Sarah's Story
Birth: May 21st, 1864 | female | in Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales
Death: August 4th, 1866 | 2 years old | in Bitter Cottonwood Creek Camp in Wyoming
Memorial: Stone 14
Sarah Jane Walter is the daughter of William Leigh Walters and Margaret Williams, both from Wales.
With a desire to be with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, William and Margaret and five of their children boarded the ship “John Bright” and immigrated to America. After arriving, they traveled to Nebraska and joined the Thomas E. Ricks Company bound for the Salt Lake Valley. The company left on July 10, 1866.
Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, premature birth, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. Cholera, a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water, infected many of the travelers. When the Company was in Wyoming near Bitter Cottonwood Creek, 2-year-old Jane passed away of undocumented causes. She was buried along the Mormon Trail in Wyoming.
In the Transcript for "First Immigration Train," Deseret News, 30 August 1866, it said in part:
“There were six deaths in the company on the journey, but those who died have been much worn down by sickness before starting to cross the plains. Sarah Jane, infant daughter of W[illiam]. L[eigh]. and M[argaret]. [Williams] Walters, from Llanelly, Wales.”