Thursday, October 2, 2008

Sarah Ellenor Bingham, A True Pioneer Woman

SARAH ELLENOR BINGHAM was a true pioneer woman, born of pioneer parents at Mt. Pisgah, Pattomatomic County, Iowa, April 15, 1850, where her parents Jeremiah Bingham and Sarah Keele had been driven at the time of the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois. She spent the first two years of her life there, until her mother died in 1852 as a result of the hardships she had to endure.

That same year, her father resumed his journey to Utah, having in his charge a four-year old and a two-year old daughter.

For a time, her father journeyed with Daniel A. Miller/John W. Cooley Company. After living in Salt Lake City for some time, the family moved to Payson, Utah, where they remained during such hardships as the Walker war between the whites and the Ute Indians.

On October 30, 1871, Sarah Ellenor married John William Jackson, who had emigrated from Manchester, England in 1856. After a difficult life with many challenges the family finally settled in Lyman, Utah.

Lyman is two Miles east of Loa on Highway U-24. The settlement was originally named East Loa and then in 1893 it was changed to Wilmoth. The following year the name was changed to honor Apostle Francis M. Lyman, a Mormon Church official who had suggested they move their settlement to higher ground.

The Jacksons were the last family to abandon the old town site. They had taken in an Indian baby who had been reduced to skin and bones from starvation and disease. The will to live and the fortitude to suffer so inherent in the Indians made her survival possible. Sarah was about fifty-five years old when the little girl became part of their household. They named her Eliza.
Sarah Eleanor Bingham descends from the early royalty of England, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Sweden and Vikings. Some of these ancestors included Reverend John Lothrope, William the Conqueror, John Lackland, King of England, Henry I and Henry II, Kings of England and Charlamagne, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Sarah died on April 15, 1936 and was buried next to her husband, John William Jackson in the Lyman cemetery, Wayne County, Utah.

To view her headstone in Lyman, Utah go to this site: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=jackson&GSiman=1&GScid=77315&GRid=18983206&

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