Sarah Elnora White and her father, Joseph White

SARAH ELNORA WHITE and her father, JOSEPH WHITE

Sarah Elnora’s father, Joseph White, was born in 1801 in Boston. At age 28 he married Ruby Elnora Stearns. He took her home to Boston for one year. In 1830 they moved to Jefferson Co., New York. Sarah Elnora was born here on November 18, 1831. In 1834 they moved to Ohio. Here in 1836 at 34 Joseph White heard the Gospel preached by Acel Blachard and was converted at once. On arriving home he told his wife that he had found the Gospel he had been seeking all of his life. Sarah Elnora’s mother was a school teacher and a Methodist. She did not become converted until 1839 and then after a year of investigation, she was baptized by Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses. Her family was extremely bitter toward her for joining the Mormon Church so they moved to Nauvoo.

At Nauvoo in 1840, Joseph W. joined the Nauvoo Legion. He was one of the mounted guards and remained one until and during the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. While Joseph W. was guarding Nauvoo, the little family moved to Carthage, just one mile from the jail. Elnora played with the jail keeper’s little girl. She drew many a bucket of water from the well and often dangled her feet from the window where the prophet and brother Hyrum were martyred. During this time of mob bitterness toward the Mormons, her family moved to Bear Creek, about 8 miles out of Nauvoo. Joseph White was on guard in the City of Nauvoo when it was feared that all Mormon families would be killed or tortured in some terrible way. It was unsafe for Ruby Elnora and her little family to stay home at night so they went to Russel White’s home, a large house with a large cellar. Each evening with the other families they were locked in for safety. The house outside was guarded by six armed men. This continued for about two weeks during which time no one took off their clothes. One day as they were going out of their gate to go to the Hyde home a man on horseback came down the street waving a hat and crying that the prophet and his brother Hyrum had been killed.

After one year on the farm at Bear Creek, the family moved back to Nauvoo, in the fall of 1844. In 1846 the White family moved to Council Bluffs. They drove at night with nothing more than a yoke of oxen. The next morning Sarah Elnora’s father came into camp and said he had volunteered to join the Mormon Battalion and go to Mexico to fight for his country. On hearing this his wife fainted, but Brother Miller, a neighbor, comforted her, saying he would care for her and the family during Joseph’s absence. Joseph walked all the way to Mexico and California. He returned through Salt Lake City and met the pioneers there in 1847 and reached Council Bluffs the same year. He found his family living in a  two-room log cabin. One room was used for a school where Sarah Elnora’s mother taught and supported the family. She taught school for almost two years to pay for food and clothing to keep them well and warm. When Joseph White left with the Mormon Battalion, his family was camped in a wagon. Daniel Miller, bishop of the little colony of pioneers, called the men together and they decided to build a log cabin with one room for a school and the other room for the family to live in. All the children of hte colony came to the little school as she was a splendid teacher. In this way the family was cared for until Joseph returned from Mexico. Sarah Elnora was 13 when they arrived in Council Bluffs and 16 when the family started across the plains to Utah in 1848. They remained in Council Bluffs during 1848 while Joseph earned money to outfit two wagons and teams. The teams were two oxen on one wagon and four oxen and two cows on the other. A man bought them a wagon if they would carry groceries for him.

The White family was in Captain Gully’s charge and there were 100 teams. This division was again divided into 50 teams with Captain Vanderhoof as head and Captain McCarthey was head over the division of 10 teams. The journey began in April 1849 and took four months. Sarah Elnora, just a girl of 16, drove one team of oxen in the afternoon and in the morning rode a horse and drove the cattle. Her brother Robert, just 12, drove the oxen in the morning and the cattle in the afternoon. About half way across the plains they came to a river and had to be ferried across. About 1500 Indians were moving camp in the opposite direction. This meant that after a load of Saints was taken over, a load of Indians was brought back. That night fifty teams were on one side of the river and 50 on the other side. A double guard was posted for protection but the Indians were not hostile. While camped by the river that evening a boy and girl about 19 went for a walk along the river bank. They had been warned not to go outside the enclosure of wagons. They were kidnapped by the Indians and a short time later a big Indian with an interpreter informed the pioneers that they would return the two for the finest yoke of oxen they had. They were given the oxen and the two were returned. The Indians had cholera and the pioneers took it from them. Ten out of the 50 died with it, Captain McCarthey being one of them. Joseph White also took the cholera, but he recovered after a severe attack. He took an overdose of medicine which caused him to sleep for three days. They prepared to fix him for burial for they supposed he would die, but he awoke and fully recovered.

Imagine camping at night with all the wagons in a circle forming a corral, the Indians wandering about on one side and buffalo on the other, and listening to the uncanny howling of wolves. One night the buffalo frightened the oxen and caused them to stampede. It took two days to round them up. Some of the streams were so high because of the rains that it was almost impossible to cross. They raised the wagon  box by putting blocks under it and even then sometimes the water soaked all their goods. One stream of water was especially swift. Joseph White was in the wagon behind the one his son Robert was driving. The leaders on Robert’s wagon turned downstream because of the the current hitting them. Realizing the danger of his son and the oxen drowning, Joseph called to him to jump on the back of the head oxen and turn them back in the proper direction. With the aid of his Father in Heaven the boy jumped safely onto the back of the oxen and some way turned them back, thus saving himself and his oxen, which were so valuable to them. Sunday was a day held sacred by them and they ceased their travel to hold meetings and show gratitude to the Lord. They also had their recreation period in their little circle when music, singing and dancing were enjoyed.

After four months of travel this division of pioneers landed in Salt Lake City coming through Emigration Canyon. Joseph’s family went to Farmington, and took up land and began farming. The winter of 1849 was mild and Joseph cleared, plowed and planted one acre of wheat. Joseph and Amasa Lyman and a company of 100 men left for California in the spring of 1850 to look for gold. When summer came and the wheat grew tall and ripened with no one to cut it, Sarah Elnora and Robert went into the fields and with a scythe cut the wheat. The brave youngsters with the help of their mother shocked the wheat and thrashed it. This was done with two wagon covers sewed together and flakes made from willows. After the wheat was sacked the two children hauled it to Brigham Young’s flour mill at Liberty Park to be ground.

Joseph White returned from California in the fall, sick. He planted four acres of wheat, fenced his farm and scythed and cradled the grain. he took sick with putrid sore throat and within five days he died. He was buried in one of the first graves in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

After her father’s death, Sarah Elnora went out to work at different places. Before she became 21 she married James Stevenson of Salt Lake City. They lived one year with her mother and then rented a farm.James built a log cabin on the main street of Farmington. In 1853 he went on a mission to the Indians at Fort Supply, some miles from Fort Bridger. He had just finished building two more rooms and making them comfortable when they call came to go south on account of Johnson’s Army coming. They had to leave everything except what they were to eat and wear, and did not expect to find anything when they returned, if they ever did return. They thought it would all be burned. They went south with Brigham Young and he promised them nothing would be harmed. When they returned no damage had been done. Once all of the men had to go into the hills, to get logs, leaving one man to fire a gun if help was needed. One day while the women were preparing dinner, six warriors with intent to  kill came up to the house. Nancy Stevenson, wife of Edward, went calmly to them and for the first time in her life talked in tongues. It was the language of the Indians. Aunt Nancy had dinner served and invited the Indians in to eat. They ate dinner and made her understand that if she would give them each one blanket they would leave in peace, and they kept their word.

Here in this little home they raised six children and buried five, for a total of 11. They added two more frame rooms, making a five room house. They were very happy there and celebrated their 65th anniversary of married life. Both were well at that time. Sarah Elnora died January 12, 1915, at the age of 83 and James Stevenson, 29 March 1916 at the age of 85. Both died at the old homestead they built as pioneers in Farmington, and were buried by their five children in the city cemetery.

---by Sarah’s granddaughter, Gladys Stevenson Jordan

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Obituary of Sarah Elnora White 
appeared in the Deseret News January 12, 1915 

Death of Mrs. Stevenson, Utah Pioneer of 1849. Mrs. Stevenson, an esteemed pioneer, passed away at 1:30 this morning at her home in Farmington. She was loved by all who knew her, her live having been one of goodness from childhood to old age. She cast her lot among the Later-day Saints when only a child, her father having been baptized when she was 7 years old and her mother one year later by Martin Harris, on of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon. 
Mrs. Stevenson, formerly Sara Elnora White. was born Mar. 18. 1831 in Pamella, Jefferson county, New York. Her father, Joseph White, later became a member of the Nauvoo Legion and was one of the mounted body guards of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was also one of the Mormon Battalion. 
Mrs. Stevenson endured the many persecutions at Nauvoo. The trip to Utah was by ox team, with all hardships and privations incident to that great pilgrimage. The journey was made particularly sad from the fact that she witnessed the burial of many companions who died from cholera. She arrived in Utah in the fall of 1849, when her father and mother made their home in Farmington. She also experienced the discomforts of the move south. 
Mrs. Stevenson is survived by a husband, James Stevenson, and six children William H., Edward D., Wilford A., Frank, Orson L. Stevenson and Mrs. Herbert Stayner. Funeral announcement will be later.