(Emory's Paternal Great Grand Mother)
Sarah Thornton Coleman, daughter of William Thornton and Elizabeth Christian, was born June 11, 1806, in Paxton, Huntingtonshire, England. With her family she joined the Church of Latter-day Saints in the year of 1841 and emigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, soon after. The family lived on the farm of Hyrum Smith, brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Here her husband, Prime Coleman, and the oldest daughter died. The mother, with her seven children, was left to share the hardships and mobbings with the other saints.
After the martyrdom of the Prophet and his brother, Sister Coleman and family moved to the Eleventh Ward, in the city of Nauvoo. Here she became acquainted with Bishop David Evans through receiving help from the ward. Trouble for the saints was steadily increasing, and when companies were formed to move, she and family were placed in Bishop David Evan’s company. For three years they moved form place to place in Missouri, and they made the final move to Utah, arriving in Salt Lake City in the fall of 1850. They returned there that winter and the next spring moved to Lehi, then known as Dry Creek.
Sarah T. Coleman passed through the hardships of pioneer life, raised a highly respected family and lived the life of a latter-day saint. She was respected, and loved by all who knew her, and was president of the first Relief Society organized in Lehi. She died March 1, 1892, at the ripe age of 86 years, nine months.
SARAH THORNTON COLEMAN EVANS
Mrs. Coleman was more much inclined toward religion than was her husband, and often said that while she attended church, he enjoyed more to rest at home reading and smoking his cigar.
When the Elders found them, the Coleman family was not long in making their decision to join the Church and come to the new world. So, with their four children who where over eight years of age, were baptized in 1841 and 42; and on the first of January, 1843, left their comfortable home at Thorncot in a large baggage wagon and began their journey to America.
Christoper Layton (for whom the city of Layton, Davis, Co., Utah was afterward named) had been one of the hired men on the Coleman farm in England, and was baptized and came with the family to America.
When they arrived at Nauvoo, Illinois, the Coleman family went to live on the farm belonging to the Patriarch Hyrum Smith as Brother Prime Coleman had been an experienced farmer in his native country.
After a little over one year of this new life of sacrifice and hardship, typhoid fever broke out in Nauvoo. Some of the Coleman children were down with it. The father, and the eldest daughter, Sarah age 15 years, died in June of 1844. They died within a few days of each other, and were buried in an old dry well along with others.
This left Sister Coleman with seven children to raise, lacking the comfort of “olden days in England,” and almost destitute of the necessities of life. Two of the children, Elizabeth and Prime went to live with Hyrum Smith’s family. 10 year old Elizabeth relates her story:
“We staid at the house of Hyrum Smith for a short time upon arriving at Nauvoo, then we moved out to Packs farm, as our family had been farmers in England. We remained on the farm about a year, when the then prevailing fever seized on us, we all had it and were very sick, my father and sister, Sarah, dying with it. During our sickness, we had several visits from Hyrum Smith. After the death of our father, Hyrum Smith took myself and my brother Prime to his house in the city of Nauvoo where we remained until the martyrdom with Prophet Joseph Smith at Carthage Jail. I well remember when the news was brought of their deaths, and of the great grief and sorrow of Hyrum Smith’s wife expressing her fear that the mob might come and kill more of us. The news reached us at about two o’clock in the morning. There was no more rest for us that night, nor for many days after. I also remember saying to my brother, ‘Let us get away from here or the mob may kill us too.’
