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Sampler by Adaline S. Terrell

Date1851 (dated)

Maker Adaline S. Terrell (1830 - 1867)

OriginAmerica, Mississippi, Covington County, Zion Seminary

MediumSilk embroidery threads on a linen ground of 25 threads per inch with a silk ribbon border (fiber identification by eye) in a solid cherry frame, with a white pine backboard and remnants of leather hanging loops, and under glass

DimensionsSampler OH: 17 5/8"; OW 18 5/8" Frame: OH: 22 3/8"; OW: 23 1/2"

Credit LinePartial Gift, Mrs. Bettianne Sweeney and Museum Purchase

Object number2010-100,A&B

DescriptionThis is a framed square sampler worked in faded shades of green, ivory, brown, and yellow silk embroidery threads on a natural color linen ground of 25 x 25 threads per inch. The top section of the sampler consists of:
"A-Q" uppercase block worked in cross stitch
"R-Z" upper case block and "1-6" worked in cross stitch
"a-v" lowercase block worked in cross stitch
"w-z" lowercase block worked in cross stitch
Band of cross stitch
The middle section consists of the verse: "Teach me to feel another's woe/ To hide the fault I see/ That mercy I to others show/ That mercy show to me."
Below the verse is the centered signature: "Adaline S. Terrell./ Mrs. Amanda M. Peyton/ Zion Seminary Mississippi/ 1851."
Beneath signature is a heavy floral band that arches upward at both ends.
The sampler is enclosed in a realistically-worked heavy floral border with an outer border of cross stitch.
The sampler is trimmed in a faded pink/peach silk ribbon measuring 7/8" wide at top, 3/4" wide at bottom, and 1 1/4" wide at sides.

Stitches: cross over one and two
Label TextThis Mississippi sampler was marked by its maker with the school of its origin-"Zion Seminary." Adaline S. Terrell, the samplermaker, also included the date of 1851 and the name of her teacher Mrs. Amanda M. Peyton. Zion Seminary was a boarding school established in 1846 by the Reverend A. R. Graves, a Presbyterian minister "of learning and great energy of character." Situated on the Okatoma River in Covington County, Mississippi, the location was considered healthy. The school was well managed with good attendance and is said to have added much to the culture and improvement of the country. It was destroyed during the Civil War.

Adaline's sampler is worked in silk cross and half cross stitches on a linen ground of 25 threads per inch. It is edged in an approximate one-inch silk ribbon on all four sides. Although the ribbon is fragile and faded, one can still see in some areas the original color of bright peach. The verse that begins "Teach me to feel another's woe" is from the tenth stanza of the Universal Prayer written in 1738 by the famous British eighteenth-century poet Alexander Pope.

Adaline Suftin Terrell (or Addie as she was called) was the daughter of John T. and Mary Alexander Gilliland Terrell of Covington County. John moved from Georgia to the Mississippi Territory in 1817, the same year that Mississippi became a state. Adaline's mother, Mary Gilliland, was the daughter of a South Carolina Presbyterian preacher and schoolteacher. Born March 24, 1830, Addie was the sixth of their ten children. She grew up on the family farm along the Bowie River and attended Zion Seminary with some of her brothers and sisters. In 1852 she married a prosperous and highly respected merchant. After the death of her second husband, it's likely that Adaline moved back to the family homestead, living with the family of her youngest brother, Jasper Terrell, until her death in 1867. Addie had no children and her possessions including a pieced quilt and this sampler descended through the family of Jasper. The sampler eventually came to be owned by Addie's great grand niece, Bettianne Sweeney, who made a partial gift of it to Colonial Williamsburg.
Inscribed"Teach me to feel another's woe/ To hide the fault I see/ That mercy I to others show/ That mercy show to me."
MarkingsSee signature.
ProvenanceProvenance of Sampler:
Adaline Suftin Terrell (1830-1867) had no children and her possessions including a pieced quilt and this sampler descended through the family of her younger brother, Jasper DeKalb Terrell (1841-1905) and his wife, Sarah Durr (1846-1891); to their son, Charles Galloway Terrell (1886-1963) and his wife, Mary Eleanor Leggett (1892-1978); to their daughter, Ann Elizabeth Terrell (1919-2003) and her husband, Alan MacLaurin Liebler, Jr. (1916-2003); to their daughter and Addie's great grand niece, Bettianne Liebler Sweeney (b. 1938), who partially donated it to Colonial Williamsburg in 2010.

History of Samplermaker:
Adaline Suftin Terrell (or Addie as she was called) was the daughter of John T. (1785-1858) and Mary Alexander Gilliland Terrell (1800-1861) of Prentiss, Covington County, Mississippi. John moved from Georgia to the Mississippi Territory in 1817, the same year that Mississippi became a state. Adaline's mother, Mary Gilliland, was the daughter of a South Carolina Presbyterian preacher and schoolteacher. Her paternal grandfather, Philemon Terrell (1750-1816) of Liberty County, Georgia, fought in the American Revolutionary War when he lived in Robeson County, North Carolina.

Born March 24, 1830, Addie was the sixth of their ten children. She grew up on the family farm along the Bowie River and attended Zion Seminary with some of her brothers and sisters. On October 28, 1852 she married James Monroe White, a prosperous and highly respected merchant in Mt. Carmel. After his death in 1858, Addie married Dr. W. C. Lemay of Monticello, Mississippi on April 24, 1866. Family tradition states that after the death of her second husband, Adaline moved back to the family homestead, living with the family of her youngest brother, Jasper Terrell, until her death in 1867. However, other evidence (http://brainman57.0catch.com/brainman57/Genealogy01_HistoryofTerrellFam.html) indicates that Adaline died in Monticello on September 1, 1867.