Lost Kentucky Samplers

  • Mary Gibson 1800. (14 years old) AKS has no photos of this sampler from Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky, which has of three alphabets, uses cross stitches, has a strawberry border, carnations at the bottom, reportedly measures 16 x 17 inches, and has the verse:

    Youth like softened wax with ease will take

    Those images that first impressions make

    If those are fair their actions will be bright,

    If foul, they’ll clouded be with shades of night.  

    From Mrs. G. W. Cain as documented in “American Samplers” by Ethel Stanwood Bolton & Eva Johnston Coe, (The Massachusetts Society of The American Society of Colonial Dames of America, 1921) (Thomas Todd Company, Printers, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.), pp. 162, 338. 

  • Matilda Ward, 1808.  AKS has no photos of this sampler from the “Domestic Academy”, in the town of Washington, (now part of Maysville), Mason County, Kentucky, which consists of two cross stitched alphabets, with “Domestic Academy” embroidered on the sampler.  It has the names and initials: “Susan, P.G.; L C Keets; T Keets; HL; FB; CP; BE; PL; FD; GE; FE; BD.” 

    There is a verse:  “A grateful mind by owing owes not, but still pays at once indebted and discharged” from Paradise Lost, by John Milton.  

    From Mrs. Mary Ward Holton as documented in “American Samplers” by Ethel Stanwood Bolton & Eva Johnston Coe, (The Massachusetts Society of The American Society of Colonial Dames of America, 1921) (Thomas Todd Company, Printers, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.), p. 236.  Also, according to Bolton & Cole, p.387, the “principal” at the Domestic Academy was “Mrs. Keats”.  AKS has further information upon request.

  • Mary Ann Carter, 1818. (8 years old) AKS has no photos of this sampler from Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky.  There are four alphabets, eyelet and cross stitches, a strawberry border with a tree, baskets, beehives, bees, a butterfly, and dogs adorning the sampler. The verse reads:

    Jesus permit thy gracious name to stand 

    As the first efforts of an infants hand

    The sampler measures 17 x 17 inches. 

    From Miss Louisa S. Baird as documented in “American Samplers” by Ethel Stanwood Bolton & Eva Johnston Coe, (The Massachusetts Society of The American Society of Colonial Dames of America, 1921) (Thomas Todd Company, Printers, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.), pp. 136, 319.

  • Mary Ann Downing, 1844.  One of two samplers made by Mary Ann Downing at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky.  AKS has poor quality black & white photographs of this sampler (see below) and it is very similar to Mariah Boil’s sampler.  Efforts by the curatorial staff at Shaker Village suggest that it may be in California, but this is questionable.
  • Mary Ann Downing, 1847.  The second of two samplers made by Mary Ann Downing at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky.  AKS has poor quality black & white photographs of this sampler (see below) and it is very similar to Mariah Boil’s sampler but fancier than Mary Ann’s sampler of 1844.  Efforts by the curatorial staff at Shaker Village suggest that it may also be in California.
  • Eliza Jane Murray, 1857.  AKS has no images of this sampler made at Pleasant Hill at Shaker Village, Kentucky.  Through Pleasant Hill, AKS has one lead (with a California connection) which we are pursuing.
  • Mary Caroline Woods, 1870.  AKS also has poor quality black & white photographs of this sampler made at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. (see below)  Again, there is a California connection in Pleasant Hill’s records which AKS is exploring. (Please see the AKS entry for Annie M. Reed regarding similarities of the motifs of these samplers: specifically the wreath, the dove, and the written reference to doves in both samplers.) 

  • Susan E. Hagan, 1851. Susanna Pyatt, Director of The Loretto Heritage Center in Nerinx, Kentucky, discovered a reference in their database to an antebellum Kentucky sampler whose origins are unknown.  This sampler is marked “Susan E. Hagan, Loretto, July 4 1851.”  Hagan was a pupil of the Sisters of Loretto, presumably at Loretto Academy in Nerinx, Kentucky. Her granddaughter, Sr. Alonza Smith, SL (baptismal name Mary Loretto Smith), sent the sampler to the Sisters of Loretto archives in 1945.  However, the piece is no longer in the collections at The Loretto Heritage Center, nor is it referenced elsewhere in their database. Student samplers have been sold from Loretto’s collections in the past, so it’s possible that it was indeed sold at some point. Unfortunately, there is no photograph or further description of the sampler.  Research on Susan E. Hagan and Mary Loretto Smith on FamilySearch.org   and Ancestry.com have been unsuccessful as of October 2023.