Person:Mary Harman (1)

BEP Mary Sarah was born on a chilly day 21st November 1840 in London, Middlesex, England. Her father, Joseph Harmon was born the 22nd October 1816 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England was a shoemaker by trade. He died on the 6th August 1890 in Saint George, Utah. Her mother, Mary Smith, was born on the 18th November 1823 in New Castle-on-Tyne, Northumberland, England and died on the 4th March 1878 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Mary Sarah had one older brother, George Joseph Harmon Born on the 10th June 1836 and one younger sister Elizabeth born on the 5th October 1845, both also born in London, Middlesex, England.

While living in England Mary Sarah’s family met the Latter-day-Saint Missionaries and became interested in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her father Joseph, was baptized on the 27th January 1855. The information we have is that Mary Sarah was baptized on the 2nd March 1855. We are not sure when her mother Mary was baptized but she was re- baptized later when she went to St. George and other members of her family were baptized also.

The family began preparing for the trip to Utah soon after Baptism. Mother (Mary) and daughters, Mary Sarah and Elizabeth (of 49 Great Cambridge St. Hackney Road, London, England sailed from Liverpool, (notification date 15th November 1855) on the ship Emerald Isle. They arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1856 where the family lived for a number of years. Father (Joseph) and son George were not listed among the passengers but they most likely were working their way over for their passage on the ship.

While the family was living in Pennsylvania, Mary Sarah met a young man named Henry Augustus Baker. Henry was born in Philadelphia on the 8th August 1836. The “love-bug” did his job and they were married on the 5th June 1861 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Henry had been previously married to Sarah Lucille Vickery and they had a daughter, Emma Erilla, Born on the 19th November 1859. Lucille died the day after Emma was born on the 20th November 1859, so Mary Sarah became a mother very quickly. She loved little Emma Erilla as if she were her own. Mary Sarah was a very lovely young woman with beautiful dark hair very much like her mother.

Henry, Mary Sarah and Emma left Pennsylvania early in August 1862 and went to Florence, Nebraska and joined a group of Mormon Pioneers coming to Utah. They came across the plains to Utah in Ansel P. Harmon’s ox-team Company. During the first 4-5 weeks after leaving the Missouri River, the group suffered much sickness, mainly measles. They lost twelve children to the measles. Also they had a couple of wagons up-set where they lost two more children and several adults were injured and many problems occurred along the trail, but they made it. They arrived in the Salt Lake territory on the 5th October 1862 (also see Church Journal History, Sept. 24 & Oct. 1862). They continued to live in Salt Lake City 13th Ward, about 3rd South and 3rd East, also in the 18th Ward. While in Salt Lake they had five children: Henry Augustus Harmon Baker on the 12th October 1863, then four girls: Mary Catherine Baker on the 10th November 1865, Suzanna Weir Baker on the 8th May 1867, Elizabeth Melvina Baker on the 1st Sept. 1869 and Isabelle Baker on the 21st February 1874.

Mary Sarah was called home to her Heavenly Father when the youngest was only two years old (Isabelle our Grandmother). The family was in the 18th Ward at that time. She was thirty-five years old. This was hard on Henry, not only to lose his second wife but still having a young family to raise. Emma, being the eldest was a big help to her father in helping with the younger children. The 1st son, Henry Augustus had passed away when he was not quite two years old so the five girls were left. Henry soon moved his family to Kelso, Idaho.

Mary Sarah was a wonderful woman and a very good mother She raised five beautiful girls, and I know because my Grandmother was one of them!

1.   Smith, George. Family History of Henry Augustus Baker. (Salt Lake City, UT : Smith, 1973).
2. ↑ LDS Church. IGI v5.0.

   Lists baptism, endowment, and sealing to spouse (Henry)

3.   England. 1851 Census Returns for England and Wales. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class: HO107; Piece: 1525; Folio: 464; Page: 5; GSU roll: 174755.

   Civil parish of St. Botolph Aldersgate (Reg Dist: East London, Sub-Reg Dist: Cripplegate)
   Enum Dist 2b, Household Schedule 25, 23 St Edmund Place
   Joseph Harmond, head, mar, 34, --- & beef cutter, born Buckinghamshire
   Mary Harmond, wife, 34, born Scotland
   G. Harman, son, 12, painter on glass, born London
   M. S. Harman, dau, 10, London
   Elizth Harman, dau, 5, London

   Lists baptism, endowment, and sealing to spouse (Henry)

4.   Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1851 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
   Original data: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1851. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1851.