Item Detail
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Stevenson, Sarah Elnora White
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1831-1915
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MSS 8
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Biography
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Sarah Elnora White Stevenson was born November 18, 1831 to Joseph White and Ruby Elnora Sterns in Palmyra, Jefferson County, New York. A few years later, the family moved to Ohio, where the family was converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The family moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, and there, in 1840, Joseph joined the Nauvoo Legion, remaining a guard until the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Before the martyrdom, the family had moved to Carthage and then Bear Creek. In the spring of 1844, the family moved back to Nauvoo, and in 1846, to Council Bluffs. Sarah's father volunteered to join the Mormon Battalion and to fight in Mexico, and he joined his family later in 1847 in Utah. There, Sarah's mother taught school to provide for the children. Sarah began work in various places after her father's death, and at the age of twenty, she married James Stevenson. They lived with Sarah's mother for a year before moving into their own home in 1853 in Farmington. Just after adding two rooms onto their house, they were called to go south, in avoidance of Johnston's army. They returned to their home not long after, and they had eleven children. Sarah died January 12, 1915 at the age of 83.
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This is a three-page typescript biography included in the Margaret Steed Hess collection. The biography begins with a brief sketch of Sarah's parents and continues with Sarah's childhood. She recalls playing in the Carthage jail with the jail keeper's daughter and even remembers dangling her feet from the window from which Joseph Smith fell. It was unsafe for Mormons during this time, however, and at one point, the family was forced to hide in the cellar of a friend's home while the house was guarded. During the trek west, Sarah took turns with her brother, driving a team of oxen. When she wasn't driving the oxen, she rode a horse and drove cattle. During the trek, a boy and girl about nineteen years old had gone for a walk and were kidnapped by Indians; they were traded back for a yoke of the company's best oxen. Later, the pioneers contracted cholera from the Indians, and of the fifty who contracted it, ten died, including the company's captain. At night, the company formed a corral, to protect themselves and the animals from buffalo, Indians, and wolves. Once during the trip, some buffalo frightened the oxen and caused a stampede, which set the company back two days because they had to find the oxen and return them to camp. The manuscript also describes a close accident of when, while fording the river, some of the travelers nearly drowned. On Sundays, the company rested, and during recreation periods, the pioneers sang, played music, and danced. After reaching Utah, Sarah's father went to California in search of gold. While gone, Sarah and her brother cut an acre of wheat, shocked it, and thrashed it. Their father returned sick and later died. One of the last stories in the manuscript is that of a woman who spoke in tongues to the Indians and thus persuaded the Indians not to kill the people. She served them dinner and gave them blankets in exchange for peace.