Sarah Sophia Newberry Pierce

NEWBERRY, PIERCE, CHAMBERS

Posted By: Isabel Vandervelde (email)
Date: 9/25/2003 at 13:45:39

Sarah S. Newberry was born 9 June 1843 in Jackson County, Iowa to Ansel and Sarah Tobin Newberry. She was the oldest of five children. Ansel died and mother married his relative, Constant Newberry, to have five more children. Sarah married Simon Pierce, Union veteran of the 2nd Cavalry, also from Jackson County. After having three daughters, Simon died in 1877 and is buried in Jackson County. Their fourth daughter was born after his death. Sarah moved with her daughters back into her mother's crowded house. Her oldest daughter died, and she decided to move, taking her children to Dakota Territory where she homesteaded in Douglas County in 1883 She built her own homestead shack and managed her own farm until marrying her widowed neighbor, Union Veteran William Chambers, who had three young children. William tried farming and managing several other farms but was not successful. Eventually William's brother, Francis Marion Chambers, was also widowed and left with seven children. He moved his family into Sarah and William's house, and eventually married her daughter, Danae F.M. and Danae had four children when William finally tired of supporting him. There was a family tiff and F.M. moved out. Sarah sold off her prosperous farm in 1905 and she and William moved to Sioux Falls, SD where they built a new home and invested in lots. Finally William died of heart failure while visiting his family back in Illinois. Sarah lived with her daughter, Viola, who was a widow, till her death in 1917 in Sioux Falls. Sarah was one of those many valiant women who homesteaded in their own name on the harsh Dakota prairie, and prospered in that difficult task.