This is a drawing of Ellis and Sarah, probably a wedding portrait dating from about 1850. It was contributed by L. Dee Stevenson of Payson, Utah.
He is a grandson of Rebecca Losee Brimhall, and a great-great grandson of Ellis and Sarah Ames.
Sarah Haskell Ames
Written by Rebecca Losee Brimhall
(Sarah’s grand-daughter)
Sarah Haskell was born in Fairfield, Franklin County, Vermont on December 24, 1826, daughter of George Nile Haskell and Sarah Elizabeth Runnels. She came to Utah with her parents. She married Ellis Ames as a second wife, and was sealed to him by Brigham Young on November 24, 1850. They settled in Provo, Utah where in April of 1851 her husband Ellis Ames was selected first mayor of Provo City. He was also a judge and served for two years. While in Provo there were three children born to them, then in the spring of 1854 they moved to California. Her father and families moved to California with the same wagon train.
(My mother, Sarah’s daughter, told me these things.)
She didn’t like California so when her father, mother and family with other families decided to come back to Utah, she felt like she could not stay there without any of them so she decided to come back with them. They set a date to leave there so they could all be ready to go back together as it was too dangerous for one or two wagons to go alone. Three days before the date set to leave there, on April 10, 1856 Sarah gave birth to a baby girl, my mother, Sarah Angeline Ames Losee, so they put Sarah in the wagon with her four children, leaving her husband there with his first wife and family. She never did go back. After surviving many hardships, they arrived in Payson when the baby was three months old. They settled in Payson and in the spring of 1860 Sarah was married to Shadrich Richardson, a widower, with two small boys. Four children were born to them, three boys and a girl, making a family of ten children.
In those days there was not too much chance for an education or for good reading material. At that time there were several monthly magazines published and different ones would subscribe for them. They had very interesting stories in them, mostly continued ones. A few chapters would be published each month, then continued until the next month. Beings Sarah was a very good reader, the neighbors would gather at her house in the long evenings with their magazines and books and have her read aloud to them. Many pleasant evenings were spent that way while they lived in Payson.
The Spaniards sometimes brought bands of horses up from Mexico to sell or trade to the pioneers. Sarah’s oldest child of her first marriage was a girl, and when she was 16 she fell in love with a young Spaniard that was with the horse traders. They were camped east of Spanish Fork and after selling their horses went back to Mexico. She ran away with them and married her young beau.
The night the Spaniards left she didn’t come home and the next morning when they found out she had gone with the Spaniards, some of the men went on horses and tried to overtake them, but they had been gone all night and was too far ahead. My mother told us that her mother grieved so much, and for a long time she would stand outside at night for hours and watch and listen thinking her girl would come back, but she never did. She always left a lighted lamp in the window and 2 years after her disappearance Sarah passed away. The daughter, Julia, being just 16 years old was afraid to let them know where she was fearing they would come after her, so she never wrote to them for a few years, but by that time her mother had passed away.
Sarah died September 28, 1869 in Payson, Utah and is buried in the Payson City Cemetery.
The children of Sarah and Ellis Ames:
Julia Ames, born 9 September 1851 in Provo, Utah. She married Victor Pineda.
George Monterville Ames, born 1 January 1853 in Provo, Utah. He married Ellen Sophia Flanders on 12 December 1877 in Provo, Utah; he died 19 December 1928.
Rudolph Ames, born 5 March or 28 March 1854 in Provo, Utah. He married Ann Eliza Austin in about 1877, location isn't known; he died 12 December 1886.
Sarah Angeline Ames, born 10 April 1856 in San Bernardino, California, she married David Alma Losee on
10 April 1874. She died 11 November 1899.She had four more children by second husband Shadrach Richardson; click here.
To read a biography of her brother, Chester Kise Haskell, click here.
To return to the Eames page, click here.
To return to the Richardson Family Index page, click here.
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