The Life History of

SARAH ELIZABETH GIBSON ROBERTS (GRIFFETH)

by herself

We belonged to the Sleaford Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. My patents were English and I was born on Little Hale, Lincolnshire, England June 6, 1846. My mother, Elizabeth Gibson married Richard Roberts. Having heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached, she believed and accepted the same and was baptized March 24, 1850 by William Brewerton, a traveling Elder. My Grandmother, Eleanor Charles, and one uncle were baptized at the same time. In 1850 my mother went to Nottingham and explained the Gospel of Jesus Christ to her two sisters, Mary Ann Gibson and Catherine Gibson. Later they were baptized, too. Mary Ann Gibson was baptized July 25,1352 by John Orton, and Catherine was baptized March 30, 1850.

About this time I was blessed in Nottingham by Thomas Taylor. I remember mother saying it was not the Brother Taylor from the valleys. Brother Richard Harper was president of the Sleaford Branch.

We lived at the home of my mother’s parents and before starting our journey, my brother William met our father and he gave him the money for our ocean voyage. Before leaving Liverpool on April 15, 1856, I was baptized by Joseph Burrows and confirmed April 18, 1856, by John Oakley. Also my brother William was baptized April 15, 1856 by Joseph Burrows, and confirmed April 18, 1856, by Joseph Burrows.

We set sail on April 19, 1856. Our Captain’s name was Samuel Curling and the ship the same name. On May 23, 1856 we landed at Boston, Mass. As we did not have the means to continue our journey to the valleys of the mountains the brethren advised us to go to New York. Brother John Taylor was in charge of the office on Naussau St. New York City. During the summer my mother made white shirts for the stores and with the help of the Lord we were provided for. We were again baptized, this time into the Brooklyn branch of the Church.

New Year’s Day was an entertainment given in the chapel of the saints, to all the saints of New York and Brooklyn. On the stand was John Taylor, Parley P. Pratt and Richard Morris, whom I remember.

In July 1857, my mother’s sister, Mary Ann Gibson Perkes sent Mother the’ money to come to Bellville, Illinois. We went there and lived that Summer, then we went to St. Louis and went to school for two years. We then returned to Bellville, Illinois where I went to school until 1860. My mother died October 2, 1860, and was buried in Bellville, St. Clair County, Illinois. She had asked her sister Mary Ann to bring her children to Utah with her family, and Aunty Perkes as we called her, made a home for us until we came to Utah in 1862.

Captain Henry Killer, with a church train of immigrants, left Florence, Nebraska on the sixth of August, 1862 with sixty wagons and about six hundred immigrants. About 28 died on that journey to Salt Lake. In July, 1862 thousands of saints were gathered at Florence and the town was visited by a terrible storm. Two brothers were killed by lightening and Joseph W. Young was severely hurt.

On Monday, June 15, 1862 and on the following two days the church teams, about 500 in number, met at the terminus of the U. P. railroad for the poor. Sampson N. Gibson was a captain and also my brother William Gibson Roberts a teamster, also Captain Chester Loveland, and Edward Thurman a teamster.

We arrived in Salt Lake City October 17, 1862 and the next day we started for Hyde Park, Cache County, Utah. We went to the home of Brother and Sister Sleight. They were very kind to us and we stayed with them until Uncle Perkes and the boys could get logs to build us a cabin. It was here I made the acquaintance of Patison Delos Griffeth, and on February 7, 1863, when I was the age of 17, we were married in the Endowment House by Daniel Wells.

My husband was 22 years older than I, and 17 years earlier had married his first wife, Elizabeth Carson. I have never been sorry that I obeyed the principle of plural marriage, although we had many trials. I had nine children, four boys and five girls. While in Star Valley, my husband died and is buried in Grover, Wyoming.

I have done some of the Temple work for my dead relatives and expect to go to Logan this spring and finish the names that I have.

END OF THE WRITING OF SARAH ELIZABETH GIBSON ROBERTS

The following is a short sketch of Sarah Elizabeth Gibson Roberts, written by her granddaughter, Myrtha Peterson.

Sarah Roberts Griffeth was a staunch pioneer and the first white woman to live in Fairview, Idaho. The homestead was located one and a half miles north of the Utah and Idaho line on the Bear River. With two small children she lived in a covered wagon until a house was built in 1870, and she lived there two years.

During this time the Indians were very hostile and loathe to give up their hunting grounds and were prowling around at all times and made numerous visits to her home. Although she was frightened for the safety of her children, she treated them kindly and often gave them food that she needed for her own family. Grandmother was as excellent nurse and helped her neighbors in times of illness. Besides taking care of her own family, she was always busy, either spinning, knitting, weaving or gardening. She loved to read good books and after the days work was done she would read long into the night, sometimes to the morning hours with homemade candles for the light. She made candles by braiding a rag stem and dipping it in tallow.

She read all the church books available and could quote scripture from cover to cover. Being a plural wife, it was her lot to move often and she never complained of the trials and lean years she experienced. She had faith that the Lord would provide for his children. She completed the Temple work for her relatives that were available up to the time of her death. She lived to be 81 years old and died at the home of her daughter, Eleanor Griffeth Bodily, wife of Henry Bodily, in Iona Idaho, about seven miles northwest of Idaho Falls, Idaho.