Great-Great Grandparents of Keith M. Chandler
Compiled by Eleanor Ranae Peterson
Sarah Catharine Provost was born 28 May 1854, in Newark, Essex, New Jersey.She was the youngest daughter of Luke and Julia Ann Wheeler Provost.
Her father was president of the Newark Branch of the LDS Church. He was ordained to the office of High Priest on 27 June 1841 in Pomptom, Morris, New Jersey. The family was told that he had great faith and that people would come for miles to have him administer to their sick. Luke and Julia Ann had lost four children at this point, so little Sarah born 28 May 1854, was a welcome addition. The census of 1850 states that Luke’s profession was a saddle rivet maker. His life work was as a blacksmith and he was very skilled in his work.
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James Isaac Ross 1878 -1979 Catherine Sarah Provost James Jackson Ross 1854 - 1919 1835 - 1909 |
On April 22, 1856, Luke Provost and Julia Ann, his wife sold their property which was located on the northeast corner of Market and Mulberry Streets in Newark. This was sold for $1,000. They wanted to join the saints and go to Zion in the Great Salt Lake Valley.
Little Sarah Catharine was only two years old, I'm sure they rubbed her feet every night trying to keep her from getting frostbite. They suffered so much, but the powers of heaven finally came through with the help of their brothers in Zion and brought them into the valley which had about 8 feet of snow that winter. They literally gave up everything they had to get here.
They settled in the Provo Valley and after having Luke Elisha 26 November 1858, their son Charles Bauldin age 23 died. In 1863 Luke and Julia Ann decided to go back East and get their trunks and possessions they had left with a trusted friend. This was during the Civil War, They traveled clear back there only to find out that their possessions were gone and so was their friend.
Luke decided to go out of his way and go to a Flour grits mill and bring back some flour. It was very cold and he caught pneumonia and died 13 March 1863 St. Marys, Mills, Iowa.
Little Sarah Catharine was only nine now. Her mother with the help of her boys made it back to Utah and settled in Midway never marrying again. Sarah had suffered so much for a little girl, being in the tragic exit in the winter of 1856, losing her older brother in 1859 and traveling clear across the country only to lose her father in 1863. I am sure Julia Ann paid extra attention to Sarah and little Luke. They were surrounded by friends and family.
Sarah Catharine met a handsome man named James Jackson Ross. James had lost his wife and Sarah and James were married 13 October 1873 in Heber, Wasatch, Utah. Sarah helped him raise his children from a previous marriage and they had two children of their own, Emile Jane born 22 July 1874 in Midway, Utah and James Isaac Ross born 5 December 1876 (Keith’s Chandler’ Great Grandfather) in Midway, Utah. |
James Jackson Ross 1835 - 1919 |
Emile Jane was met by tragedy when she was kidnapped and killed by a migrant worker in Vernal in 1884 she was only ten years old.
James Isaac married Fannie Jane Young and had 11 children. Sarah Catharine had many sad things in her life. She had a quiet disposition and was held in high esteem. She died ten years after James on 17 March 1919, in Vernal and is buried in the Measer Cemetery, Uintah, Utah.
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Biography of Sarah Catharine Provost Ross
May 28, 1854-March 17, 1919
Sarah Catharine Provost was born May 28, 1854, in Newark, Essex, New Jersey. She was the ninth child and third daughter born to Luke Provost and Julia Ann Wheeler. Four of her nine siblings died in infancy.Sarah’s father, Luke Provost, was born January 1, 1809, in Pompton, Morris, New Jersey. Her mother, Julia Ann Wheeler was born September 23, 1815 in Newark, Essex, New Jersey. Luke and Julia joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints while living in New Jersey. Luke was President of the LDS Branch, and had great faith and healing influence when administering to the sick.
In 1856, when Sarah was a toddler of two years old, her father and mother sold their property for one thousand dollars and headed west to join the Saints. They and their five children left Iowa City, Iowa, to immigrate to Utah on July 30, 1856, with the William B. Hodgett Company. They were in a wagon train company with 161 people and 33 wagons. Their ox wagon train and John A. Hunt’s ox wagon train were instructed to keep in the rear of James D. Willie’s and Edward Martin’s handcart companies in case they needed assistance. Sarah’s oldest brother, Charles Bauldin Provost, age twenty, was captain of the night cattle guard of the first ten wagons.
The company caught up to the Martin Company in Iowa near a beautiful stream of crystal water. The Hodgett’s Company almost stopped at Council Bluffs because of an early winter. But they pressed forward feeling they would be safe, for “God was at the helm.” When the company reached Florence, Nebraska, they heard from Franklin D. Richards, one of the twelve apostles, and Joseph A Young, a son of Brigham Young about their concerns. Brother Richards spoke to continue on. Brother Young suggested they stay put until spring fearing the freezing cold weather would bring ”shortness of food, untold agonies, sickness, and much loss of life. The prevailing opinion was to travel on amidst the flowing of many tears.” Young Sarah and her family were to become a part of history with that decision.
The wagon companies continued following the hand-cart trains. They saw thousands of buffalo. Tall grasses reached up to the bellies and sides of the animals. When coming to large river crossings, they would ferry their wagons, but swim the cattle to save a dollar a yoke. One afternoon near Scott’s Bluff, Nebraska, three thousand indians came past the camp. The pioneers were fearful, but the indians had only been on a hunt for buffalo, antelope, and deer. The indians caused the company no harm.
When the Hodgett and Hunt Companies camped near the Platte River, they again encountered the Martin Handcart Company. The difficult journey of this train could already be seen in their “sunken eyes and emaciated forms. Many of the handcart company had worn out shoes with bleeding toes protruding from them. Some were seen pulling sand burrs from their feet, shedding many tears.”
At Fort Laramie, a government post, the Hodgett’s Company took stock of the food left. It was found there was not enough food to last the trip, so Captain Hodgett’s advised the saints to eat only a small biscuit a day until relieve arrived. They were also asked to leave any heavy item not needed at For Laramie, as the animals were thinning and tired. The plentiful grasslands of previous days were now replaced with short and often frost bitten grasses. The captain called the oxen teams, “Our lives’ protectors.”
Soon they saw snow on distant mountain peaks and felt the threat of storms in the air. The howls and presence of wolves were very near. The company soon went to 1/2 biscuit per person per day. They again encountered the Martin Handcart Train. These saints were freezing, starving and weak. They had lost several brothers and sisters. Most of the dead had been sewn in a sheet and left in a shallow grave, up to twenty deaths a day.
Just as many in the group were feeling their own death near, a small group of three men, including Joseph A. Young, arrived with some food and supplies. They had come to find the companies, check out their well-being and needs, and report to a larger group carrying more supplies and food. The three men witnessed the sorrows of those still living, and the frozen forms of a mother nursing a baby and another offering a fervent prayer.
As the snow became deeper, the wagons proceeded first. They did this to force the snow down, so the handcarts could travel easier. All the time dysentery and weakness followed the pioneers. To lighten the load fifteen wagons were left behind. There were now two families to every wagon left, a total of fifteen. Deep snow followed the group at every turn. The wagon and handcart companies both experienced cold, snow, and starvation. Sarah’s older sister, Julia Ann, told of how their oxen died and they had to take up a handcart. Many times they boiled the hides of the oxen for food. The family walked until they and the rest were rescued by the valley boys, a group of Salt Lake Valley saints with much-needed food and supplies.
The Hodgett’s Wagon Train continued on until they reached “a most beautiful valley.” Salt Lake was then home to ten to fifteen thousand people. They were the last train to arrive in the Salt Lake Valley that year. They came in sections from December 10-18, 1856. Snow that season rose to eight feet in the valley.
The family of seven settled in the Provo Valley. During this time the last of the children was born. Luke Elisha Provost, my great-grandfather, was born November 26, 1858. Shortly thereafter, Charles Bauldin Provost, the young man who guarded the cattle during the trek, died on March 4, 1859. He was twenty two years old. Sarah was four years old during the birth of one brother and the death of another.
When the family left New Jersey in 1856, they had left behind property and seven trunks of clothes with a trusted friend. Six years later in 1862, the family returned to claim their property and visit family. This was during the middle of the Civil War. Sarah was eight.
Arriving in New Jersey safely, the family found the so-called friend had sold everything and left the country. This was a great shock to the family as they had been quite well-off for those times. Luke, Sarah’s father, decided to load his wagon with flour from a wheat grits mill and return with his family back to Utah.
The family got as far as St. Mary’s, Iowa, where Sarah’s father developed pneumonia and died on March 13, 1863, at the age of fifty-four. He was buried in St. Mary’s, Iowa, ten miles down the river from Nebraska City, Iowa. The family was heartbroken.
Sarah, her mother, and three brothers, James Wheeler, David Woodruff, and Luke Elisha, now joined another pioneer company trekking to Utah. The company name and details are presently unknown. Sarah made her second trip heading west, and her third trip total across the plains, at the age of eight.
After arriving back home, Julia Ann Wheeler Provost, Sarah’s mother, sold their home in Provo. She and her four younger children moved to Midway, Wasatch County, Utah, to be closer to her married daughter, Julia Ann Provost Van Wagenen. They traveled with friends and neighbors. During their journey from Provo to Midway, they received word that Indians were coming. One man climbed up on the wheel of the wagon to retrieve his gun. Pulling it toward him, it discharged, killing him instantly. The group quickly wrapped him in a quilt and buried him before the indians arrived. They continued on their way arriving in Midway safely. Julia Ann and her young children were among the first pioneers to settle there. They built their first home in the lower settlement known as Stringtown. During the Black Hawk War, they moved into a log cabin in Fort Midway. They were located on the southwest side of the fort.
In her later teens, Sarah met a handsome man named James Jackson Ross. He was born November 26, 1835 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee. James had lost his first wife, Susan Levernia Robey April 23, 1862. He and Sarah married October 13, 1873 in Heber City, Wasatch, Utah. She was nineteen. He was thirty seven. Sarah helped him raise his daughters from his first marriage, and they were able to have two children of their own.
Emily was born July 22, 1874, in Midway. Her brother James Isaac was born December 5, 1876. Sarah’s mother, Julia Ann, passed on June 14, 1881 at the age of sixty five. James and Sarah moved their young family to the Vernal area about 1882. Unfortunately, a scant three years later, another tragedy was to enter Sarah’s life. Two years after the family moved to the Vernal area, her young daughter Emily was kidnapped and killed by a migrant worker in 1884. She was only ten years old. Sarah would have been about thirty. Her son, Isaac, married Fannie Jane Young July 8, 1896, and together they had eleven children.
When Sarah was fifty-four, she lost her husband, James. He passed May 2, 1909. His death certificate states he died from a mitral heart valve insufficiency and fatty degeneration in his organs. Ten years later Sarah died, probably of malignancy of the stomach. She passed March 17, 1919, in Vernal ,Uintah, Utah, at the age of 64. She was buried March 18, 1919, in Maesar, Uintah, Utah. The Vernal Express stated in her death notice, “She was of a quiet disposition and held in high esteem.”