HISTORY OF SARAH AMELIA WILSON SANDERS
Born: 25 October 1876 - Millville, Utah
Died: 12 February 1968 - LaVerkin, Utah
NOTE: Grandma’s sentence structure and grammar are retained for authenticity. She was self taught, except for 3 months of night school in someone’s home.~LoRene Squire Turner
On October 25, 1876, at Millville, Utah, a white haired baby came to Morris and Sarah Elizabeth Isom Wilson. There were four families there when I came to this land. Soon after I was born, a boy seven and one-half years old came to see me and said he wanted to see Sadie Labelia and said that was the girl he was going to marry. That was Will Sanders.
When I was three years old, I would take my cup and go down to the corral and ask my dad to give me some milk so it would make my hair black. I would get it right from the cow. My, it was good.
Everything went along just swell until I was five years old and my parents missed me. They looked everywhere for me where you would think a kid would go, then they started to think about the stable. My dad had a wild horse there and was trying to break it to make it work. They went into the stable and the wild horse was eating out of the manger. They looked quite close to the horse's head and there I lay sound asleep in the hay. They were quite relieved I was alright. Dad couldn't get near the horse to put anything on its head. It was that wild.
When I was five or six years old, I loved to be around chickens. I would drive the old setting hen off her eggs and sit on them. One day I went down there and they were hatching. I put the chickens in my pants that buttoned at the knees. Ma asked why I did that and I told her 1 wanted to keep them warm.
I was baptized when I was nine years old, on a Saturday, by John Isom in the Virgin River. On Sunday, Brother William Haslem blessed me in Virgin meeting house.
I just loved horses, and all other animals. I had a very flowery life. I would drive the cows on a high mountain that was by our place in the morning and go get them at night. I was nine or ten years old at the time. Lots of times a coyote would run across my trail, but I wasn't scared.
I was about twelve years old when I saw a bull fight, I had climbed a high mountain where I had lived at Mountain Dell and when I heard the bulls talking, I decided to climb a tree. They fought right under the tree. It was a wicked fight; one broke his horn. They stopped fighting, and I got down and thanked my Father in Heaven for saving me.
One day mother and us kids cut and put out two or three scaffolds of peaches to dry. A flood came down the creek and washed them all away. It also washed our wagon down the creek. There was two hard days of work gone and nothing to show for it. We found the wagon and a few boards.
Another time I went to Kolob to work for Wrights. They went to Kolob to make cheese and butter. I milked thirteen cows morning and night for four months. It rained most of the time, and we walked in mud up to our knees.
When I was thirteen, I went to my first dance. I was almost as big then as I am now. I was full grown. After that I always had a boy take me places. Mode Gibson took me on my first date to Virgin, I rode behind him on horseback. We went to a dance.
After that Joe Ott took me. I went with him until he went on a mission. Then I got started with John Reeve. They lived at Duncan's Flat which was a town then of about 12 families. He'd ride a horse over to see me. The horse's name was Shotgun. The people of Duncan's Flat moved to Hinckley.
We didn't have books to read except the bible. I longed for boys and girls to play with. When we moved to Mountain Dell I had two girls to play with, they were my cousins. Their names were Em and Maggie Isom. Emma was my age, we had great times together. We taught each other how to dance. We would throw Grandma Isom's out-house door down and dance on it. All three of us could play the harmonica.
When I was fourteen or fifteen, I went to night school one winter and Uncle Sam Isom taught us reading, writing, and arithmetic. It was held at Aunt Kate Isom's house.
After that, I got a place to board in Virgin. Mrs. Wright didn't want me to come home with any boys so I quit school. I was there only three months. I thought if she didn't let the boys bring me home from Mutual I would quit. That was all the schooling I had. I had to learn the hard way and have a strong testimony of the gospel which has helped me over the rough spots.
When I was sixteen years old I went with Lizzy Humphries to Beaver to work. We worked for $2 .50 a week. I worked with a family that was called Smiths, their kids were going to summer school at the Old Post just outside of Beaver (army post turned into school). One day I was doing their house work and was all done at the time Mr. Smith came in the house. He was half drunk. He showed me a five dollar gold piece and said if I would go down to his other home he would give it to me. I said no, I wouldn't go, so he started after me. I ran around the table a few times and then I ran through the door to Tanner's place where I was boarding. Chep Tanner was a widower and he took me places. We started going together and I quit work. He wanted to show Mr. Smith up, but I told him no because I didn't want to get my name in the papers. Mr. Smith was quite a rich man. He had lots of cattle. When John Sanders was up there peddling fruit, Lizzy and I asked to come home with him. I had $8.00 and brought it home. That was when Morris was going on his mission, and I gave him $4.00. This was the year 1882. When Morris was going to see his girl, I broke down and bawled because he was going away. When he wanted his horse to go see his girl in Virgin, I had to catch it because he got mad too easy and beat it. I was what you might call his angel. Chep kept writing to me and my mother put a stop to it because he was too old for me.
John Reeve found him a school teacher and wrote and told me he was going to get married. He told me to go with Will Sanders because we were both good. This made me mad. John was my first love. I then started going with William Sanders. Some of the time I would go see him when he didn't have a horse to come and see me. I would hike up to see him on Sunday and that was my afternoon pleasure. Then Will would bring me home. I never went with any other boys after that, only Will.
Will peddled in the summer and worked on the Hurricane ditch in the winter. He courted me while he worked there. I would take Dad's team and bring the boys home Saturday night and back to work Monday morning early so they would get a day's work in. It went that way two winters.
I was married April 14, 1897, to William Sanders. I was married by Bishop LeRoy Beeby at Aunt Alice Isom's home in Virgin City, Utah. We had a party the next day after we were married and had a nice time. We moved to Millville (the same house I was born in). We were married in the St. George temple, April 27, 1897, by George Q. Cannon.
I bottled peaches in the summer. I had to carry all the water I used the length of a block and throw sand and wash on the board by hand.
That summer we had a horse with a colt. I was left home to tend it while Will went peddling. While he was gone Aunt Eunice Sanders stayed with me. One night we heard a noise down at the barn. We went down to the stable and the colt was sick. I felt so bad for it and we were out of a team so I knelt down and prayed for it and the Lord to help us. When I got through praying, I got up and the colt got up with me and went over to the manger and started eating. It was all right after that and I thanked the Heavenly Father for saving its life for I thought it was almost dead. They said it had a belly ache. I dried fruit that summer and worked all summer.
During the winter we didn't have any shingles on the roof of the house so we put a wagon cover on top because we were expecting a baby. The night Clarence was born two or three feet of snow fell. Grandma Isom was with me. He was born the 17th of January, 1898. They put shingles on the roof the next day while I lay in bed.
Almost every summer after that I dried fruit and worked at everything we could to make a living. We lived in Millville five or six years. We had a dog and sent it up the creek to get the cattle. Then Will would open the gate and let them in. The dog always just brought our cattle and then it would take them back to the pasture the next day.
October 3, 1899, Amelia was born. Aunt Alice Isom and Grandma Elizabeth Isom and Will's sister Julia were with me.
Mary Campbell (Will's sister) lived in Hinckley and had broken her leg. Blood poison set in and she died. We were going to Hinckley to take her place to help take care of her family. So we loaded up and got to Ma's place and Will took awfully sick. He had quinsy (bad sore throat). He was sick for a week, and we made up our minds we wouldn't move and went back home. That pleased them all for us not to go.
We lived up at the old ranch for about two years. We were very happy. We had got so we could live without money. We stayed home and dried fruit and raised cane and cotton for our living. I got two pair of blankets from the cotton. They were made at the Washington Cotton Factory.
Maggie was born on November 22, 1901.
Clarence, Amelia, and I went out to feed out eight hens and one rooster one day, and while we were feeding them a wildcat jumped right in the middle of them and grabbed a chicken. I let out a yell and made for the wild cat. We ran down the hill to the mill raise, the cat jumped the ditch with the chicken and me right after it. When he jumped he dropped the chicken. I ran for the chicken and he ran for it, but I beat him to it. I picked the chicken up and swung it over my head to frighten it away because he was there just a snapping. Pretty soon he decided to leave me and went across the creek and up on a little ledge and set there growling at me. I took the chicken and went back up to the house. Jet Campbell had a shed between their house and mine and he had a gun there. I stepped in and got this gun. I said, "Oh, I wish I could shoot it," and my sister-in-law, Eunice, was there. She said, "Don't shoot that, don't shoot that or I'll shit!" We took the chicken and chopped its head off and had it for dinner.
Lots of times I would go down where the chickens were and there see a coyote inching off with a chicken, but I couldn't get the chicken or coyote. One time something was taking our chickens and I couldn't find out what it was so I set a trap and I caught a skunk. I was curious where its little pack of stink was so I wanted to find out. I got a big long stick and decided I'd find out for myself where it came from. I reached over and thought I would touch the skunk. Its tail came up and a little green liquid spurted towards me. I got away as soon as I could. It didn't touch me but the smell did. I found out where the stink came from anyway.
On another occasion, I was setting under a cottonwood tree. It had some big yellow bugs on it. They wanted to get from one limb to another so they formed a chain and went from one limb to another. They made it. You get quite a kick out of watching dumb animals for they are very smart.
There was one time we were very bad off, we had wheat in the wagon and it had rained for several days and we were out of flour. Ash Creek had a big flood in it and also the Virgin River. We had to eat shorts bread (flour and bran together). We had a big family but our boys and girls were very good to help. They knew how to work and we had the old way, no electric stoves and fridges. We had a cupboard with gunny sacks all around it and water in the top that leaked down the sides to make it cool. I kept butter cool that way. We had a lovely garden most of the time.
Another time we were just starting to set down for dinner and the house started to shake. We ran outside and the rocks were coming down both sides of the mountain. Someone said it was an earthquake. It was the same time the awful earthquake hit Chicago.
One evening we just sat down for supper and we heard some awful yelling and hollering down the canyon. We stepped outside for we could hear Indians coming and we knew they were drunk. It wasn't long until an Indian showed his face at the window. He came to the door and said, "Me want hay for my horse." Will said, "I haven't got no hay." The Indian said, "You have." And Will said, "Just a little bit for my horse." The Indian walked away growling.
That night when we were in bed, I told Will someone was in the house. We had the three children sleeping on the floor. I said there was someone on the children's bed and Will picked up his shoe and said, "If you don't get out of here you son-of-a-gun, I'll kill you!" Come to find out it was an Indian. He rolled out onto the porch drunk.
One time I was cleaning the children up for a Thanksgiving party, the clothes were hung in a cupboard-like closet with a curtain in front of them. I held the curtain back and reached in, and in doing it, I held the candle too close and the curtain caught on fire. Maggie got the milk strainer and ran to the tap and brought it back, but it was empty. I saw the chamber by the bed. The fire was going right on, so I picked the chamber up and threw its contents over the ceiling. It put out the fire and saved our home. (A chamber is a pot with a lip around the top that was used as a toilet).
On April 2, 1903, we moved to LaVerkin. We had a one room house on our lot, which was not broken. One wagon brought all the furniture we had to use. We had just been there a few days when we were out to the lot, which was covered with sagebrush, and Clarence thought he'd start grubbing the brush up so we could have a garden. He was six years old. He brought the grubbing hoe down on Amelia's head and cut quite a gash in the top of her head. It frightened us pretty bad, for it was quite deep. We cut the hair away and put turpentine on it. It got better without any ill effects. The closest doctor was in St.George, so we couldn't get one. The scar is still on her head.
The first two or three years we used to pick pomegranates and glean Thomas Judd's almonds. That's the way we got some.
Moroni was born October 18, 1903. Mrs. Bringhurst from Toquerville was with me. He was the first boy born in LaVerkin. We were making molasses at the time our boy was born. We were in one room and no screens and warm weather and we had four children so you can see how crowded we were. But worse luck, there were lots of flies. We would blow the light out and it would sound like a beehive. There were no trees at that time. We lived through it and were glad to have a cottonwood shed and that made it better. We took molasses to market to get our flour and what we lived on. We lived in one end of town seventeen years and moved to the other end of town called Judd Town.
In the year 1903, I was getting my baby to sleep when a knock came at the door. A lid of a shoe box was thrown in the room and on it read, "Come outside naked and face the north or I will kill you!” I ran outside and called Uncle George and while he was coming I ran around the house. We didn't find him, and I never found out who it was. I sure was scared, the night was very dark.
Ervil was born January 7, 1906. When he was quite a small kid Will's mother took awful sick with sugar diabetes. Will had to be with her quite a bit and she died while Ervil was quite small.
When Ervil was two years old, he had a very bad sick spell. It was called indigestion and bronchitis. While he had this we had to call the doctor over the phone and doctored him this way. One day we went to the phone five times. Doctor Clarence Woodbury was the doctor. One day he got real bad and the doctor told us to give him sweet milk and molasses as an injection as a last resort to get his bowls to move. He told us to come and tell him if the moved or didn't so he could tell us what next to do. Whenever he got worse, we had the priesthood administer to him several times. When we told the doctor Ervil had a movement, he said, "Thank God, your boy will be all right." When we started to feed him he got over his craving. He'd cry from one feeding of milk toast to the next until we'd give him two tablespoons every two hours. He pulled out of it just fine.
Cecil William (Bill) was born November 3, 1907. Let Wilkie waited on me. She was the one that suggested naming him Cecil and I put the William to it. Bill had a bad sick spell when he was four years old — typhoid fever. We had to wash our hands after touching him and bury everything that came from him because it was catching. It was through the power of the priesthood that he was saved. Another time, Bill came off Kolob and his appendix had broken. We found that out when we got to the St. George Hospital. He just about lost his life, but the hand of the priesthood and good doctors saved him.Owen was born July 16, 1909. I was awful sick after he was born with a heart spell. It was three months before I could do very much. We had Lola Lee come and work for us a week or two.
Lucelle was born December 17, 1912. Sister Darty waited on me (Brother Joe Haslem's Father's sister.)
Delma was born May 15, 1917. Delma had pneumonia three times when she was a small kid. We were starting up to Davis County to see Amelia and Loren with a load of molasses and she took sick when we got to Cedar. We stayed with Maggie Haslem for a week. When she got well enough we went on up to Bountiful, Davis County. It rained and snowed most of the time. When we were going through Salt Lake, it was snowing like all get out and our car had a big chunk out of the hind wheel. On the hard road it went clunkity-clunk. It sure made a noise. We went over to Davis County and a good friend of Loren's took us up in his buggy (Brother Davis).
Loren and Amelia decided to come back with us. We had deep snow all the way. DeLance was a baby then, only five weeks old, and the snow was on the ground. When we crossed the U. B. Dam we had to back the car and drive it in the snow and then we would mash it down. We didn't make much headway and when we got to the other side of Kanara, there was a block of snow and we had to be pulled through it. We were two days coming home in the car it was so bad. We could have made it in one if it hadn't been so bad. We got home in November. We were gone about two weeks. Clarence and Hazel were tending the kids. They sure were glad to see us. DeLance had whooping cough and for a long time we thought we would loose him, but he finally got all right. Delma, who was still a baby, took whooping cough and had pneumonia at the same time. We just about lost her, but she finally got all right. I can say the Lord was very good to Will and me, but I always put my trust in him, and he never failed me.
Amelia and Loren bought a place and started to keep house. They lived kinda slim, and they thought it wasn't all sunshine but they were patient, so now they have things more handy.
Clarence was married to Hazel DeMille on September 3, 1918. Amelia was married to Loren Squire, October 22, 1918. Maggie married Orson H. Barnhurst on May 5, 1921. Moroni was married to Mildred Zabriskle on April 15, 1924. Ervil was married to Belva Bringhurst on May 10, 1932. Cecil was married to Norma Stout on June 14, 1930. Owen was married to Thora Ballard, September 12, 1930. Lucelle married Alien Humphries June 25, 1930. Delma married Cecil Dutton June 10, 1938. All of them married in the Temple.
Our ward was organized September 4, 1904. I was chosen as President of the Primary on September 4, 1904 and held that office for thirteen years. Three years in that thirteen I had a perfect record. I raised nine children while I held that office. I resigned from being president and was put in teacher after two or three years, I was put back as first counselor to Sister Lyda Elder and held that position for two or three years , then put in as teacher again (forty-five years).
I held the office of teacher in Primary every year but two since the ward was organized. In the meantime I was second counselor to Minnie Wilson in the Relief Society in the year 1919 and held that office till the year 1925. I have been a Relief Society teacher since 1904. I was put in as President of the Relief Society in 1930 and was released in August 1938 on account of poor health. I was Relief Society magazine agent for Seven and one-half years.
My brother was bishop for twenty-three years (Morris Wilson).
All my life I have tried to help in every way I can. I have taught in Sunday School over sixty years, and I have given over 100 books for perfect records.
In 1923, I used to wash and lay out the dead. I used to help Sister Hattie Woodbury cover coffins for the dead. In 1930, or around that date, I was set apart to wash and lay out the dead.
When I was a girl, I head Sister Jepson speak in tongues.
I saw our prayers answered in behalf of the blind seeing. Hilda Sanders was blind and we fasted and prayed for her and the same day she could see.
We had Aunt Alice's goods to sell, and had the first store in town. We sold all kinds of merchandise for several years.
I was Captain of the Crystal Cave of D U P eight years. I was captain in 1942. This helped them with the book called Under the Dixie Sun.
On January 23, 1940, Will fell with a partial stroke and we found out his kidneys were bad. He couldn't walk for some time. Then he got so he could walk with a crutch, but he fell and broke his rib and got so bad the eight children sent us out to Kanab where we were in the hospital for a week. Will got a little better, but couldn't walk. I wasn't well so we had to have a hired girl. So we had Stella Lee for two months. Then we got Vilate Hardy to come and help us. We sold five acres of land so we could take care of Will and me. I got better and our grandkids came and stayed every night until Will died January 1, 1941. He died of sugar diabetes. When Will died I wasn’t very well and still got worse and when I was sixty-nine years old I was operated on for gall bladder trouble. After that I have been fine most of the time and still have done my share of the work in the ward. My class and I have gathered nuts on the church trees. The money we got went for chairs for the church and a sacrament set for the bread and water.
When Wayne Wilson went in as Bishop he told me to see that flowers were there every Sunday. I only missed three Sundays in six years, and I feel quite proud of it. All fifty some odd years I have tried to have flowers on the stand (in the summer months). I love flowers and I would take them to the sick. I have always had nice flowers until 1956 when it was so dry and hot.
There are a few things Will did in his life time. He went to Salt Lake three times with a team and took dried peaches. That was when he was twelve years old. He was always a good boy to his parents. Will had a very hard way to make a living. He peddled after he married me and he was away a lot. In all his dealings he always played fair.
He was counselor to Brother R. P. Woodbury in the Mutual and when Brother Woodbury moved over to Hurricane he was released. He was on the board and tried in every way to help out. He paid his share in the playground and paid over a $1,000 on our new meeting house, or had the boys do it. He never refused a donation or anything. Lots of times we paid the last dime we had, but it would be for a good cause and we knew we would get some more.
When they got to shearing sheep out at Goulds Wash, Will hauled wool to Lund with four horses and two wagons and sometimes he hauled with one team. He always had good horses and he always kept his things in good shape. Once when he had two loads of wool all ready to take to Lund, Will Brooksby was with him, and Will took a catch in his back. He had Clarence take the two wagons and handle the four horses and go to Lund. Will Brooksby said he would take care of him and he did fine, but oh, the worry.
Another time Will had taken a contract to haul wood for a bunch of convicts. They were working on the road and were camped over at Hurricane. Will got his back knocked out again and we had a very wild horse in the team, but Clarence took the team and we got Will Stout to go and help him haul. Will had his own team, it was storming but they had to go as that bunch of men had to have wood. It was real muddy, but they made it. Clarence worked hard and he sure did fine and saved the day.
Those were a few of the hard jobs we had, but the Lord did bless us even if we had to work hard. That winter was a cold stormy one!
My father lived with his Grandma & Grandpa Sanders to help them in their poor health. He lived with them from about the age of 6 to 13. The picture below shows the relationship my dad had with his Grandpa Sanders. Grandpa Sanders was a hard and gruff man, but dad said that Grandma Sanders made up for it with all of her love and kindness.
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| William & Sarah Sanders with DuWayne Squire |
During 1940 we built our new home and moved into it in November. DeLance only got to spend a night or two in it before leaving for his mission to the Eastern States where he spent the next two years in New York and Pennsylvania. 
Time does not wait for anyone and the years have sped by until now 1960 is drawing to a close. I want to write a chapter of the family activities and then hope to have this published for Christmas 1960.
