Sarah Ann Hulks Hennefer
Sarah Ann Hulks was born in London, England, in 1823 and received formal schooling as a child, and as she grew, the training to be a seamstress. She married James Hennefer when she was twenty-three, in Longson but Burmingham, England, was where their first child, Lehi Hennefer, was born on July 5, 1847.
Sarah and James joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latt-day Saints and yearned for the opportunity to come to America and join the Saints in Utah. For several years they scrimped and saved then one day James came home with depressing news, his brother William was going to America, now, without them.
Sarah volunteered to pawn a precious wedding present, her silver spoons.
James gratefully accepted the gesture and received enough money to help pay for their six week journey on a wind vessel to America. James sent from America, the money to retrieve the spoons and they became a talisman of security to the couple, being pawned and retrieved several times during their marriage. The spoons were an inheritance divided among their children.
Somewhere between St. Louis, Missouri, and Kanesville, Iowa, Sarah gae birth to a daughter, Charlotte Hennefer, who died shortly afterward and was left in a grave beside the trail. James and Sarah lived in Kanesville for two years working to continue their journey.
In 1853, they completed their sojourn and arrived in Utah with the Hodgett Wagon Train. They lived in Salt Lake for a while, and then with James' brother, William and his family, moved to a beautiful valley on the banks of the Weber River in what is now Summit County, Utah. Summers were spent in their mountan ranch and winters in Salt Lake City.
They took up 100 acres of land right on the Mormon Trail and there they built a sturdy log house. The windows were barred shutters, the door4s made of heavy planks, and the floors firmly packed clay blocks laid as close ogether as possible, a heavy dried mud roof completed the house.
They settled permanently in Henefer, one of the two first families. Sarah was an expert glove maker and seamstress. She taught school and she and another woman made the first American flag to fly over Henefer.
Sarah died in her own home on August 19, 1880, and is buried beside her husband in Henefer.
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