Sarah Keyes

Two reasons have been given as to why the ailing70 year old Mrs. Keyes decided to emigrate to California. According to diarists Edwin Bryant and George McKinstry, Mrs. Keyes was hoping to meet her youngest son, Robert Cadden, on the trail. Years later, however, Virginia Reed Murphy reported that her grandmother could not bear to be parted from her only daughter. For either or both of these reasons, Grandma Keyes rode in a bed in the comfortable wagon that Reed had built for his family. On May 20, Reed wrote his brother-in-law:

   I am affraid Your mother will not stand it many week[s] or indeed days, if there is not a quick change... I have been talking this moment with Your Mother[.] She says she feels very much like she was going to die one of her eyes pains her much and She is so blind that she cannot take her coffee or plate if it is set near her this morning[.] She cannot eat anything I am of [the] opinion a few days will end her mortal carear

Nine days later, while the company was stopped at the Big Blue River, Sarah Keyes died. Her death was a blow to Margret Reed. The funeral was conducted with as much ceremony as circumstances allowed.

http://user.xmission.com/~octa/DonnerParty/Reed.htm#Sarah%20Handley

Sarah Handley, born in 1784, married Humphrey Keyes in 1803, died May 29, 1846 near Manhattan, Kansas while enroute to California with the Reed and Donner Party.

GEDCOM Source

@R-1194386597@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=85041781&pid...

Sarah Handley Keyes
BIRTH
1776
Monroe County, West Virginia, USA
DEATH
29 May 1846 (aged 69–70)
Alcove Spring, Marshall County, Kansas, USA
BURIAL
Sarah Handley Keyes Burial Site
Alcove Spring, Marshall County, Kansas, USA

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58617582/sarah-keyes