Never did the words from the hymn Come, Come Ye Saints describe anyone as they did Sister Sarah Pippin Jolley: "...gird up your loins, fresh courage take, our God will never us forsake. And soon we'll have this tale to tell. All is well. All is well." What a tale Sarah Pippin Jolley had to tell. I wonder how many times she bore her testimony over the year of the blessings she received for showing courage in the face of trials, losing her husband on the plains, crossing the plains with 8 children, accepting calls to settle numerous parts of Utah.
To David, Travis and Kevin: In the future there will probably come a time when you are asked to speak in Church around the 24th of July, Pioneer Day. When you do, I want you to remember two things: (1) that Grandma (Lois Fae Linnebach Rampton) was born on Pioneer Day and never got a birthday party since her family always went fishing on that holiday and (2) Sarah Pippin Jolley.
This is a history written by Sarah's granddaughter.
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History of Reuben Manning Jolley and Sarah Pippin Jolley by the their Granddaughter
Reuben Manning Jolley, son of Henry and Frances Manning Jolley, was born in North Carolina. His parents were well-to-do farmers and owned land and slaves. In 1825 Henry Jolley and family moved to the western part of Tennessee, near Dresden. Reuben Manning was a young man about seventeen years old, and being the oldest son, was his father's assistant at the time.
Sarah Pippin, daughter of Loftis and Mary Hall Pippin, was born in Franklin County, North Carolina, twenty-five miles east of Raleigh. When Sarah was fourteen years old the Pippins moved to the Western part of Tennessee in Weakley County where she met her future husband. On January 13, 1829 Reuben Manning Jolley and Sarah Pippin were married. Both of them were very young. He was not yet twenty-one and she was several months under seventeen.
Reuben Manning and Sarah Pippin Jolley settled near Dresden where they, lived for thirteen years and seven of their children were born there.
When Mary Ann was about three years old she put her mouth over the spout of a boiling tea kettle which caused her death February10, 1839. She was buried in Dresden.
It was at their home near Dresden that the Gospel was brought to Reuben Manning and Sarah Pippin Jolley by two Mormon missionaries, who gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon and said they would visit them again. Believing the marvelous things they had heard to be true, they set about reading the Book of Mormon and were soon converted to the righteousness. Reuben Manning Jolley and wife Sarah Pippin Jolley were baptized February 18, 1842.
On April 21, 1842, the family started for Nauvoo to be with the body of the Church. When the command came to build a temple the Jolley family was ready to serve. Reuben Manning and his older sons worked until the temple was completed.
The family had very litt1e of this world's goods. They had sacrificed and struggled to bring their large family from Tennessee, but they worked hard and were thankful for what they had.
Reuben Manning Jolley was ordained au Elder January 12, 1844. Grandma wrote, in the sketch she left, that she and her husband received their endowments in the Nauvoo Temple, January 5, 1846. She also wrote that after the martyrdom of the Prophet and Patriarch, they were in the crowd which followed the bodies to the Mansion. They were again on the morrow to gaze upon their faces.
When Joseph Loftis was six weeks o1d the family crossed the Mississippi River, May 6, 1846. They stopped at Kaeusuaga, Iowa, where they lived two years.
Henry Gideon, their tenth child, was born in Kaeusuaga, November 28, 1848.
The parents and children worked hard to get means to continue their journey. After twenty days of illness, Reuben Manning Jolley died of pneumonia. April 29, 1849. He was buried in the cemetery at Kaeusuaga, Iowa.
Grandma wrote in her sketch: "I was left with nine children; no house nor home; my babe in my arms and among stranger. I was broken up. He told me on his death bed that he was going to leave me for a while but he wanted me, as soon as I could, to go to the valley of the mountains, to the bosom of the Church, and take all of the children with me. I strove to do so and have ever borne it in mind."
June 2, 1849 grandma and her children started for Council Bluffs, where they spent theWinterof1849. Grandma wrote that she had a hard time getting food and clothing for her children. The cholera was very bad; two of the children came near unto death, but the Hand of the Lord was over them and He saw fit to spare them, grandma said.
June 6, 1850, the brave little mother and children started for the Salt Lake Valley, where they arrived in September 1850. They were met on Emigration Street by their grandfather, Henry Jolley, who had arrived in the valley two years before. He took them to his home. Grandma wrote that times in the valley were very hard and not much food.
The crickets had devoured most of the crops, but the grandfather had traded a corner of his lot for a cow so the children could have milk.
Later in the year of 1850 grandma and family were called to go to what is now Pleasant Grove, Utah, accompanied by their grandfather. The boys built a smal1 house to help make a fort.
Henry Jolley did not live long but died of pneumonia, December 20, 1850, at Pleasant Grove.
Washington Lafayette was sent to Texas to preach the Gospel in 1852.
Grandma moved in 1852 with her children to Springville, then on to Spanish Fork and then to Payson, where on of her boys was shot by Indians as he stood guard for the to town. Her son, William, as ambushed east of Springville and shot in the arm.
William recovered but Pelic Berry who was shot in the eye, never got over it and died from its effects November 12, 1862.
In 1862 the Jolley family was called to help settle Utah's Dixie. Grandma answered the call with her children and suffered the hardships incident to that barren part of the state. She helped in the planting and cultivation of cotton. She carded and spun it and, with the loom she had brought with her from Nauvoo, made clothes for her family.
After the completion of their mission, grandma and the younger members of the family came north to Moroni, Sanpete County, where she spent the remaining years of her life. She studied and became a midwife, which profession she practiced until she was in her seventies.
Grandma's little home still stands on the main street of Moroni, where she lived so many years and was honored as a noble mother and held in respect as a superior woman.
Sarah Pippin Jolley remained true and faithful to the Gospel and taught the Book of Mormon in Sunday School many years. She was loved, honored and revered by her children, among them were missionaries, bishops and patriarchs. She passed away December 11, 1889, at Moroni and was buried on a knoll overlooking the cemetery. A tall, beautiful white monument marks the sacred spot.
by Lydia Jolley Sheffield (grand-daughter)
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