1835 North Carolina sampler,

13 lines of letters, numbers and four-line verse, cross-stitched in blue thread "Orry A. Alexander.was.born.Nov.22'd 1824.", cross-stitched bottom center in red threads "completed Nov. 24th 1835…", leaf border, silk and wool thread on linen, Alexander, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 17 x 17-1/4 in.; later wood veneer frame. Good condition, fading, several repairs to the "C" and "D" area in center. Provenance: Private Collection, Asheville, North Carolina For a similar sampler worked by Orry's sister, and history of Alexander family, see Patricia Fitzpatrick, "The Harriet Elizabeth Alexander Sampler", [May We All Remember Well: Volume I,] edited by Robert S. Brunk, 1997, pp. 156-164. Orra Anne Alexander, fourth child of James Mitchell Alexander (1793-1858) and Nancy Foster (1797-1862) was born in Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, November 11, 1824, the younger sister of Harriet Elizabeth Alexander, born December 26, 1816. Orra was named for her maternal grandmother Orra Sams Foster (1778-1853).
• In 1828 James M. Alexander moved his family from Asheville 14 miles north to a location on the then recently completed Buncombe Turnpike where he operated a hotel and livestock stand. This location and James M. Alexander both gained in reputation, influence and prosperity. Alexander, on the Buncombe Turnpike, was a major component in the movement of livestock from the grasslands of East Tennessee to the major markets in South Carolina and Georgia, and for stagecoaches carrying mail and passengers until the coming of the railroad in the early 1880s.
• The Alexander family had been living at Alexander for seven years when the sampler was completed. Orrie was 11 years old.
• On June 26, 1842, at the age of 17, Orrie Anne became the second wife of Hendersonville, North Carolina, attorney John Baxter (born 1819 in Rutherford County, North Carolina, died April 2, 1886 at Hot Springs, Arkansas). The marriage ceremony took place in the living room of the hotel at Alexander, North Carolina.
• After their marriage, John and Orra Anne Baxter lived briefly in Henderson County, North Carolina, and in 1857 established their home in Knoxville, Tennessee, where they were to remain. John Baxter was later to become a federal judge and a man of great influence and property. Orra Anne died on the morning of December 25, 1859, of consumption, leaving seven children: K(C)atherine Nancy, Delia E. (who owned her own railroad car), William Mitchell, Lewis T., George White (the first governor of Wyoming), John Alfred and Lenora Annie who died in infancy. Orra Anne Alexander Baxter is buried beside her husband in the Old Gray Cemetery, Knoxville, Tennessee.