William Hastings & Sarah Smith

WILLIAM HASTINGS AND SARAH SMITH

(the writer of this history was not identified)

William was born the 21 of February 1824, at

Counter Thorpe, Lanchester, England.

Williams

parents were well off and they raised race horses. His
father, George Hastings, was an English Lord.

His

mother, Mary Parker Hastings, died when he was very

young and his father remarried so William lived with
his grandmother. In his youth, William and his brother,
Robert, went to South America to look after sheep that
their father owned.

While there, William met some

Mormon Elders and joined the Church then sailed for

America. We have not been able to locate his brother
Robert.

Sarah Smith Hastings age 90.

Sarah Smith was born 1 June,1830 in Winchester,

Hampshire, England to William Smith and Sarah
Ranger. Sarahs father was a very religious man and

was a member of the Church of England. When Sarahs friend invited her to hear
the Mormon missionaries, he forbad her to go listen to their message. She could not
understand why her father was so bitter when what the missionaries taught made
her feel so right. After Sarah went to a second meeting, her father told her to leave
and never come back. She got a few clothes from her room and left in the rain. She
slept in a barn that night and got herself a job the next day. Her dream from that
time on, was to go to America and be with members of the wonderful Church she
had joined.
Later Sarah found work as a cook on a ship which sailed to America. She
made friends with Mariah DeGray and family who were also on the same ship.
Another acquaintance was a young man named William Hastings. In Boston, Sarah
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was hired as a cook. She was good at this and could make 20 pies in twenty
minutes. William and Sarah continued their friendship as both saved money toward
their dream of being with the body of the Saints.

When church authorities

encouraged William and Sarah to marry and go to Utah they decided this was what
they wanted. Their wedding was on the 16th April, 1859.
They crossed the plains with the Edward Stevens Company in the summer of
1859.

Three children born to them in Salt Lake City:

Twin girls, Mary Louise

[Elizabeth] and Emily Louise and a boy, William Robert. Then William & Sarah
Hastings were called to come to Dixie. They arrived in Grafton, Nov. 1862. It rained
that year for forty days and forty nights and it was so cold that the river froze over.
They were living in a wagon box with the three small children, and only hot rocks
and lanterns for heat. In the Spring, a family moved away from Grafton, so William
bought the lot and the dugout home.
William and Sarah had five children born in Grafton: John Henry, Lucy Jane,
another set of twins - Hyrum and Joseph and then David. They raised a big orchard
of fruit, some hay and grain and a garden. William lived about twenty years in
Grafton. He died 8 November 1882, of hard work and lack of proper food.
Sarah lost her eye sight when she was fairly young and one time when asked
if she ever regretted leaving her home to join the Church, she said, No, the Bible
said if you are not willing to give up father, mother, sister, brother, you are not worthy
of the gospel. Another thing she always felt was that she had stayed in Boston for
three years so the Lord could send William to her.
After she was blind, she would still work, dry fruit, knit and keep her house.
Her boys built her a new home, but she did not want to move, so she lived in the
dugout. In 1911, the boys moved to Hurricane and one son built her a room on his
home. He went to Grafton and told her she had to come to live with him. She died
in Hurricane, October 1920. She was buried in Grafton.
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SARAH SMITH HASTINGS
(told by granddaughter, Bertha Wood Hall)

Sarah Smith was born in Winchester, Hampshire, England to Sarah Ranger

and William Smith on 1 June, 1830. She was raised under strict discipline. Her
father belonged to the Church of England. But she often talked of her mothers kind,
patient ways. She talked also of her brother, Richard, and sister, Dina, who was a
singer and acted on the stage some.
One evening when she was 17 or 18 years of age, a friend invited her to go
hear some men from America. She was very much impressed with what she heard.
She told her father of them and after he learned they were Mormons, he told her not
to go again. Sarah went again, however, and tried to tell him if he would go listen to
them, he wouldnt feel as he did. But her father flew into a rage, and told her to
leave. She went to the bedroom, put a few of her things out the window, and walked
out in the rain. She slept in a barn that night and the next day found work in a hotel.
She worked until she was 21 years old and was baptized at Portsmouth in 1851 by
William Edington.
Sarah came to America in June, 1856 on the ship Wellfleet. This was the
same one that the DeGray family came on. She worked as a cook on the ship. One
day she passed a door and heard someone crying. She went in and found a woman
with a very ill baby who was afraid it would die and be buried in the ocean. She
asked Sarah for help and Sarah told her of the Elders who could pray for the baby.
Sarah found the Elders who administered and immediately the baby began to
improve. Something told Sarah to get a piece of fried bacon for the baby. She did
this and the baby recovered. Sarah felt it was the power of the Priesthood and
promtings of the Holy Ghost which brought about the babys healing.
When Sarah arrived in America, she found work in Boston and later married
William Hastings, whom she had met on the ship. They were married by Robert
McKendrick. Sarah was a fast, competent worker and the DeGray girls told of one
instance when Kezia DeGray asked her to go with her to find work. Sarah told her
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she would as soon as she had made 20 pies, and in about 20 minutes she had them
made.
William and Sarah crossed the plains with the Edward Stevenson Company.
They built a little home in Salt Lake. There three children were born: twin girls
whom they named Mary Elizabeth & Emily Louise and a boy, William Robert. (There
is a mixup of who was born first, William Robert or the twin girls. Also, Mary was
known as Mary Louise, as well as Mary Elizabeth. Please see the notes with the
family group sheet for explainations.) Then the family came to Dixie arriving in
Grafton in November, 1861. At that time Grafton was a thriving community. Since it
was winter, they didnt have time to build a house so they camped in a wagon box,
cooked on a campfire, and rocked three babies to sleep. That winter it rained for
forty days and nights, and the Virgin River froze so you could walk across on the ice.
In the Spring, a family by the name of Romney moved away and William bought their
land and home - a dugout. It was a room about 12 X 14 ft. which was a hole dug in
the hill and walled up in front with two windows and a door. But with a stove and
fireplace, it was very comfortable. It had been used before as a place for Church
meetings when the people had just started settling Grafton.
William loved to garden and he planted a variety of fruit trees. There was a
lot of fruit dried in Southern Utah to be taken to other communities and traded for
food supplies and household needs.
More children were added to their family: John Henry was born 18 May 1864,
Sarah Jane [Lucy Jane] was born 8 Jun 1866, twin boys whom they named Joseph
and Hyrum were born 21 May 1868, and then David on 14 Oct 1872 .
They went through all the hardships of Dixie. Baby Sarah [Lucy] Jane died
when 1 and 1/2 years old, 8 Mar 1868. On November 8, 1882, Sarahs husband
died at the age of 58, leaving her to raise the family. Then she lost her oldest son at
the age of 27, on 18 Oct 1888. Sarah thought it was because the necessities for
living were so scarce and people had to work so hard without proper diet and
nutrition.
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Mary married Joel H. Johnson in Dec 1881
and went to Arizona to raise her family. Emily
married George H. Wood in Feb 1882 and lived
in Grafton. Hyrum married Maggie Dennett of
Rockville in Dec 1893.

John married Martha

Jepson in Sep 1900 and spent most of his life in

Hurricane.

Dave married Lydia Beebe in Jun

1901 and lived in Virgin.

Joseph married

Amanda Kemp in Aug 1902, also of Arizona.

Mary & Joel, and Joseph & Amanda were some
of the first settlers of Mesa, Arizona.
Twin daughters:
Emily Louise Hastings (Left)
Mary Elizabeth Hastings (Right)

John and Dave who were

still close to home built a house
on the hill for their mother. When

it was almost ready for the roof, Sarah lost her eyesight and was
afraid she would get mixed-up living in a new place, so stayed in her
familiar home - the dugout. She was blind for over 40 years, but
was always cheerful and loved to hear the newspaper read to her.
Twin boys:

Emily and Mary died at age 50 - their deaths were only six

Hyrum and Joseph Hastings

weeks apart. Mary died the 17 of October and Emily died December
1, 1909. This was hard for Sarah for she depended on Emily. But her grandchildren
and sons helped her the best they could.
The school closed down in Grafton when a lot of its people moved away. Most
of them moved to Hurricane to make their homes because the river washed away so
much land. Even though almost everyone was gone, Sarah still wanted to stay in
Grafton. But her children felt it was best that she be close to them so they could
take care of her. Her boys built her a room connected to Johns house in Hurricane
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as near like the one she lived in as possible. Sarah died Oct. 17, 1920, in Hurricane
but was taken back to Grafton for burial.
Beth H. Spendlove: a granddaughter of Wm. Hastings said:
I once asked my father, Dave Hastings, what his father looked like and he
said that he was not a large man, he was rather small and dark. He was very
precise and particular about his work. Aunt Emily Gibson told me he was the best
neighbor they ever had. He was an exceptional gardener and he loved to take
armloads of vegetables to his neighbors. Others have told me that he was not the
boss (but then what man is?) Grandma wore the pants.

Descendants at William and Sarah Hastings graves at

Grafton, Utah.
Left to Right:Arbon Hall, Wazel J. Hall, (in back) Keith W. Hall,
Tauna H. Navalta, (in back) Jeannine H. Davis, RDell Hall, Ferrel Hall

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