JOSEPH W. DUDLEY AND SARAH JANE JENKINS
After her husband's death in a mine explosion at Cwmbach, Aberdare, Wales
May 10, 1852, Anna Evans Jenkins took in boarders to help meet the
expenses of raising her young family. Later she married one of these boarders,
a man by the name of Thomas Williams.
Sarah Jane, my grandmother, was the oldest of the three
girls born to this marriage. She was born August 2, 1854 in Cwmbach,
Glamorganshire, Wales.
Soon after the birth of Mair,
(Mary) the youngest daughter, the marriage came to an end. These girls were
raised by the name of Jenkins and later were sealed to David Jenkins in the Logan
Temple.
Little is known of the childhood of Sarah Jane but it is
assumed that she attended the type of school they had then and did her share of
the work as all children did in those days.
David and Esther, her older brother and sister, came to America
and worked to earn money to bring the rest of the family. At the age of 13
Sarah Jane came to the United States
with her mother and other brothers and sisters. They lived in Salt
Lake for a few months and then
moved to Logan to be near their
father's sister. In the fall of 1869 the family moved to Samaria,
Idaho to obtain farm land and to be near
old friends from Wales
who had settled in this part of the country.
From a history of Sarah Jane's mother written by Esther
J. Carpenter, we learned that Sarah Jane was sent to Salt
Lake to live with the John Masters'
family while she learned the dressmaking trade. She returned to Samaria
where she did sewing for other people.
She met Joseph W. Dudley, a young man who was teaching
school and homesteading in the nearby community of Cherry Creek. They were
married in the Endowment House on May
15, 1876. They spent the first winter in Willard with his folks
returning in the spring to their farm in Cherry Creek where their six children
were born.
In 1880 her husband was elected to the Territorial
Congress of Idaho. While he was away she took care of the family and managed
the home.
On March 7, 1885
she was sustained as the first president of the Relief Society of the Cherry
Creek Ward which office she held until she moved to Malad
in 1889. In October of 1885 her husband, Joseph, was sustained as Bishop of the
Cherry Creek ward. He served in this capacity until he was released on September 16, 1889.
In the fall of 1889 her husband gave up farming and moved
to Malad and went into the mercantile business. After
moving to Malad, Sarah Jane became very ill and died September 7, 1890 at the age of 36.
Wishing to be near her mother and sister who had preceded her in death, she was
buried in the Samaria Cemetery.
Her husband died September 7, 1910
and was buried beside her.
- Duluth A.
Allen, Granddaughter
