Cedar Dale, Montgomery Co.

Elizabeth Patrick McGowan (1842-1922) was the youngest of four daughters born to Patrick McGowen and Martha Salmon. Her father emigrated from Ireland sometime before 1817 and settled in Montgomery Co., northeast of the Cumberland River. Eliza married John Benjamin Allen in 1866. In the 1870 census they were living on a farm adjacent to the McGowen farm. The couple had five children - two boys and three daughters. Eliza and her husband are buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Clarksville, Montgomery County.

Eliza may have stitched her sampler at the prestigious Clarksville Female Academy, which was chartered in 1835. The craftsmanship and the detailing of the piece indicate that it was made at a female academy. The name Cedar Dale on the sampler may have been the name of the McGowen home or farm as there does not appear to be a school or town by that name in Montgomery County.