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Region: East Tennessee
1837 Mary Ellen McCampbell

15"V x 1714"H © TSS 122
fibers: silk
ground: 22 V/26 H ct. linen
Biography:
Mary Ellen McCampbell (1825-1913) went by the name Ellen most of her life. She was one of eight children born to James Boyd McCampbell and Jane Cunningham Boyd. Her father was a farmer in Knox County. Ellen never married. She was 32 and living at home when her mother died in 1857. The following year her father moved the family to Goliad, Goliad Co., TX, where Ellen most likely kept house for him. After he died in 1867, she moved into a boarding house where she lived the rest of her life.
Description:
Ellen’s simple marking sampler is enlivened by a verse from Isaac Watts (1674-1748) from the poem “On Reading and Books.”

Seize upon truth whereer tis found
Among your friends among your foes
On Christian or on Heathen ground
The flowers divine where er it gros
Neglect the Prickles and assume the rose