Searching for Sarah Stephens

I’ve been doing a little research in preparation for this year’s February Writing Challenge. My focus will be on the Stephens family which immigrated to Platteville, Grant, Wisconsin. The forerunners arrived in 1840 and most of the rest of the “colony”, as they became known, following in 1842.

Working my way through the children of James and Mary (Murrish) Stephens and trying to fill out their lives, I’ve run into a snag – really one of many but this is today’s topic – with daughter, Sarah aka Sally. Sarah went to Platteville from Perranzabuloe, Cornwall, England with her mother in 1842. She married Warner C. Moore in 1847 and they lived together in Muscoda, Grant, Wisconsin through 1880. Warner died before January 9, 1873 when Sarah filed for a military pension as a widow since Warner had served in the Civil War in the Wisconsin Infantry.

I last find Sarah in the 1880 US Federal Census in Muscoda as the head of the household with her sons, James, Frank and Alfred. To date I’ve not uncovered death records or cemetery markers for either Warner or Sarah. Logically, Warner would be buried in Grant County since he and Sarah are in Muscoda before his death and Sarah and sons are there after his death. Sarah, on the other hand, may have moved from there after 1880.

In an effort to find her on the 1900 census, I’ve been tracing the paths of her children, thinking she may be living with one of them. She and Warner had seven children, two girls and five boys. I’ve been able to track down the girl’s married names but so far no luck finding Sarah. Maybe she died before 1900 but I haven’t found a death record either.

Well, at least she’s not a direct ancestor to me husband which means she’s not a deal breaker!