My parents were John Cherrington and Sarah Pennington. They were born in England. My father was born 14 November 1821 at Kidderminster, Worchester, England. My mother was born 10 September 1823 at West Bromwich, Stafford, England. My brothers and sisters are:

• Elizabeth, born 23 May 1846, died 10 July 1887
• Lucy, born 6 October 1857, died 22 September 1860
• Alice, born 10 November 1849
• Ann, born 3 October 1851, died in 1852
• Joseph, born 11 February 1853, He is dead, haven't the date. He had a large family living mostly in Springville.
• Hyrum, born 6 October 1854, died in August 1860
• Sarah Maria, born August 1858, died in 1858
• John, born 3 October 1859, died in July 1860. The next two children died in fancy. I don't know the dates, but their names were
• James Thomas and
• Alma. The next was
• George William, born 25 May 1862
• Louis Henry, born 9 March 1864

        I was born 19 November 1849, West Bromwich, Stafford, England was the third child of a family of 13. The family left England in 1855 when I was between 5 and 6 years old.

        My parents were converted to the Latter-day Saints church while in England. It took us about six weeks to cross the ocean. I can remember the bread we had to eat on board the shop. It was called sea biscuits. They were very hard and about the size of ones hand.

        I do not remember the time of year we left England or where we landed, or the date, but we went into Rockland, Wilmington Co., Delaware state where we lived about 5 years.

        I was baptized in the Delaware river. The mans name that baptized me was James Straw, and my father, John Cherrington, confirmed me a member of the church. I cannot give the date.

        My father worked at a paper mill while in Delaware. My mother was a house wife and a mother to her children. We would gather nuts in the woods, hickory nuts, hazel nuts, walnuts, and chestnuts. Also some fruit, wild pears, and blackberries.

        There wasn't very much of a town where we lived, just a few dwelling, for laborers and transients. Right where we lived there was a cluster of three houses together. In the yards were two large trees in which there was a swing that I loved to swing in. we also played jump the rope and many other games.

        There were four Latter-day Saint families, living in that neighborhood. They were our family, and a family by the name of Loyd. Then about 5 miles down the river were the other two families, James Straw and Carl G. Maeser.

        We held meetings on one Sunday at our house, and the next Sunday at Brother Straws. We had some very good times and were very anxious for the Sabbath to come.

        In the spring or early summer of 1860 we left Delaware and went to Florence, Nebraska to join a company of saints that were coming to Utah. We made that journey part of the way by train and part of the way by boat. I remember as we passed through Philadelphia there was a party given for the children and we all had a bag of candy, which was a great treat in those times.

        We left Florence, Nebraska with a company that was traveling with church teams that had been sent out from Utah to bring those who had no way of their own for traveling. We were in Captain John Smiths Co. when we were ready to start, brother George Q. Cannon, who was there as a missionary, told Captain Smith to see that (our) family safely through to Salt Lake.

        One day in July as we were in camp, I was setting in the shade of the wagon, tending the 8 month old baby, when he took suddenly ill and before we left camp, he died. After laying him away, we continued our toilsome journey.

        There were places along the way where wood was very scarce and we would have to gather buffalo chips, which we used to cook our food over.

        My father was very sick with mountain fever, which added to the hardships. When we reached Green River, there being so many of the family sick, Captain Smith decided to leave us to improve and rest up awhile. The station master had a good sized room which he let the family have to stay in while we were there.

        There were acres and acres of wild native currents grew there. My father gathered them, mother stewed them, and he ate so many of them they cured him of the mountain fever.

        We have very little provisions, a small portion of flour and a ham bone, was all we had. The station master was very good to us. One day he was going to a place called Wood River. My father had a watch he brought from England, which he ask the station master to take and trade or sell for provisions. He took the watch and brought the provisions father sent for, also the watch back.

        While at Green River, I tended a baby for a young couple who lived there.

        My brother and sister just younger than myself, died in August and we had to leave them there.

        As the stage driver made their trip east, the station master had them keep a look out for any emigrant companies who might be making their way to Utah. We had been at Green River about 3 weeks when there was a hand cart company with a few wagons under Captain Oscar O. Stoddard came along and picked us up. We were happy to be on our way again.

        When we reached Wood River, 5 miles from Green River, my sister, older than myself, died, 22 September 1860. That was the only death in that company. We reached Salt Lake 24 September 1860, glad to be at the end of the toilsome journey.

        I was then 11 years old the following November. We lived in Salt Lake several years in different parts of the city, until I knew every street and corner of the city.

        In the summer of 1868 I went to work for a family by the name of Spencer, 4 miles south of Salt Lake, on what was called the church pasture. I did house work and cooking for the hay workers when harvesting there. I made cookies by the bushel every afternoon. There was a 50 lb. Sack of cookies and a kettle of crust coffee sent to the field for the men who were haying.

        It was at this place I met and got acquainted with my future husband. When the hay and other crops were taken care of at the pasture, the men would go other places to attend other duties.

        I was still working at Spencers. My future husband was in Salt Lake at the home of Bryant Stringham. When I first met him, I thought he was the homeliest man I ever saw. I had nothing at all to do with him up to this time. One Sunday he asked Brother Stringham if he could take a team which made some of the boys rather curious as it was something out of the ordinary in those days to be using a team on Sunday. The boys ask what he was going to do. He told them he was going down to Spencers after a load of poles. I was the poles he was after. He had said something to the Spencers about a riding horse they had there, and sister Spencer said she thought he would be down Sunday.

        Sure enough he came and we went for a horse back ride. That was the beginning of our courtship, which was not very long as we were married in the spring of 1869. We would go for horse back rides occasionally, attend theatres, also church get-to-gether's whenever possible. As he lived in Salt Lake and I on the church pasture or at home with my parents at Mill Creek, and travel in those days isn't like it is today.

        I was married to James Thomas Darton, 12 April 1869, in the endowment house in Salt Lake City. After my marriage we went on the church island where we lived about two years. That was my first home. My husband milked 20 or 30 head of cows. I churned butter, packed it into jars, and sent it to Salt Lake to Brother Stringham. We raised a garden, also a few chickens.

        The wild cats were very bad the first summer we were out there. My husband built traps called "figure 4" and caught a great many of the wild cats, had their pelts tanned and robe made out of them which was very nice.

        There were also a great many wild horses on the island. During the summer, Brother Stringham, with 8 or 10 other men would go over on the island and kill a bunch of the horses, when they were good and fat and make neatsfoot oil for greasing saddles, harnesses, and the like.

        My husband and I were on the island practically alone all winter. In the spring of 1870, I went into the city for a few weeks, where my first child, a daughter was born, 2 May 1870. We named her Sarah Elizabeth.

        In the early part of 1871 we left the island and went back to the church pasture, 4 miles south of Salt Lake, and worked on the farm putting up hay, grain and etc.

        During that summer, I think it was in August, Bryant Stringham died. He was greatly mourned, for he had been a great man among his men, always one with them. Therefore, they all loved and had a great respect for him.

Bishop Elias F. Sheets of the 8th ward was then chosen as leader of the church property, but the men who worked for Brother Stringham did not seem able to adjust themselves to their new leader and they soon went for themselves.         About the middle of January, 1872, I went to the Sugar House ward and stayed with my older sister, Elizabeth, for a short time, where my second and last child was born, 17 February 1872. We named him James Brace.         When I was able, I went back home. At the April conference I went to Lehi and stayed with my mother while my husband located a home. He went to Richfield, Utah, where he partly decided to get a place. In gathering his stock to make a payment he had to go into Holden, Utah. He liked it better there so decided to locate there. Some time in June of 1872. We moved to Holden. We built a comfortable home, had 2 city lots, and had 5 acres in the field.

Sarah Elizabeth and her brother James Brace

        About 1875, my parents and two brother, Will and Louie, that were still at home moved from Lehi to Holden. Also my older sister, Elizabeth, who was then a widow, moved to Holden and married a man by the name of Henry Chestnut. We were making a comfortable living and doing very nicely that way, but the water at Holden was hard and did not agree with me. My health being so poor, my husband got out and located a home in Loa, on the Dirty Devil where we moved in the Spring of 1880.

        At that time it was a very cold climate, almost impossible to raise grain of any kind without it getting frost bitten. It was a fine country for various kinds of hay, such as red top, timothy and red clover, it was impossible to raise any kind of fruit, except gooseberries for a number of years. Now all kinds of fruit grows there. In the fall I would go to Holden, have a visit with my parents, and put up fruit for my family.

        I do not remember the date but I think it was about 1884 or 5, I was chosen president of the Relief Society in Loa. I served about 2 years. I went among the sick, typhoid and diphtheria a great deal. After I was released as president, I served as counselor for some time to Nancey Riddle. My husband served as second counselor to the bishop, Elias H. Blackburn, and we both belonged to the choir.

        As my husband was of that nature, he wanted to grow more of a variety than he could in Loa. In the fall of 1890, he sold our property to a man by the name of Hugh Mcenen and started for Old Mexico where my daughter was then living.

        My husband's father lived in Nephi and we went and visited with grandfather Darton a few days. We then went to Manti where we did temple work for a week before starting onto Mexico.

        We arrived at Colonia Juarez, where my daughter was living in January, 1891. My husband looked around and located a place he could get quite reasonable because it was such a rock bed no one thought they could make a living on it. We sold one of the teams to pay on the place. It was up the river about 3 miles from town.

        My husband built a crude one roomed house as soon as he could and we moved into it. During that summer we bought strawberries and paid 35 cents per qt. My husband said "I will bring that price down." Which he did the next year. He sold strawberries at 20 cents per qt.

        We started our place by planting strawberries because they brought quick returns. He planted about one half an acre, and when they began to bear, we would pick as much as three thousand qts. In one season. He next planted a nice patch of blackberries. The people didn't seem to think much about blackberries. My husband took some out to sell with him when he went with other fruits. He would ask if they cared for blackberries. The would tell him no, but he would get them out to look at some other fruit and get them to taste the blackberries. Very often he would sell several qts. Before he left their place. After awhile he had a great demand for them.

James Thomas and Alice Cherrington Darton; photo taken shortly before his death.

We would pick as many as 150 or 200 qts. Per picking. They had to be picked about the same as strawberries, 3 times a week. We had several girls hired every season to pick strawberries and blackberries. We gradually worked into the larger fruit.         We also had a patch of grapes. I canned a great deal of fruit for the market. There was a man by the name of Davis who handled a great deal of fruit for us, both fresh and canned.         In the fall of 1896 my husband wished to go to Salt Lake to do temple work of his fathers family. We did not have the ready cash for both of us to make the trip. He thought he could go then and I could go the next year. I did not like the idea of making that trip alone and I told him he could borrow the money for me to go too, which he did. He borrowed $50.00. We then had over five hundred dollars worth of fruit in the cellar, or I would not have suggested borrowing that money. We made the trip and it was not long till the money was paid back. We had a comfortable home and a good living.         On the 20th of June 1899, my son married a widow by the name of Anna Eliza Pierce Gibbon. She had one little girl.

        The river ran through the lower part of our place and during high water a great deal of drift wood would come down and lodge on the banks, as the water receded. On the afternoon of March 21, 1905 my husband took his team and wagon and went and gathered a load of drift wood. He got onto the load and started home with it when one of the round, sharp sticks rolled and threw him off. As he fell he hit his back on the hub of wheel, striking the spinal cord which paralyzed him. It was getting late and I walked down--it not being very far away--to see what was the trouble. When I reached the outfit, I found my husband haying on the ground un-able to move. I got help to him as soon as I could and got him to the house, where he was made as comfortable as possible. President a. W. Ivans heard about the accident and came up to the place, bringing a doctor with him. There was nothing he could do for him, only make him as comfortable as we could. He passed away on the morning of March 24.

        There I was with the ranch and my father to look after and no one to help me. I was certainly upset. It seemed he had sooner passed away than a voice whispered to me and said, "sell the place and move to town."

        On the 23^rd of March, I sent the team to Garcia after my daughter. The young man who went didn't know much about handling a team. As they were traveling in the night and over rough country, the team got frightened and ran away, braking the wagon and throwing my daughter and her baby, Prudence, a little girl about two and one half years old out among the rocks. It cut the little girls head some and it hurt my daughter in the back and hips quite bad. They had to lay out in the wilds the balance of the night. This happened about 1 A. M. The young man had to walk about 12 or 15 miles for help, which arrived about 8 or 9 A.M. When she arrived in Juarez, the funeral services were in session. After the funeral, we went to Elder John W. Taylor, who lived in Juarez at the time, where we stayed the balance of that day and night. We then went to my home at the ranch where my daughter, Sarah, stayed with me for a few weeks until she was able to go home in Garcia. While Sarah was with me, I made arrangements to sell the ranch with president A. W. Ivans advised me to do. He helped a great deal in transacting the business for me. I got four thousand dollars for my place.

        I then moved into Juarez with my sons family for awhile. Then I rented a small place where I lived while I had a house built on the lot where my son lived. President Ivans advised me to put my money at Dublan, Mr. Bowman being the general manager at the time. I put three thousand into the store. The other thousand into a home where I lived with my father until the fall of 1906. I then sold that home and moved to Garcia with my daughter and family. My father died in August 1908.

        After fathers death, I got a small place in Garcia and lived by myself again. My son, James and his family also moved to Garcia where he operated a shingle mill for a time. In fact, that was what he was doing when the people were driven out of Mexico in 1912.

        We all came out with very little of our belongings. We went to El Paso, Texas by train where we camped in lumber sheds. There were thousands of people in those sheds for a time. While there, I went before a notary and made out a list of my belongings in Mexico.

        In the spring of 1915 my daughter moved to Cedarview, Utah, about 7 miles distant. In 1920, my sons oldest son, Klin, was called to fill a mission. My son, James sent me the money to meet Klin in Salt Lake when he came up to the missionary school. I went and had a very nice time visiting with him and other relatives after which I returned home.

        I would go to Neola for a few days visit occasionally. On one of these occasions, my son, James, his wife, Anna, one son, J, 2 daughters, Elda and Phebe, came on a visit. That was the latter part of July, 1927. They stayed about a week and then they left, I went with them. They went up into Idaho to visit some relatives. We had a splendid time. On our way back we visited in Salt Lake, and other Yeah counties with relatives. My son liked it there and stayed to see if he could get a place started and get his family out of Globe, Arizona, where they were then living. He stayed there till the following spring. The wife and children went on home. I went with them, and stayed with them for nearly 7 years.

        On one occasion, I was trying to help around with the washing, when I got my right hand in the electric wringer. Instead of reversing the wringer, I pulled my hand out and tore the flesh off quite badly. I was taken to the doctor who dressed and took care of my hand for about 3 weeks. He marveled at the way it healed and did not pain me to speak of. I slept all night with it the first night it was done.

        My grand-daughter, Clara Cluff, lived in Pinedale, Arizona. In 1934 I went to Pinedale to visit for a short time. While there my daughter, who was taking a trip with her son, Rulon and family, came for a visit at her daughter, Mrs. Cluff. They visited about a week. When they were leaving, I got Rulon to take me with them as far as Blanding, where my son, James, and his son, Klin were. I arrived there on the 3^rd of May, 1934.

        I stayed at my grandson Klin's home till 9 July 1934, when y son sent me to my daughters at Cedarview. In August of the same year Rulon moved to Vernal, leaving his mother and I alone in a rather isolated condition.