Laura Stone's Sampler

In the center section, a two and one half story house is flanked by birds on trees and flower baskets. The house on Laura Stone’s sampler may have some important meaning to her. To achieve the look of bricks, she stitched two cross stitches over two threads by two threads and then left a single thread blank. She also left a single thread blank between each row of stitches. The flower baskets symbolize friendship and love, and the birds on the trees would indicate her love of nature. The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 46, weft 40/in. The stitches used are cross, satin, chain, detached chain, Algerian eye, stem, and eyelet. This sampler has been attributed by descendants to Laura Stone.

Laura Stone was born June 22, 1806, to Amaziah and Fanny Hall Stone in Chesterfield, New Hampshire. She married John P. Henry (1806 –1847) in 1834. They had six children - Maria Abigail (1836-), John Harfield (1838-), Elizabeth Laura (1840-), Charles E. (1842-), James S. (1844-), and George L. (1846-). She married David Holman in 1850, and she died on March 21, 1863. Harlan Fiske Stone (Chief Justice of the United States 1941-1946) was the grandson of her twin brother Lauson Stone.

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