In September, 2023, The Tennessee Sampler Survey (https://www.tennesseesamplers.com), graciously provided AKS with a low resolution image of the original sampler (the only photograph in their possession). Other images shown are of the charted reproduction by Old Willow Stitchery.

The sampler has an unusual double vine, flower, and strawberry peripheral border with seven rows of alphabets and numbers in the upper field. In row five, there is a verse from Ecclesiates 12:1:
Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth.

In the seventh row is a verse from Proverbs 25:11:
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver

In the right lower field is a basket of flowers. In the lower left field, the following verse (the first stanza of the hymn, “Choosing the Better Part” by Philip Doddridge [1755]) and signature is surrounded by a circumferential ornamental flower border:
Beset with snares on every hand.
In life’s uncertain path I stand.
Father Divine diffuse thy light.
To guide my doubtful footsteps light.

Alexander Crews
Mary Crews
Sarah Ann Crews’ sampler
Christian County Ky Sept 25th
1845

The name “Catherine B. Wallis.” , Sarah’s instructress, and the currently not understood phrase, “Evil cer” are also present.

There is a striking similarity to the sampler of Nancy Livonia Jordan, documented by the Tennessee Sampler Survey (https://www.tennesseesamplers.com/viewsampler.php?samp_id=231). Triune, Tennessee, where Nancy Livonia Jordan lived, is about 100 miles from Hopkinsville, the county seat of Christian County, Kentucky, where Sarah Ann Crews sampler was made. More interestingly is that the teachers of Sarah Ann Crews (Catharine Barr Wallis) and Nancy Livonia Jordan (Isabella S. Wallis [Slate]) were sisters. Sarah's sampler was completed in 1845 and Nancy's in 1846. It seems evident that Catharine and Isabella were working from the same pattern or source materials. (AKS thanks the folks at TSS for the above information.)

Sarah Ann Crews was born on September 15, 1829, in Virginia when her father, Alexander Crews (1802-1874), was twenty seven years old, and her mother, Mary Royster (1808-1874), was twenty one. Her siblings included: Alexander Dooderidge Crews (1835-1898), Mary A. Crews (1838-?), Alfred Francis Crews (1839-1920), Virginia W. Crews (1842-?), and James A. Crews (1845-?).

Sarah Ann married Milus Ewing McKenzie (1828-1884) on January 27, 1850 in Christian County, Kentucky. They had five children in eleven years including William Alexander (1854-1945), Francis Tyler (1856-1883), Charles Bell (1858-1949), Mary Virginia (Randolph) (1862-1903), and James Robert (1865-1895)

Sarah Ann Crews died on December 16, 1874, in Golden Pond, Trigg County, Kentucky, at forty five years of age, and was buried there in the Crews Cemetery (aka Rasco/Robey Cemetery).