Sarah Adaline Anderson

Sue Studebaker’s excellent book, Ohio Is My Dwelling Place: Schoolgirl Embroideries 1800-1850 (Ohio University Press, Athen, Ohio, 2002) documents well the history of Ohio samplers and samplermakers. Only six samplers were known to have been made in Preble County, located in the southwestern part of the state, west of Dayton. Two of those illustrated by Studebaker are relatively late, each dated 1849. Sarah Adaline Anderson’s sampler, which includes the place name, New Paris, Ohio, is a recent discovery and significant addition to this body of work. 

Sarah Adaline Anderson was born in Preble County, Ohio on October 6, 1819, to Joshua and Mary (Orson) Anderson; she was the youngest of their three children. The ancestry of Sarah’s maternal line began with her great-great-great-grandfather, William Orson (1660-1741), who was born in Leicestershire, England and emigrated to Pennsylvania. 

In 1843, in Preble County, Sarah married John B. McCord (1821-1865), a farmer. By 1850, they removed to Wabash, Fountain County, Indiana, about 150 miles west of Indianapolis. John died in 1865 and Sarah in 1872. They are both buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Covington, Indiana. 

Sarah likely made her sampler when she was between 10 and 12 years old. The composition is ambitious, but the needlework might evidence a slightly less experienced hand. We particularly love the excellent brick house with a large stag on the roof. The pair of birds at lower right shows the influence of Quaker needlework design. Studebaker notes that the Quakers established a monthly meeting in Preble County in 1809. 

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a maple and cherry cornerblock frame.