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Region: Middle Tennessee
1816 Elizabeth Jane (Jince) White
Gallatin, Sumner Co.
Tennessee State Museum, Nashville

1714"V x 17"H © TSS 083
fibers: silk
ground: 24 ct. linen
Biography:
Elizabeth Jane (Jince) White’s (1804-abt. 1842) parents Stephen Richard White and Jane (Jincy) Ann Bell were married in Sumner Co. in 1804. Jince was the first born of their ten children. The family lived in Gallatin, Sumner Co., near the Cumberland River. Stephen was a schoolteacher and probably taught his children to read and write. In 1823 Jince married Harbert Wallace, a farmer, in Sumner County. The couple had eight children. Jince died about 1842, possibly from complications of childbirth.
Description:
The bottom two-thirds of the sampler, consisting of the pictorial scene and date, is almost certainly a latter addition, probably by a female descendant of the maker. The stitching in this section is less skillful, Smyrna cross is used in this portion and nowhere else, two threads are used in the needle (instead of one in the rest of the sampler), and the color scheme is different. Tennessee samplers from the early 19th century rarely contained human figures. The date of 1816 is probably correct, lending support to the theory that the later stitcher knew Jince. Jince would have been 12 in 1816, the appropriate age to begin (and leave unfinished) a larger sampler.