The sampler has a circumferential double row of vine and flowers at its peripheral. The top half of the sampler has five rows of alphabets and numbers separated by mildly decorative cross bands.
The lower half of the sampler has a tree and decorative flowers as well as the tenth stanza of poem “The Universal Prayer” by Alexander Pope:
Teach me to feel anoters wo
To hide the fault i see
That mercy i to others show
That mercy show to me

At the bottom of the sampler is the signature:
Mary Stephens. July the 4th 1831. Paris Ky.

With the addition of the Mary Stephens sampler to the AKS Collection in July 2022, a new School/Related Samplers group is established. Direct comparison of Mary Stephens sampler to that of Elizabeth Spears shows striking similarities. These include a very similar general layout, a circumferential border, five rows of alphabets and numbers, the same verse (the tenth stanza of poem “The Universal Prayer” by Alexander Pope), very similar flower and vine decoration around the verse as well as an identical signature line, with both samplers finished in July 1831. While certainly not conclusive, it is interesting that an advertisement appears in the The Western Citizen newspaper in Paris, Kentucky on March 12, 1831, for a “School in Paris…” operated by Mrs. Nancy Everett teaching multiple subjects including “Needle Work” and “Embroidery”. Please see the MESDA Craftsman Database card in the ancillary images. Was Mrs. Everett the teacher for Mary Stephens and Elizabeth Spears? While intriguing, as of now this is unknown. Further research is ongoing by AKS and Private Collector #12, the owner of the Spears sampler.

Mary Stephens was born in 1820 in Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky when her father, Joseph Stephens (1798-1885), was twenty-two years old and her mother, Hannah Lawell (1800-1872), was twenty, they having married in March 1819. Mary’s siblings included Joseph Lawrence (1821-?), Thomas (1822-1822), Elizabeth (1823-1845), Maria (1827-1846), Martha M. (1830-1893), Ella Louise (1833-?), Carrie R. (1835-1870), William Edward (1838-1847), Charles (1840-?), Hannah (1844-1845) and Josephine (1846/9-?).

Joseph and Hannah Stephen’s family grew up in Paris, Kentucky where Joseph built a home at the corner of Pleasant and Cherry Streets, where he lived until his death in 1885. (See ancillary images.) Early on he was in the jewelry business and this was followed by a series of mercantile businesses, including importing goods from Philadelphia via the Ohio river to Maysville, Kentucky and subsequently to Paris, Kentucky via wagons as well as a hemp and rope factory, and finally a grocery and mercantile business with his son Charles.

Of note is that Mary’s grandfather was Joseph Lawrence Stephens (1764-1848) a Revolutionary War veteran from Frederick County, Virginia, who came to Paris, (Kentucky) in 1784 as one of the earliest settlers of the county. He “learned the silversmith trade from Thomas Phillips, succeeded him in business several years later, but did not carry on the trade for long after that ”. Extant examples of silver bearing his mark include spoons, ladles, and beakers.(“Silversmiths , Jeweler, Watch & Clockmaker of Kentucky, 1785-1900” by Marquis Boultinghouse).

Sources differ regarding Mary’s marriage status. One source (ancestry.com) suggests she married Franklin W. Williams (1827-?) in 1841 and they had one child, Jemima Jane Williams (1856-1932). FamilySearch.com suggests that Franklin married a “Elizabeth Susan Stevens” and Gemima Jane Williams (same birth/death) was their child.

Mary Stephens died on October 5, 1860, in Van Buren, Missouri, at the age of forty years.