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Facts and Events
| Name |
Sarah Kirkham |
| Gender |
Female |
| Alt Birth[2] |
15 Feb 1726 |
Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, United States |
| Birth[2] |
21 Feb 1726 |
Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, United States |
| Marriage |
27 Oct 1748 |
Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, United Statesto Solomon Deming |
| Alt Death[2] |
15 Mar 1818 |
Pittsfield, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United StatesEast Part Cemetery |
| Death[2] |
18 Mar 1818 |
Pittsfield, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States |
| Burial[2] |
|
Pittsfield, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United StatesEast Part Cemetery |
History of Pittsfield, p. 86 and 87:
"…by the summer of 1752, which is usually accounted the birth-year of Pittsfield, some of the settlers had log-cabins ready to receive their families. And first came Solomon Deming, from Wethersfield, with his wife Sarah behind him on the pillion. She was a maiden of seventeen when Solomon first essayed to provide them a dwelling-place in the wilderness of the Green Mountains. Now a brave young good-wife of twenty-six, she entered Poontoosuck, the first white woman who ever
called it home.
[footnote: "The town of Pittsfield has erected a neat obelisk of marble to the memory of Mrs. Deming, in the little burial-ground on Honasada Street, near the spot where she fixed her home in 1752. The following inscriptions embody the traditions handed down regarding her:
South Side.-This monument is erected by the town of Pittsfield to commemorate the heroism and virtues of its first female settler, and the mother of the first white child born within its limits.
North. - Surrounded by tribes of hostile Indians, she defended, in more than one instance, unaided, the lives and property of her family, and was distinguished for the courage and fortitude with which she bore the dangers and privations of a pioneer life."
From Find a Grave site:
Married Solomon Deming 27 Oct 1748. They tried to move to Pittsfield in 1749 but ended up in Stockbridge for 2-3 years for safety from the Indians. Solomon brought his wife Sarah to Pittsfield on a pillion in 1752 with their 3 year-old son. Daughter of Henry & Martha (Burr) Kirkham, she was the 1st white woman in Pittsfield. According to the Local History section of the Berkshire Athenaeum at Pittsfield, the "widow" Sarah Deming d. March 18, 1818, per the Congregational Church records. However, there is no corresponding death record for husband Solomon. Solomon is shown in the 1790 census of Pittsfield, but not in the August 1800 or August 1810 census of Pittsfield.
Find A Grave contributor Anonymous adds this obit published Wednesday, March 25, 1818, Boston Daily Advertiser (Boston, MA), Volume: XX, Issue: 71, Page: 2:
DIED: In Pittsfield, 15th inst. Mrs. Abigail [sic] Deming, relict of the late Mr Solomon Deming, aged 92, being the oldest female in town. She was the first woman that went to that place, and was the mother of the first child born there.
[Date of death is March 15, 1818.]
References
- The History of Pittsfield
Vol 1, page 87.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 .
Tombstone: [2]
Tombstone gives only month and year of birth and death.
- Inscription on Tombstone:
Sarah Deming Born in Wethersfield, Ct. Feb. 1726
Died in Pittsfield, Mass. March 1818, Aged 92 yrs.
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