Harriet Price, Teacher

Vaughns Gap, Davidson Co.

Tennessee State Museum, Nashville

Amanda Delilah Vaughan (1831–aft. 1861) was the daughter of Johnson Vaughan and his second wife Elizabeth Lowe. Her father was a prosperous mason, who also owned substainal property in Vaughns Gap. (The family name is spelled both Vaughan and Vaughn. Amanda uses the first spelling on her sampler; the community is the latter spelling.) Amanda married Thomas Alfred Scott, a farmer, just a few months after she completed her sampler. The couple had three children. Thomas supposedly died in 1860 and Amanda in 1861. Their three children were likely raised by Amanda’s sister Ruth Elizabeth (Bettie) Vaughan and her husband Thomas Herrin.

Amanda's colorful sampler boasts cross, cross over one, half-cross, eyelet, four-sided, closed herringbone, rice, and satin stitches. Her sampler names her teacher, Harriet Price. The sampler bears a striking resemblance to a group of samplers from Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland Co., PA, also attributed to the school of Harriet Price. In the 1840 samplers there are several Lowe families living in Mount Pleasant. It is probable that Amanda was sent north to live with her mother's relatives while she attended Mrs. Price's academy.