 |
| Sarah Hannah Brown |
Sarah helped her mother weave cloth by filling shuttles for her mother. "She also helped pick the wool and get it ready to go into the carding machine to be made into rolls which were then brought home to be woven into cloth. Sarah had to knit so many times around her stockings and spin so many rolls each night after school before she could play."1
Sarah Hannah attended the first play in the Salt Lake Theater that her father helped to build. The play was Pride of the Market. She attended the theater at every opportunity. This began a love of the theater and Sarah would attend the theater at every opportunity, both in Salt Lake City and later in Saint George. For many years she directed and acted in plays. "Sarah was an avid reader and student, always with an open book near her work ... Theirs was the best library in the community and she was reported to to have been on hand to assist the members with the talks and lessons they had to prepare."1 This seems to be an early start to her becoming a school teacher later in life.
 |
| Map of Washington county Utah and where Sarah Hannah Brown Crosby lived |
Saint George and Pine Valley Utah (1862 age 11 - 1869 age 18)
In the October 1862 general conference, when Sarah was 11, Sarah's family was called to Dixie. They immediately began preparing to move. Her family left the Salt Lake Valley on 11 Nov 1862. It took three weeks to make the trip by wagons pulled by oxen and one horse-drawn wagon. There they bought a 5 acre farm and lived in a tent. Six months later her family moved to Pine Valley to build and run a sawmill. Here the family started in the tent but built a shanty and later a house. From this picture of Pine Valley it was a beautiful place. |
| Panoramic View of Pine Valley |
 |
| George and Sarah at the time of their wedding |
Hebron Utah(1870age18 - 1878age26)
Within a year of getting married, Sarah's husband, George Henry Crosby was called as the bishop of the Hebron Utah ward. So Sarah and George moved to Hebron. Hebron is twenty miles from St George and one description of Hebron is that it was "a beautiful little town with nice brick and frame buildings, good fences, trees, and gardens."3 In Hebron Sarah gave birth to her first four children: Benjamin(1869), George Henry Jr(1872), Willie(1874) and Lorenzo "Ren"(1876). Sarah stayed busy with the children, serving in the RS presidency and helping her husband run the coop store and the post office. Sarah made frequent trips to St George to spend time with her parents. She attended the Dedication of the St George Temple and also received her patriarchal blessing during one of these trips in 1875. An excerpt of the blessing reads thus:
"Thy life hath been preserved for good, and if thou are humble and obedient to the counsels of God's servants, with thee and thine there shall be no lack. Thy posterity shall be numerous to the increase of which there shall be no end, thy house a house of order, thy table well supplied, and when thy companion is abroad, thy heart shall be comforted by the ministering of angels and from them thou shall learn of his welfare. Thy faith in the Priesthood will enable thee to preserve the lives of thy children and drive the destroyer from thy habitation. Thou shalt see Zion redeemed and peace established in all her stakes, stand on the earth with they Savior with thy companion, and lack no good thing. All thy former gifts and blessings I renew upon thee with eternal life, with every desire of thine heart in righteousness, if thy faith fail not."4
Sarah would not wait long to see some of these blessing fulfilled. In Oct of 1877 while her husband was away Sarah's home caught fire. The home included the co-op store and the post office. The fire started in the store but was discovered by Sarah at one o'clock in the morning. Sarah, who was several months pregnant, was able to get her and her young children safely out. This was considered miraculous because the store had "from 25 to 40 lbs of gun powder and 400 Spencer cartridges that exploded soon after the fire started". There was also turpentine and coal oil in the store. "Sarah's bare feet were badly burned and cut. According to family stories, she was taken to Saint George, where she remained under medical care for some time."5 Hebron is now a ghost town having been severely damaged by an earthquake in 1910.
Leeds Utah (1878 age 26 - 1886 age 34)
While George and Sarah were attending stake conference in January of 1878, George was called to move to Leeds to preside as bishop there. "During their eight years in Leeds, Sarah was training and caring for their four children and adding four more: daughter Sarah Amalia "Mema"(1878), and sons Jess Edward (1880), John Alma (1882) and Charles Wilkinson (1884). She scrubbed clothes on the board with soap that she made herself, hung them to dry, gathered them in, and then ironed them by tubsful with flatirons heated on the wood stove. She raised and harvested fruit and vegetables and then canned and dried them and made butter and cheese from the cows that probably too often she had to milk."6 The other big event in Sarah's life that happened while living in Leeds was that her husband took a plural wive. The first plural marriage lasted less than three years. A few years later George took another plural wife and this one lasted. This second wife was a 27 yr old school teacher named Amelia Leany. There is alot of speculation about how this effected Sarah's relationship with her husband but that is a story for another time. One thing that is clear from all accounts of Sarah's children and grandchildren. Sarah worked hard to make sure that Amelia could enjoy a home and family. All remembrances are of each other speaking of each other with respect and never any conflicts.
 |
| Leeds Creek |
 |
| Leeds from the Air |
Within a year of the marriage to Amelia, The family decided to move to Arizona. They had been in Leeds for 8 years. Sarah missed her brothers who had been called to settle Arizona in 1880 and her Parents who moved to Arizona in 1883. Another reason was that "her husband agreed that Leeds did not provide the future he desired for their family. Their small farm was not adequate for the growing boys, and the mine was creating an environment of drinking, carousing, and profanity."7 From the pictures above it would seem that Leeds was a beautiful place. However, the Silver Reef Mine that was a few miles away attracted men who had a different set of standard. When Sarah left she carried a recommend which read, "This is to certify that Sister Sarah Crosby has been a faithful member and also counselor to the President of Leeds Ward Relief Society, and as such we cheerfully recommend [her] to any Society she may elect."7 And so the family packed up and left Washington County Utah. Sarah had lived there for 24 years. Sarah had spent from her 11th year to her 35th year within a few miles of Saint George Utah. These years had prepared Sarah for the remaining 45 years of her life.
 |
| How we are related to Sarah Hannah Brown |
1 - Loving Memories by Carol Bloomfield, 2010
Pine Valley Panorama picture - willhiteweb.com
2 - pg 38, "The George Henry Crosby Family" by Della Smith
3 - Statement of Orson W. Huntsman from pg 45 of "The George Henry Crosby Family" by Della Smith
4 - Segment of Sarah Hannah Brown Crosby Patriarchal Blessing from page 48 of "The George Henry Crosby Family" by Della Smith.
5 - Deseret News of 17 November 1877, from page 49 of "The George Henry Crosby Family" by Della Smith
6 - pg 51, "The George Henry Crosby Family" by Della Smith
Leeds pictures - wchsutah.org
7 - pg 55, "The George Henry Crosby Family" by Della Smith
No comments:
Post a Comment