Mrs. Harrison?, Teacher

Mrs. Harrison’s Female School?

Palmyra, Montgomery Co.

Tennessee State Museum, Nashville

Martha Elizabeth Edmondson was the first born child of Samuel Edmondson and Nancy Jane Jones. Her parents settled on a farm located south-west of the Cumberland River near Palmyra, and joined the Salem Methodist Church. Martha married James A. Mathis about 1839. The couple lived on a farm near her parents. They had three girls and three boys. In the 1850 census Norah Mathis, age 8 or so, was also living with them. Norah may have been their daughter or a relative of James. Norah worked a sampler c. 1854 (TSS 229). Martha died sometime after 1880. She may be buried in the Edmondson Cemetery near her husband and parents.

Martha may have stitched her sampler at Mrs. Harrison’s Female School, seven miles north of Palmyra. The school was founded in 1822 and offered instruction in painting and needlework in addition to academics. The sampler is worked on unusually fine 40 ct. linen and uses cross, eyelet, rice, and stem stitches.

Photograph courtesy of Case Antiques, Knoxville.