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Region: Middle Tennessee
1829 Barbara Ketring Taylor
Shackle Island, Sumner Co.

1612"V x 814"H © TSS 187
fibers: silk
ground: 24 V/26 H ct. linen
Biography:
Barbara Ketring Taylor (1816-1877), who sometimes went by the name Barbary, was the second of eight children born to Benjamin Taylor and Catherine Ketring. Her father owned a farm on Drake’s Creek in the Shackle Island community of Sumner County. Barbary married William (Willis) White in 1848. The couple lived on a farm near Hendersonville, Sumner County. They had two children, a son named William F. White and a daughter named Lucy Catherine White. Barbary died in 1877 and is buried in the Old Beech Cemetery next to her church in Hendersonville, Sumner County.
Description:
Barbary made her sampler at the age of 13. Her sampler is not typical of Middle TN; the vertical shape and inclusion of drawn work makes it unusual. She may have been attending the Gallatin Female Academy which opened in 1828. Needlework was included in the tuition. By the second semester of that year the school already had 80 students. The teachers there at the time were Miss Lewis, Miss Bledsoe, and Mrs. Hunt(s).