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Sarah Ann (Sanders) McEuen (1857 - 1942)

Sarah Ann McEuen formerly Sanders
Born in Meridian, Lauderdale, Mississippi, United Statesmap
Ancestors ancestors
Wife of — married 6 Aug 1874 in McCulloch, Texas, United Statesmap
Descendants descendants
Died at age 84 in Fort Thomas, Graham, Arizona, United Statesmap
Problems/Questions
Profile last modified | Created 2 Aug 2012
This page has been accessed 169 times.

Biography

The A F McEuen family written by Evangeline McEuen Jernigan

The A.F. McEuen family arrived in the lower Gila Valley in 1890, settling near Indian Hot Springs, and across the Gila River from Fort Thomas, established as Camp Thomas in 1876, and phased out two years after their arrival.

The McEuens were know as Clan Eoghain nah Oitrick, the MacEwens of Otter. In 1575 the clan had become scattered. It was from the north of Ireland they came to America about 1800, staying three years in Philadelphia where the family business was glass-making. It was at this time the Protestant members changed the spelling to McEuen, with some moving on south to Lexington, Kentucky, where they owned an iron foundry.

Amos Felix, son of Elizabeth M. Ray and Edward Waldemard McEuen was born September 8, 1848, in Hanson, near Madison­ville, Kentucky, the second of twelve children.

Felix worked on his father's tobacco plantation until he was 22 years old. Tiring of this, in 1870, he with his brother Frank, started on the long journey west. After a few days Frank returned to the family home. Felix continued on, stopping first in Missouri, where he wrote his parents of the beauty of the new country, saying it was such a healthy place to live an old man and woman had to be killed to start the first cemetery.

Felix traveled on to Camp San Saba, Texas, where he met up with the Perry Sanders family, who had come from Mississippi in 1858. He fell in love and married Sarah Ann, daughter of Margaret Lemons and Alexander Perry Sanders, on August 6, 1874, in McCulloch County. He was 26, and she was 17.

Sarah Ann went to school in a log school house where she got a very common education. After their marriage they were very poor and moved around Texas quite a lot. Felix fell in with buffalo hunters in Tom Green County, selling the hides and drying much of the meat for home use. When the buffalo drifted north, Felix went to Bell County, where he worked on the Santa Fe Railroad, event­ually purchasing a place in McCulloch County with a house of sorts on it. He cleared, land, and put in a crop, only to have a drought set in.

The couple's first child, Jody Edgar, died at five years of age. Edward Wallace, Marion Perry, and Virgil Ray, were born in Camp San Saba, Texas.

Felix and Sarah sold out in 1884 and with their growing family, household, and cattle, moved by covered wagon to the Sacramento Mountains, near Weed, New Mexico, where they homesteaded. Pearl Elena was born to them there. They soon sold this place, and with their cattle moved back to Texas, where Laura Lottie was born. Later Felix took Sarah and their four small children for a visit to his parents in Kentucky, making the journey by train.

Following his return to Texas, Felix learned of the death of his father in Kentucky, and of the inheritance of quite a sum of money. With this he bought another bunch of cattle, and hit the trail once again for New Mexico. Due to the severe cold and snow of that winter of 1887, so many of his cattle died that he moved on into Arizona in the fall of 1888, stopping first in the Bisbee area, where he hauled timber from the Chiricahua Mountains to the mines. Amos Felix, Jr., was born in the Chiricahua Mountains.

The family was camped near Fort Bowie on January 1, 1890, with the "Major" Perry Wallace Sanders family. He was Sarah's brother. They were on the move to the Gila Valley, where they settled permanently on 160 acres one mile below Indian Hot Springs, purchased from Wiley Holladay. The land had been homesteaded by Daniel W. Holladay on March 20 of 1888. Felix registered his homestead on the Public Domain with the General Land Office at Tucson, on August 14, 1898. The only house on the homestead was a log house. A good provider who wanted the best for his family, Felix had a fine two-story home built. The redwood used in its construction was shipped in from California.

Born to them here, was Aron Custor, who lived only six and a half months. He was buried in the McEuen Cemetery. Lillie Hazel, Archie Albert, and J.N. Porter, were born on the ranch. For a short time the family returned to Bisbee, where Felix had employment. Laura Louie was married to Lee Barnett at the family residence in nearby Lowell.

Felix's ranching operations consisted of 130 sections of range land north of Fort Thomas and the Gila River, in the Gila Mountain range. As his sons married, each homesteaded near his home, and each was given a one-seventh interest in the range lands.

Felix served for 17 years as a deputy sheriff of Graham County. He was a highly respected and successful cattleman - a southern gentlemen, a staunch Republican, and a very reserved man of few words who went about his business in his own quiet way, always doing for others, paying doctor bills, and going on notes he often had to pay off. His children well remember his paying off a note of $3,000 he had co-signed for a Thatcher merchant.

A religious man, Felix had his family loaded in the wagon and off to Shiloh for church on Sundays. Sarah was truly a Christian, living for her church and her children. A Methodist, as was Felix, she was deeply religious, living her religion every day of her life.

She beseeched her children to lead Christian lives, always affirming her strong faith in God. She never turned a soul from her door. The many years spent on the ranch, her home always had a few strays around. Her children delighted in playing pranks to discourage these "sweaters," careful Sally did not catch them.

Her home was also headquarters for the itinerant preachers, rid­ing the circuit. They were the butt of many a prank, the combined efforts of six sons, and three fun-loving daughters.

The home was also home to Elias Jones, a young boy of 16 whom they knew in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico, and who came to live with them in 1900. Known to all as just "Jones" or "Jonsey" he stayed on until his marriage to Kate Elmer.

Felix was seriously injured in a car-pedestrian accident in Long Beach, California, which nearly took his life, and had him hospitalized for many months. He came to Globe to be near his daughters, to recuperate. The farm was sold to Virgil. Felix returned to Fort Thomas, where he suffered a stroke which left him an invalid. He died on September 20, 1933, at the age of 85.

Funeral services were held in the Fort Thomas High School, and burial followed in the McEuen Cemetery at the family ranch.

Sally continued to enjoy good health. On her 78th birthday, she could read and write without her glasses, and remained thankful to God for her health and strength, all those years, to care for herself and Willis, a grandson, who was now 15 years old.

In 19__ Sally moved to Globe to make her home with daughter Pearl. After school was out that spring, she was lonesome for Fort Thomas, and she and Willis moved back. Each morning until her death, she called at the homes of her children, always deeply interested in their welfare, and proud of their accomplishments.

On the morning of May 23, 1942, she passed away peacefully, at the age of 83. Her funeral was held in the Fort Thomas High School, and she was buried in the family cemetery.

Sarah Ann and Felix left their children a great and wonderful heritage. They were solid citizens, devout, sturdy, moral and intellectual.

By: Evangeline McEuen Jernigan

Sources





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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Sarah by comparing test results with other carriers of her mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known mtDNA test-takers in her direct maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Sarah:

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Rejected matches › Sarah Saunders (abt.1854-)

S  >  Sanders  |  M  >  McEuen  >  Sarah Ann (Sanders) McEuen

Categories: McEuen Cemetery, Graham, Arizona