Sarah Ann (Fowler) Albritton (1823 - 1875)

Sarah Ann Fowler was the daughter of Richard and Sarah Fowler. She was born in Monroe County Alabama, but her family moved to Snow Hill, Wilcox County Alabama about 1827. Sarah Ann grew up on her father's farm a few miles north of Snow Hill. About 1842, her older sister, Milly, married George Washington Albritton. Milly and George had two children before she died about 1846. The next year, George left his two motherless sons with their grandparents and joined the group of Snow Hill residents who emigrated from central Alabama to Union Parish Louisiana. In late 1849, he returned to Snow Hill and on 3 January 1850, he married Sarah Ann. They soon returned to his new home in Union Parish, along with his two sons and his mother. Later that year, Sarah Ann's parents sold their Snow Hill farm and joined their daughters in Louisiana.

Sarah Ann and George Albritton built a large planting operation on Bayou d'Loutre about seven miles east of Farmerville. Besides raising his two sons, they had nine children of their own before his death in 1867.

After George’s death, with the help of her nephews (and step-sons), Sarah Ann Fowler Albritton continued to operate their farm and raise her children. In the early 1870s, Sarah Ann Fowler Albritton began the process of adding additional acreage to her existing farm, filing a homestead application on 26 November 1872 to purchase 40.17 acres of adjoining land. She requested that application be cancelled the following year, but she filed another homestead application on a different adjoining 40.19-acre tract of land on 28 January 1875. On that day, she swore that she intended to settle upon that tract as required by government policy. However, Sarah Ann Fowler Albritton died later that year on October 4th at only fifty-two years of age. When she filed her final homestead application, she made her mark to all documents, corroborating other records that imply that, like her mother and sisters, she was illiterate.

Sources

• Richard Fowler Family Bible
• Wilcox County Marriage Bonds
• Union Parish LA Federal Census records
• Monroe, Louisiana Land Office Homestead Application #92, Sarah Ann Albritton (widow), filed 26 Nov 1872, cancelled 24 Jan 1873; Homestead Application #520, Sarah Ann Albritton (widow), filed 28 Jan 1875, relinquished 14 Feb 1878