Person:Sarah Bridges (10)

Sarah Helen was raised in Kansas. Born on the Solomon River in (maybe in Dickinson Co,) then moved to Beloit. She liked to ride horses. She must have been one of her parents youngest children, because she supposedly had nieces and nephews older than she was. She loved music and had a beautiful soprano voice. She cared for her ailing mother before she died. Sarah Helen had a poor marriage to George Kelley. He left her (after beating her up) with two small boys in Kansas. She lived, for awhile, with her father and step-mother. She then worked in a childrens home (orphanage) where she could have room and board for herself and the two boys. Sarah's brother, George Bridges, arranged for a marriage to James L. Dutton--an acquaintance from the Civil War. James was a captain in the Civil War. He was taken prisoner and spent the last 11 months of the war in Cap Ford at Tyler,Texas. He traveled after the war, heading to California, then Oregon, and settling in the Washingotn Territory. Mr. Dutton had a "place" in Garfield, Washington. Sarah packed George and Harry and came west on the train. It took several weeks to get to Walla Walla. They lived, cooked, did laundry, socialized and slept on the train. It had a Pot Belly stove to keep warm--it was winter time. She met James Dutton in the Dacres Hotel (which is still there) in Walla Walla, Washington. James was a farmer in the Garfield Washington area, so the last part of the journey to her new home was by covered wagon. Upon arrival there, they were married in the Merchants Hotel. After living for a short time in Garfield, they soon packed up and moved to Douglas Co, east of Wenatchee--an area called Mountain Precinct. Aunt Nina Dutton tells of wheat harvests and "teams" of horses with all the neighbors helping with harvest. Sarah's "Dutton" children were born in Douglas Co: Benjamin 1889-1901, Nora 1892-?, Amy 1895-?, and Nina (Brigham) 1897-1989. Years later, Sarah and James spend a few years in Tennessee, where James died and she collected a Cival War Widows Pension (1926-27?). After James died, she moved to California to live with one of her daughters. Sarah was a Presbyterian most of her life, but became a Seventh-Day-Adventist later in her years. We believe she is buried in Lodi, California.