SARAH FINLEY 18 FEBRUARY 1819 GRAYSON, KENTUCKY	Joined the LDS Church on 9 May 1842 and was endowed in the LDS Nauvoo Temple on  3 February 1846
	After her husband Charles died, an LDS Apostle John Taylor gave her 2 oxen to help her cross the plains to Utah
	She and her children worked hard to support themselves
	Delivered 900 babies and never lost a mother or a baby

(*318)Sarah "Polly" Finley, daughter of John G. Finley and Mary Ann Bozarth, was born 18 February, in Grayson County, Kentucky.  She was married to Charles Merrell in Lewis County, Missouri, on 12 October 1834 (IGI 1988).

The period of time that Charles and Sarah spent in Iowa and their removal to Utah is written in the Merrell chronicle (See p. 315).  We now continue Sarah's story of her life without Charles.

The spring following the arrival of Sarah and her children in Utah found them settled in South Farmington, where they lived for about two years.  On 29 June 1854, Sarah married Samuel B. Hardy, by whom she had three daughters: Caroline Matilda, Martha Ellen, and Sarah Hanna.  Samuel moved the family to Bountiful, which was their home unti1860.

The intervening years were very hard for Sarah.  Her new husband did not adequately provide for her and her children, so her sons herded cows and sheep to earn food for the family in lieu of money, which was practically nonexistent in Utah at that time.  Joseph, age seven, herded sheep for a neighbor and received 15 pounds of wheat for ten months' work.  Her other sons worked in similar jobs to earn "shorts" and bran from which to make bread.  While they were in the hills herding animals, they had nothing to eat but sego bulbs and thistle roots which they dug up with sharp sticks (Merrell Family Papers, Joseph Merrell).

(*319)Mr. Hardy had come from Boston and was a shoemaker by trade.  As he was accustomed to living from hand to mouth, he did not make provisions for hard times.  Sarah's son Joseph (Ibid.) later recalled trapping wolves and foxes to eat.  He told of a time in 1855 when they had boiled fox for dinner and company came; they told their guests they were eating rabbit.  The family had a cow, so there was a little milk to supplement the game and the weeds they gathered to cook for greens.

In 1857 when Johnston's Army was sent to Utah to quell the " dissident Mormons," the settlers were asked to evacuate before the soldiers arrived.  Sarah's family moved with their neighbors to Springville, leaving one of her sons in Bountiful to guard the house and burn it if the U. S. Army came to their part of the settlement.  When the discord was settled, the family moved back and stayed for two more years.

In 1860 Hardy was called to go to Southern Utah, so he went south with a younger wife, according to Joseph's story.  Sarah's son Orson moved her and the two little girls to Willard where some of her older children lived.  Twelve days after the move, Sarah gave birth to her third child by Mr. Hardy.  She named the child Sarah after Sarah Merrell, the daughter who had died in Council Bluffs on 8 October 1847.

Sarah learned nursing and midwifery and thereby earned her living and sup- ported her children. During her practice she delivered about 900 babies and never lost a mother or child.  After twenty-five years in this situation she went to live with some of her children in Idaho.  She died in Elba, Idaho, on 2 February 1901 and was buried on February 5 in Willard, Utah (Ibid.).

5.  Samuel B. Hardy was previously married to Caroline Bacon Rogers on 7 Septmber 1851.  He had a third wife whose name was Martha, according to a Family Group Record on file in the LDS Church Archives, FHL Film #439,397.

6.  See Chapter 2, pp. 5 and 6, for more information about that incident.

Charles Merrell and Sarah Finley were married in Lewis County, Missouri on October 12, 1834.
They were both from settler families.  Charles' family moved to Missouri from North Carolina and Sarah's family settled in Missouri sometime in 1820 after leaving her birthplace in Kentucky.  Sarah was fifteen years old when she married twenty-two year old Charles a day before his twenty-third birthday.

Soon after their marriage, the couple settled in Des Moines, Iowa and by 1839, they had three
children --  Francis Marion, Nancy (our ancestor), and Sophia. While the Charles and Sarah
were living in Des Moines, they joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  In 1839,
they moved close to Nauvoo on the opposite side of the river in Lee County Iowa or Illinois
where three more children were born -- Orson, John Finley, and Sarah.

After the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred in 1844, the Saints were
forced to leave the Nauvoo area.  Early in 1846, Charles and Sarah moved with the church and
settled in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  In addition to the persecution and hardships which caused them
to leave their home and travel west with the Saints, the family suffered the loss of their daughter
and sister Sarah who was just about to turn two years old.  At the time of the child's death, her
mother Sarah had just given birth to a new baby (Joseph) a week earlier.  The family stayed at
Council Bluffs (then Kanesville), Iowa until 1852.  During their stay there, they had a total of
three more children -- Joseph, Charles William, and Mary Jane.

On July 4th, 1852, the family started for the Salt Lake Valley.  They were among the last to leave the Mormon settlement in Council Bluffs behind and traveled with the group that is often
referred to as the "sugar train."  This long caravan of some 200 yoke of oxen was led by the
Apostle John Taylor and carried with it the first industrial machinery necessary to build a sugar
factory in the western Mormon settlements.  The machinery itself was divided up between
numerous wagons "the larger, heavier equipment traveled much slower than the rest of the
company and arrived much later in the Salt Lake Valley.

After only nine days into the journey, cholera broke out among the wagon train.  Charles was
stricken on July 13th and died later that evening around five 0' clock.  Amasa Lyman, an early
Saint wrote of this disease saying: "The cries and moanings of those suddenly attacked were truly terrific -- to see one stricken down in a moment and in a short hour the ruddy glow of health displaced by the pallor of death and to know that the sufferers were the forms of loved ones endeared to us by the tenderest ties that bind the heart and soul, was heart rending.  To most of those sufferers there was not rest but the grave.  However, some were healed, through administration, by a servant of God." Charles was buried that evening along the trail and the Apostle John Taylor officiated. Sarah was left widowed with eight children, many of whom were still very young. And she still faced a long journey ahead.

The day after Charles' death, the Saints officially organized after crossing the Elkhorn River.
There were approximately fifty-two wagons with a captain assigned to every ten wagons.  Allen
Weeks was chosen captain over Sarah's family.  The leaders went to great lengths to help Sarah
and her family along the way.  Sarah had a team of oxen which was hard to handle.  Apostle
Taylor sent her a pair of gentle oxen which helped a great deal.  Orson (ten years old) and John
(eight years old) had to manage the two pair of oxen and one team of cows the rest of the way.
Sarah was ill most of the journey and all of her energy had to be used in caring for her children --
the youngest was only about seven months old.

With God's help, the family arrive in the Valley on October 12th.  Her eldest son had gone
ahead of the group and met them upon their arrival.  He and a Mr. Chaffin took the family to a
small two-room house where they stayed temporarily.  They soon moved to the North part of Salt Lake City where they stayed until spring.  Friends then arranged for the family to move to South Farmington where Mrs. Merrell met and married Samuel Hardy in June 1854.  Sarah and her new husband moved to Bountiful, Utah after their marriage; together they had three daughters.  The family stayed in Bountiful until 1860 when Brother Hardy was called to go to southern Utah.  At the time of the calling, Sarah was expecting a child.  Together, Samuel and Sarah decided that she should move to Willard, Utah with her daughter Nancy Merrell Call and her husband Homer Call (our ancestors) instead of traveling to Southern Utah.  Homer and Nancy provided a home for Sarah and her young children -- Sarah delivered her last daughter twelve days after arriving in Willard.

Sarah Finley was known as a skilled and gifted nurse.  Just after moving to Bountiful, she began to diligently study nursing.  Her first case was the birth of Jane Pettingill in November 1857.
Eventually, Melchizedek Priesthood leaders set her apart as a nurse and midwife.  She was very
successful and brought comfort to hundreds of people.  She officiated at the birth of some 900
babies and continued to practice nursing until 1885 when she moved to live with relatives in
Elba, Idaho.  Sarah Finley Merrell Hardy died on February 21 1901 at the home of Mrs. Martha Parish in Elba Idaho.