CHAPMAN, Sarah Francis - Autobiography
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Sarah Francis Chapman
Autobiography - 1940
Here is a little of my history:
I, Sarah Francis Chapman was born in Salt Lake City on 4 East Street on the 17th of August, the year 1871. My father is Welcome and my mother, Catherine Ann Stayner Chapman. My grandmother Sarah Green Stayner, died while crossing the plains. She and her little son were buried. Their father Jesse Stayner, went to California to hunt gold and left my mother, her brother, and little sister with a woman that wasn't too good to them. My father's mother, Sybil Amadon Chapman, and his father, William, never joined the church. I think the work has been done for both families. Father was a friend of Joseph Smith, the prophet, and had very good ball games with him. As a little girl I used to go to Park City. My oldest brother, Jesse, lived there and I loved to go there and go with him to fish. When my little sister and I got larger, I used to go work for him. I was kept quite busy staying with one and another of my older brothers and sisters as my Father had a large family and we all had to do what we could to help ourselves. My mother used to wash to get our clothes clean. Father worked cutting rock for the Salt Lake Temple many years, from the bottom to the top of it. He worked many days all alone when they could not pay and it was so cold he had to make a fire on the rock to thaw it so he could cut it. I used to carry his dinner sometimes. I would go on the street car. It was pulled by a pair of little mules and they had little bells on them. We would think it was a very slow ride these days but we didn't think it was then. Another thing we don't have now is the way they lighted the streets of Salt Lake with coal oil lamps on posts. A man would run along from one post to another with his little ladder and light each one every night with a match. When I was 16, I was married and came to Sanpete and now I have raised my family of five children. Three boys and two girls. Now I am 69 years old and have 32 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren.