Early Texans DNA Project
Sarah Jane Frost
1830 - 1879 (49 years)Parker-Frost - John Berry Parker and Sarah Jane Frost - Brief bio
Sarah Jane Frost was born in 1830 in Illinois to Samuel M. Frost and his wife Elizabeth. (Source 1) In the fall of 1833, Sarah Jane, with her parents Samuel and Elizabeth and her nine siblings, left Crawford County, Illinois, as part of a wagon train headed by Daniel Parker and made up of multiple families who were emigrating to Texas together as members of the Pilgrim Predestinarian Regular Baptist Church of Jesus Christ. On 3 November 1833, Samuel and his family, including Sarah Jane, were sworn in as colonists of the Sterling C. Robertson Colony in Texas. (2)
Between 1834 and 1835, Sarah Jane's father Samuel received multiple land grants. (3) The colonists built Fort Parker in what is now Limestone County. On 19 May 1836, Sarah Jane's father Samuel and her brother Robert were killed when Indians attacked the fort. Young Sarah Jane fled the fort with her mother and siblings, surviving the attack.
Sarah Jane married John Berry Parker on 27 September 1847. (4) That same year, Sarah Jane's sister, Julie Ann, died leaving three young orphaned sons. Sarah's husband, John, was appointed legal guardian of these boys; Sarah Jane and John raised her orphaned nephews. (5) Sarah Jane and John had between seven and ten children of their own, one of whom was Emma Georgiana Priscilla Parker who would live to be 100 years old and would provide many rich details of the family's early years.
In 1857, John and Sarah Jane found themselves embroiled in Frost family drama that made its way to the Texas Supreme Court when Sarah Jane's brother, Joel J. Frost, collaborated with Felix Gorman to fraudulently sell Frost family land partially owned by John and Sarah Jane. (6) For most of their lives, Sarah Jane and John farmed near or in Limestone County, Texas. (7) Their daughter, Emma, claims that Sarah Jane died 12 January 1879 five days after her husband John.(8)
Sources:
1. 1830 US census, Clark County, Illinois, p. 62; NARA M19, roll 23; FHL Film: 0007648. 1850 US census, Anderson County, Texas, p. 17A; NARA M432, roll 908. More research on Sarah's parents is in process.
2. Malcolm Dallas McLean, "Papers Concerning Robertson's Colony in Texas," Volume 9, October 1834, through March 20, 1835, Sarahville de Viesca, book, 1982; Arlington, Texas, p 123.
3. Malcolm Dallas McLean, "Papers Concerning Robertson's Colony in Texas," Volume 9, October 1834, through March 20, 1835, Sarahville de Viesca, book, 1982; Arlington, Texas, p 45. Malcolm Dallas McLean, "Papers Concerning Robertson's Colony in Texas," Volume 10, book, 1983; Arlington, Texas, p 157.
4. Anderson County, Texas, Marriage Records, 1:37.
5. Anderson County, Texas, Probate Case Papers, 1846-1899.
6. Texas. Supreme Court, O.C. Hartley and R.K. Hartley and J. M. (John McQuesne) Patterson, John Sayles, and Texas. Supreme Court. The Texas Reports: Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court, Volume 19
(Austin, Texas: Gammel-Statesman Publishing Company, 1881), 255; online (https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.35112102774934 : accessed 27 April 2020).
7. 1850 US census, Anderson County, Texas, p. 17A; NARA M432, roll 908.
1860 US census, Limestone County, Texas, p. 343; NARA M653, roll 1300; FHL Film: 805300.
1870 US census, Limestone County, Texas, District 48 West Texas, p. 169A; NARA M593, roll 1596; FHL Film: 553095.
8. Eastern Cherokee Applications of the U.S. Court of Claims, 1906-1909, No 39454, Emma Taylor, pg 4.
| Linked to | Sarah Jane Frost; John Berry Parker |