Sarah's Story
Birth: July 18th, 1855 | female | on the plains at the first crossing of the Platte River, Nebraska
Death: August 12th, 1855 | Infant | in Wyoming
Memorial: Stone 5 | left column
Sarah Platte Neel is the nineth of 12 children born to John Neel, Jr. of Kentucky and Clemency Litten Casper of Ohio. The Neel family joined the John Hindley Company in 1855 to travel with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The company left Iowa on June 7 bound for the Great Salt Lake Valley.
While traveling though Nebraska, Clemency gave birth to a daughter named Sarah Platte Neel. They chose this name because they were at the first crossing of the Platte River.
Exhaustive travel, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. When the company was in Wyoming, 1-month-old Sarah Platte Neel passed away and buried on the Mormon Trail in Wyoming.
From the journal of William Knox: “18 Setterday this morning … one Child [Sarah Platte Neel] died that was born the first Crossing of the Plat[t]e River.”