Sutton Family Governess?

Riggs Crossroads, Williamson Co.

Mary Sutton (1834-1912) was the first child of Jonas Sutton and his wife Charlotte Baucom. Her father owned a tobacco farm at Riggs Crossroads, on the border of Wiliamson and Rutherford counties. According to family history, the Sutton children were tutored by Adam Hendrix, a neighbor and the father of Nancy O. Hendrix. When Mr. Hendrix died in 1837, the Suttons hired a governess who may have also taught the Hendrix children. In 1863 Mary wed David Ralston, a neighbor and hired hand on her father’s farm. Mary gave birth to four children. Only her daughter Lottie married and the sampler descended through her. Mary died in 1912 and is buried in the Mt. Hope Cemetery in Williamson County.

Mary identified her parents in her signature line:

Mary S. Sutton’s
sampler. daughter of
Jonas and
Charlotte Sutton.
July 27th. 1848

Her verse is from Proverbs 25:11:

A word fitly spoken
is like apples of gold
in pictures of silver.