Sarah Jane Dodge

Samplers can be wonderfully personal, and we are fond of those that indicate that they were presented to specific family members. This is signed, “Sarah Jane Dodge Worked this in the 8th Year of her Age New York Presented to her Aunt Sarah Dubois April 21 1825.” 

Sarah Jane, at a very young age, featured a beautifully worked and impressive basket of fruit on a lawn. An appealing poem, entitled The Request, is a further indication of her needleworking skills. There are several fine sampler motifs that embellish the sampler as well; the birds pecking at flowering branches are notable. The specific composition of the border is found on many samplers that were made in New York City and nearby towns. 

Sarah Jane Dodge was born on October 1, 1817, to Cyrenius (1794-1863) and Margaret Dodge of New York City. She was the eldest of Cyrenius’ 12 children. The aunt, for whom the sampler was made, was one of his older sisters, Sarah Dodge (1788-1874). Their father was John Dodge (1738-1816), son of Jeremiah and Margaret Vanderbilt, a watchmaker in New York City and then a Baptist minister in Pleasant Valley. The Dodge family descended from Tristram Dodge Sr (1607-1683) who was born in Buckinghamshire, England and emigrated to America in 1660, settling in Rhode Island. A substantial file of genealogy, including photocopies from Dodge Genealogy: Descendants of Tristram Dodge (Chicago, Illinois, 1904), accompanies the sampler. 
In 1840, Sarah Jane married Charles Knudsen and they had 6 children born between 1842 and 1857. She died in 1880. Aunt Sarah Dodge married Stephen Dubois (1786-1850) and they didn’t have children, which perhaps explains her close relationship with her niece. 

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in very good condition with some slight darkening to the linen. It has been conservation mounted and is in a molded and black painted frame.