Sarah Parkhill Boudinot (1832 - 1845)

My 3rd great grand aunt

February 24, 1832, The fourth child and third daugher of Elias and Harriett, was Sarah Parkhill Boudinot was born in the Cherokee Nation, East.

March 29, 1832, Harriett Gold Boudinot, New Echota, Georgia to her sister and brother-in-law Herman and Flora Gold Vaill, River Head, Connecticut

"gah sa gah the youngest, being only one month old-I shall not say much about her. She is probably like other children of her age. I love her. I cannot say we-for her Pa has not seen her-but if it is possible for a person to love an object he has not seen-I know he loves her."

August 15, 1836, Sarah's mother, Harriett Ruggles Gold Boudinot, dies at age thirty one. Sarah is only four and a half years old.

May 20, 1837, Elias Boudinot, New Echota, Georgia, to Benjamin and Eleanor Johnson Gold, Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut

Elias has married a second time to Delight Sargent, a missionary, and daughter of John and Delight Bell Sargent of Pawlet, Vermont. Elias writes, "Sarah is a substantial little girl of great independence."

June 22, 1839, Sarah's father, Elias, her cousin John Ridge and great uncle Major Ridge were murdered because they were three of the more than twenty who signed the 1835 Treaty of New Echota which signed over the land of the Cherokee to the United States. Sarah was only seven when her father was murdered.

August 30, 1845, Sarah died at age twelve years and six months in Washington, Litchfield, Connecticut and is buried in the Washington Cemetery, Washington, Litchfield, Connecticut.

September 24, 1845, Letter from Mary Boudinot to her Grandparents Benjamin and Eleanor Johnson Gold

"Ours is indeed a broken family. Three have already entered that unseen world from whence there is no return, while the remainder are left in different places to mourn their early departure. We do no lament them for their sakes, knowing that they are far better than they could have been on Earth; but we mourn our own loss which is great indeed."

December 09, 1845, Letter from Elinor Boudinot to Elizabeth Watie Webber, Washington, Litchfield, Connecticut

"You said you heard by a letter Rollin received from William that Sarah was very sick, she was sick a great while, but we hope now she is at rest and perfectly happy, with Pa and ma in heaven; she was willing to die and seemed to be entirely resigned to the will of God whatever it might be, she looked forward to death and spoke of it with as much calmness as if she had been thinking of visiting her friends at a distance. About 7 weeks before she dies she started to come to Washington, thinking it would benefit her health and at best be the means of her entire recovery. Mr. Frank and William came down with her, she bore the journey remarkably well and she seemed to grow better for awhile, but after three or four weeks she began gradually to fail till a few days before s[he] died when s[he] was taken suddenly a great deal worse, it [was] ...night, after that she could not eat any or [speak] but a very few words, till Friday night when [the] gentle spirit took its flight, to join Pa and [ma] and all the saints in singing the song of [redee]ming love for ever and ever, and if we would [live] again we must prepare to die. But I must not talk of her too much for it makes me very sad, all that we can say of her now is that she is gone; it is hard to realise, how soon the rest of us may be called or who first is unknown to any of us, the great thing is to prepare for death.

 *Typed as it was written in Cherokee Cavaliers, pp. 22-23.

Sources:

Artifacts, The American Indian Archaeological Institute, Vol. X, No. 4 Summer 1982, A Tale of Two Nations, Part III: The Brinsmades and the Boudinots, Karen Coody Cooper.

Cherokee Cavaliers, by Edward Everett Dale and Gaston Litton, University of Oklahoma Press, @1939, Foreward by James W. Parins @ 1995