1811-1852) (m. 12/31/27, Allen County, Kentucky). Mary Jane’s siblings included Eugene (1827-1850), Fountain Gillespie (1828-1910), Rebecca (1833-?), Sarah Catherine (1833-1915), John Richard (1835-1901), William Henry Harrison [Mitchell] (1837-1913), Tobias Willis (1840-?), Lucinda Wilkins (1843-?), Henry Clay [Mitchell] (1844-1911), Drury Burton (1850-1934), and Mordecai Fowler (1851-1860).

Mary Jane Mitchell married John Whitten Claypool (1811-1860) on February 17, 1855, in Allen County, Kentucky. Their children included Mary Claypool (1856-1936) and Elijah Claypool (1858-1863). Mary Jane was stepmother to John Whitten Claypool’s eight children from his first marriage to Charlotte Rector (1812-1854). Their home, as described in “Our Heritage: An Album of Early Warren County Kentucky Land Marks”, by Irene Moss Sumpter, is seen in the ancillary images.

Mary Jane Mitchell died in Claypool (a hamlet), Warren County, Kentucky on February 19, 1913, of “apoplexy or paralysis”, (see her death certificate in the ancillary images), and was buried in the Rocky Springs Cemetery, Warren County, Kentucky (see ancillary images).