This sampler by Sarah Ann Satterthwaite is a superb example of a highly sophisticated design that features an imposing and lovely basket of flowers as its central theme, giving the piece an almost theorem-like quality. However, our samplermaker did not stop there as she created an uncommonly beautiful, wide flower strewn border to frame her work. She then worked two bouquets of flowers tied with delicate bows in each of the bottom corners and signed her name Sarah Ann Satterthwaite 1839 at the bottom.

Sarah Ann was descended from William, "the Immigrant" Satterthwaite and Ann Burcham. Born in Hawkshead, Lancashire, England, William immigrated to Burlington Co., New Jersey in the late 1600's and spent the rest of his life there. While many in his family remained firmly rooted in Burlington County, New Jersey, others in the Satterthwaite line threaded their way through the mid-Atlantic states and into Pennsylvania, later moving into Ohio and Indiana as early pioneer settlers. In Old English "Thwaite" means "a paddock or parcel of reclaimed land" and it is fitting that they were primarily farmers, living up to their name. They were men and women of Quaker stock who came to these shores to live peacefully in this new land of opportunity.

The only Sarah Ann Satterthwaite who would have been the appropriate age to have worked a sampler in 1839 was the daughter of Benjamin Linton and Ruth (Evans) Satterthwaite. They were married in Warren, Ohio on October 3, 1822 and Sarah Ann was born in 1823. Sarah Ann was one of two children born to Benjamin Linton Satterthwaite and Ruth Evans. The other was a son named Samuel who went on to be one of the leading pioneers of Huntington County, Indiana. While the name Sarah Ann was a family name, Sarah Ann was most likely named after her fraternal grandmother, Sarah Ann (Haines) Satterthwaite, who, sometime after the birth of her last child, Abigail, in 1805, moved with husband, Benjamin and their family to Waynesville, in Warren County, Ohio, where other members of the family had settled, being among the early pioneers to that area. Sarah Ann married Isaiah Garwood on October 27, 1842 in Warren Co., Ohio. They had six children.

Ohio's admission into the Union in 1803, caused a great migration there as the young state prospered. Members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers came to Ohio in 1800 and quickly established schools. They established the first schoolhouse at Waynesville in 1802. It was a one-room log cabin located on Friend's property. Later it would move to the Meeting House and then in 1811, a large brick schoolhouse was constructed by the Friends.

Because the sampler worked by her cousin, Eliza Satterthwaite in 1830 and pictured in Sue Studebaker's book, Ohio Samplers, on page 9 mentions Waynesville on it, it was assumed it was worked at the Waynesville School in spite of the fact that it does not have the motifs usually associated with that school. In fact, though both Sarah Ann and her cousin may have been living in Waynesville at the time, further research has shown that a Quaker teacher working in neighboring Clinton County in fact gave the girls needlework instruction. This teacher s name was Elizabeth Burgess Mendenhall and she was a member of the Center M.M. in Clinton County near Wilmington, Ohio. Further research by Sue Studebaker has given us this information and the Clinton County instructress has rightfully been added to the body of research on Ohio Samplers and documented in Ms. Studebaker s latest book: Ohio is my Dwelling Place Ohio Samplers 1800-1850.