Silk on natural linen ground, with large flower border surrounding alphabet rows and verse reading, "Insighted by and glorious aim / Science & genius Virtue and fame." Sampler maker has stitched her name in the bottom line, "Elizabeth Goodner." Elizabeth Goodner (1820-1912) was the first daughter and the second of eight children born to James Goodner (1792-1883) and Martha Fite (1798-1862) in Smith County, Tennessee. Elizabeth made the sampler while attending the Gallatin Female Academy, which operated from 1824 to 1836 in Sumner County, Tennessee. The sampler bears strong resemblance to others that have come from the nearby counties of Smith and Wilson with its green, white, and brown color theme and its green sprigs with large white flowers. A note attached to this sampler states that the sampler was "made by Elizabeth C. Goodner age 16 ? while in school at Gallatin Tenn 1834." It is also indicated that the sampler descended through Elizabeth's eldest daughter Cornelia (1836-1916), who married William Temple Cole (b. 1832). In 1835, Elizabeth married James W. Grissim (b. 1811, Wilson, TN), son of Rowland W. Grissim and Elizabeth Rather. Together the couple had twelve children and made their home on a farm in Rome, Smith County, TN. Two of the couple's sons, John Marcellus and Thomas Carroll, were killed in the Civil War in front of their parents at the gate to their home by Union soldiers wearing Confederate uniforms; a third son, Robert Dowell, served as a bugler during the war. Elizabeth also has strong ties to North Carolina. Her paternal grandfather, Conrad (born 1756 in Germany), was raised on a farm in Hillsboro, Orange County, NC; he married Elizabeth's grandmother, Elizabeth Scherrer, in Guilford County, NC in 1782. Both Elizabeth's grandfathers fought in the Revolutionary War, and her father served in the War of 1812. Documented sources are available for their military histories. Extensive genealogical files accompany this lot. Please contact the Gallery for additional information.

SS 15.25" x 15.25"; DOA 17.75 x 17.75"

Some fraying and separation of very edge under frame; very minor thread loss

From a 30 year Americana Collection.

$1,000 - 2,000