Description:

This sampler has a nice variety of complex stitches and is all that more remarkable because Sarah was seven when she worked it. Mrs. Burke's school was not previously known to scholars in this field and she may well have been the instructress responsible for the "Busy Yard Samplers." Gloria Seaman Allen also discusses how marking samplers were the first type done by young schoolgirls. Our next question, then, is did Sarah also do a "Busy Yard Sampler"?

Size (W x H): 15 3/8 x 25 inches

Stitches: Cross, satin, smyrna, four-sided, eyelet, rice, queen, long-armed cross, cross-over-one, wrapped hem

Media: Silk on linen

Genealogy:

Patrick and Elizabeth (Dixon) Caughy, were married in Baltimore in 1800. Patrick was the proprietor of a grocery and dry goods shop in central Baltimore. Elizabeth Dixon Caughy died in 1836 in her 55th year after a short and severe illness (convulsions) and was buried in the Second Presbyterian Cemetery. Patriarch Patrick was still kicking at age 90 for the 1860 US Census, living with his grandson Benjamin's family.

While we know that Sarah was Elizabeth Ann's older sister we can only presume she was born in 1814 by the dates given on the sampler. One other sister was also on the 1820 US Census, Baltimore Ward.

Sarah married Noah Walker 5 April 1832, a prominent clothier merchant and friend of John Henry Caughy (her sister's husband). They had two children: Patrick Henry (1832) and Noah Dixon (1834). Sarah died 30 September 1842. Noah Dixon Walker went on to serve as a Lieutenant in Jackson's Valley Campaign and the Army of Northern Virginia. He died in 1874.

Verse:

Sarah Caughy's Work (D)one In The Sevent Year Of Her
Age In The Year Of Our Lord One Thousan Eight Hun-
dred And Twenty One At M^rs Burke's School Pacca St