SARAH FREELOVE HOWARD BAWDEN
In the year 1856, at the tender age
of 17 or 18 years of age, Sarah Freelove Howard came west.
She came alone, because both her father and mother had passed away from the cholera epidemic in St. Louis, Missouri.
After the death of her father, she and her brother had to find work and
earn their own way in their early teens. Grandma Sarah found work as a
nanny and maid for several years to earn enough to make the long
arduous trip to Salt Lake. When she had worked and saved enough, she
joined with the Saints in Winter Quarters to come west.
She was assigned to a family with the agreement that she would help with
the cooking, washing and care of the children, and they in return would
carry her supplies on their wagon.
After the about the first 200 miles out on the trail, the first family
she was assigned to decided to go back to their previous home. She was assigned to another
family with the same agreement. She walked almost every
step of the way to Salt Lake.
She had many memories of the buffalo herds. She said that when
the company would encounter a herd crossing their path it would take a
week for the herd to completely disappear from their view. They were so
large in number.
One day a group of Indians came into camp.
The pioneers did some trading with them to keep the peace. The Indians braves looked at her in a very strange
manner. After they left, it was decided by the company leaders that if the Indians returned, they would have to hide her to keep her
safe. As the story goes, they did return, and grandma, a young lady of
about 17 or 18 at the time was hid in an empty flour barrel. There she
remained safe until the Indians left.
She would gather buffalo chips along the way to use as fuel for her cooking fires. Many times her feet became sore and she fainted by the wayside, but she never became discouraged, nor lost sight of the goal she had set out to accomplish. She arrived in the Salt Lake Valley early in September.
-Story taken from memories of Donna A Wilkins from familysearch.org and from the History of Sarah Freelove Howard (author unknown).
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