Mrs. Ellis, Teacher

Marble Hill Female Academy (Green and Pink Group)

Nashville, Davidson Co.

Mary Elizabeth Boon(e) was the second child of Bryant Boon(e) and Martha R. Phipps. The Boon(e) family lived in Dist. 7 of Davidson Co,. near Antioch, where Mary attended the Ellis Female Academy. Mary was probably a classmate of Ellen Mordaunt Oldham who also made a sampler there in 1833 (TSS 190). Mary wed Rev. John P. Stanfield, a circuit riding Methodist minister, in Graves Co., KY. She gave birth to eleven children.

Mary Elizabeth’s sampler features family names and verses from three separate poems. She identified her school as “Mrs. Ellis’s Female Academy” (which was also advertised as Marble Hill Female Academy) and her residence as “Davidson Tennessee 7th Dis[trict].” The Boon[e] family moved to Graves Co., KY, in 1833, meaning that this sampler is c. 1832.