Prime Coleman & Sarah Thornton

Emory Clarence Smith's Paternal Great Grandfather

History of Prime Coleman, and his wife, Sarah Thornton
Written, 1935 by Mrs. E. J. T. Roberts, a granddaughter.

In Arlsey, Bedfordshire, England was one George Coleman born 1765, who married, 25th September 1786 at Barrington, Cambridge, England, a beautiful girl, Sarah Prime, who was born 1761 at Orwell, Cambridge, England.
Family traditions says this couple had a family of 21 or 22 children, but I find christening records of only 17. Some may have been premature or have died without having been christened.
Be that as it may, I find in this family, born between the years of 1778 and 1803, two pairs of twins and a set of triplets. Ten of these children died before reaching the age of one year. One pair of twins, Elizabeth and James Coleman born 1796, lived to womanhood and manhood. They were six years old when the 17th child was born. He was given his mother’s name, Prime, as a given name, and it has been carried as a given name down through four generations.
The triplets and three other babies had been born and had died since the above Elizabeth and James were born, and so we know the joy that must have entered the heart of the parents when this last child seemed strong and continued to grow. Prime was born 20 January 1802. He grew to manhood in Arlsey and the surrounding country.
He met and fell in love with an orphan girl, Sarah Thornton, who with her sister Jane, had been placed in a boarding school at the death, 23 August 1816, of their mother Elizabeth Christian.
Sarah Thornton, daughter of William Thornton and Elizabeth Christian was born 11 June 1806, at Little Paxton, Huntingdonshire, England. She and her sister Jane were left motherless at the age of 10 and 11. The father placed the two girls in a boarding school and afterward married Susanna Webb. She died 1822 and Mr. Thornton died 27th June 1826.
Rules and regulations of the school were so strict that the students had no childhood or girlhood pleasures. Whipping was not allowed but some of the punishments were going without food, undressing and going to bed in the daytime, isolation from the other students, etc.
The most cruel punishment was that given the children when found sleeping with the knees drawn up. They were expected to recline in bed perfectly straight, and should they draw their knees up in their sleep, the teachers and nurses roughly jerked the leg down, suddenly waking the child.
Sarah Thornton decided, then and there, that should she ever have children they should never acquire their education at a boarding school. However, she remained at this school then years when she met, and after a courtship of six weeks, married Prime Coleman, son of George Coleman and Sarah Prime. He was born January 1802 at Arlsey, Bedfordshire, England, and was a prosperous farmer and cattleman.
When the father became aware that his son was contemplating marriage with Sarah Thornton he told him he was making the mistake of his life by choosing a girl who had spent her life at school, and could not be a helpmate to a cattleman and farmer.
But as the old saying is – “love goes where it is sent,” – the young man decided he knew best and so Prime Coleman and Sarah Thornton were married 16th August 1826.
They owned and lived on a large, well-equipped farm at Thorncot, Bedfordshire, England. The house was large two-story, one splendidly furnished. Here seven children were born to them – George, Sarah, Prime Thornton, Ann, Elizabeth, William and Rebecca; and later one more in Nauvoo, Illinois named Martha Jane.
There was always plenty of hired help in the house and on the farm, so the mother’s only work was to look after her children and to manage the household affairs.
It took only a few years to convert the father-in-law (George Coleman) that he was mistaken in his opinion as to what an educated girl could and could not do, for Mr. Coleman finally came and acknowledged to his son and daughter-in-law that she was making a wonderful wife, mother and helpmate.
There being no washboards or washing machines in those days, the family washing had to be done by rubbing the clothes between the hands. This family’s washing was done every six weeks, and the task was not finished in less than three days.
One day as Mrs. Coleman approached her home she met a man with a beautiful feather day. He asked her to buy it. She thought it looked very much like her bed, but paid the man for it. On taking it upstairs to a bedroom, she discovered that her feather bed was missing, and upon examination, found she had really bought her own feather bed from a “would-be-robber.”
One of the girls, who lived years with the Coleman family at Thorncott, was Luch Brown whose father had died, her mother had married again and she had to go out to service. She also joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and came to America with the Coleman family. After arriving in Nauvoo, Ill., she went to live with the John Taylor family at $1.00 per week. There she met, and married Elias Smith. They came to Utah September 1851. The Coleman and Smith families have been close friends ever since “Aunt Luch” as we have always called her lived so long with the Prime C and Sarah Coleman family at Thorncot, England.
Mrs. Coleman was much more 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 were over eight years of age, they were baptized in 1841, and 42 and on the 1st of Jan. 1843 left their home at Thorncot in large baggage wagons and began the journey to America.
Christopher 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. He too, was baptized and came with the family. He and the oldest son (George Coleman, about 16 years of age) drive the baggage in a very cumbersome wagon with three strong horses tandem. Listen to their story of a part of their trip with this baggage wagon. “It was against the laws of England for teamsters to ride, and while both of us were riding, a policeman saw us and gave chase. We whipped up the horses and after going about three miles, we out-ran him and slowed down again to a peaceable jog.”
Leaving the horses and wagon at Wolverhampton they went by train to Liverpool, where they joined other Saints, and were enrolled on the ship – Swanton- (Captain Davenport) as the 19th company of Latter-day Saint emigrants, with Lorenzo Snow as company’s Captain.
They had to stay in Liverpool two weeks waiting for repairs on the ship but made the vessel their home, doing the cooking and sleeping on board.
Brother Layton acted as cook for the Coleman family. One incident in their history says – “One day Brother Coleman said to Layton, ‘Chris ain’t you going to peel some potatoes and make us a pie?’ So Chris made the meat and potato pie, and when it was baked all the others wanted to share it, and asked for the receipt for ‘Chris Pie’ as they called it.”
On Jan 16, 1843 they set sail from Liverpool, the company numbering 212 souls.
After sailing for seven weeks and three days they arrived at New Orleans, Louisiana, and were transferred to the ship “Amaranth” in which they sailed up the Mississippi River to St. Louis.
Lorenzo Snow tells of a healing on board the ship Swanton, when coming from Liverpool to New Orleans, March 1843, - “The Stewart of vessel was so injured by a blow from one of the crew, that his life was despaired of; and I stood over him for sometime, and thought that his life was gone. The Captain administered to him all that he could think of in the way of medicine, but to no effect; and after they gave up all hopes of his recovery, at twelve o’clock at night he sent for me. After being anointed with oil and the laying on of hands, in the Name of the Lord, he was then and there raised up and perfectly healed. For this token of the divine favor we will praise the God of Israel.” (Ref. History of the Church, Period I, Vol. V, Page 309)
They landed at Nauvoo, Ill. April 12th, 1843, three months and twelve days after leaving their home at Thorncot, England. Choice feather beds and other valuable baggage had been left behind, or thrown overboard, enroute to decrease the weight of the ships, as the journey was a long tedious one.
“Wednesday, Mar. 29th the Amaranth, a river boat, landed at St. Louis on the way up the Mississippi River from New Orleans. The ice in the river prevented going any further for two weeks. Came in sight of the Temple about noon, Apr. 12th and landed at the wharf opposite the old post-office, the first boat up that season.”
“A two day conference of Elders was just about to close, and the Prophet Joseph, with a large company of brethren and sisters were present to greet the arrival of the Saints from England, who were notified to meet at the Temple the next day at 10 am to receive instructions.” (Ref. History of the Church Period I, Vol. V, Page 319 and 353)
The Prime Coleman family went to live on the farm belonging to the Patriarch Hyrum Smith, one and one-half mile east of the Nauvoo Temple, as Brother Coleman and been an experienced farmer in his native country.
Here they suffered privation and hardships not known before by this prosperous family, and the mother gave birth to her eighth child, Martha Jane, 15th September 1843, five months after their arrival in Nauvoo.
A little over one year of this new life of sacrifice and hardship, and typhoid fever broke out in Nauvoo. Some of the Coleman family was ill. A cat had broken the window. Rather than allow the mother to get out of the bed, Brother Coleman insisted on fixing something to stop the wind from the sick room. While in the act of doing so, he took a chill and said, “I’m a dead man.” Typhoid fever developed and he lived only a short time. The oldest daughter, Sarah, aged 15, died May 1844 and then the father, Prime Coleman died 11 June 1844.
This left Sister Coleman with seven children to raise, lacking the comforts of “olden day in England’ and almost destitute of the necessities of life.
The same month, June 1844 the Prophet and Patriarch were martyred, bringing the Saints and almost unbearable sorrow.
One of Sister Coleman’s daughters, Elizabeth, about ten years old, was staying at the home of the Patriarch Hyrum Smith at the time. She often related the scene of grief and sorrow in the house when the bodies of the brethren were brought home to their wives and children.
The widow, Sarah Thornton Coleman, with her family moved from the Smith farm into the eleventh ward of Nauvoo. Here she met David Evans, who was Bishop of that ward, and when the Saints were driven from one county or state to another, she with her children, shared the trails and persecutions of the exodus from Nauvoo and of crossing the Plains.
Being driven further west from State to State, they spent between four and five years on the journey to Utah, stopping at times for the men to work and purchases teams, wagons and provisions to continue the long trek over mountains and bridgeless streams. One stop lasted about three years in Nodaway County, Missouri, where they built log huts. Babies were born in these huts with no doors, windows, chimneys or floors.
Food consisted mostly of corn bread and bran for coffee. The corn had to be ground on a hand mill. Here the men had plenty of work, and completed a good outfit for the trip across the Plains.
Companies were organized for the move, and the Coleman family was placed in Bishop David Evans’ company. They made the final start June 15th, 1850; arrived in Salt Lake Valley the following September, spent the fall and most of the winter here, and in February 1851 President Brigham Young sent David Evans out to preside over the colony already located in Dry Creek.
Sarah Thornton Coleman and her seven children, three sons and four daughters, came with the Evans family and remained to help build up what is now Lehi City, Utah County, Utah.
Her sons built a two-room house for her, which was among the first adobe homes built here. It still stands (1936) one block west and half a block north of the Relief Society Hall.
Sister Coleman was chosen president of the first Relief Society organized in Lehi, October 27, 1868, and served eleven years, resigning Oct. 20th 1879. She was blessed with the gift of tongues and used that gift many, many times.
The Coleman family was among the first to employ a genealogist in England to search out their ancestors, and have done temple work for hundreds by the surname of “Coleman”, “Thornton, Prime and Christian” from England, also the Coleman’s of America. Sister Coleman and her oldest son, George, with his wife Jane Smith, began work in the St. George Temple soon after it was opened for ordinance work for the dead, and as soon as the Manti and Logan Temples were finished, all of her family joined in this work for the dead. Then not able to do the work personally, they furnished the cash to hire it done.
Sarah Thornton Coleman raised a highly respected, and very prosperous family; all of them became active in the church work in the cities where they have lived.
She lived an exemplary life, passing on at the ripe age of 86 years and 9 months with full faith in the Gospel for which she had sacrificed so much. She died March 1st, 1892 in Lehi, Utah.