Frances Camelia Sagers

Daughter of Sara Giles Bryant and William Brittan Adams of Massachusetts, who settled at Tooele, Tooele, Utah.

Known as "Camelia", her mother, Sara, had died when the little girl was 10 years old. Less than 5 years later, her father married Martha Ann Utley, who was then only three years older than Camelia.

There are two stories of her journey to the Salt Lake Valley - the first being that, in 1850, she was a "runaway bride", who had been encouraged to marry an older man, and had (on her wedding day) joined a west bound wagon train company to avoid consummation of the marriage.

This marriage (1) seems supported by a marriage license of April 3, 1852 - that of a "Wm Chatwin to Francis C. Adams, Pottawattamie, Iowa". The story of her hiding out on an earlier (1850) wagon train, coming to Utah prior to her family's crossing in 1852, does not compute with this date.

It is more likely, since she is listed, along with her father & stepmother, on the roster of the Allen Weeks Wagon Company which departed 13 July 1852, that she probably avoided living with the new wed husband, but that she was in the company of her family.

In July of 1852, they joined a wagon train of LDS immigrants headed for the Great Salt Lake Valley in Utah Territory. The company was led by Captain Allen Weeks. Her family consisted of father William (38), stepmother Martha Ann (20), Camelia (17), sister Mary Eliza (15), sister Sarah Melvina (12) and half sister Martha Ann E. (22 months).

A few days after departing, cholera began to sicken several pioneers and the first died by the 12th of July. After just 13 days on the trail, tiny Martha Ann E. Adams died on Sunday, the 25th at about 4 P.M. Her mother, being 3 months with child, was also very ill and the camp struggled with so many sick that they hardly made 20 miles in two days.

At about midnight on the 26th, Martha Ann Utley Adams died, leaving William a widower for the 2nd time and the Adams' girls without a mother again.

Their maternal grandmother died the following day, leaving no female to care for them.

The bedraggled father & his 3 girls arrived in Salt Lake City 12 October, that fall. Providing for them must have been a great struggle and probably led to the early marriage of Camelia about six weeks later.

On 3 December 1852, at 18, she married (2) Israel Chaffee Whiton, who was 20 years her senior. He was a polygamist and they had no children, so the duration of the union was only about three months (they soon parted).

Her father, William, migrated to Tooele, Tooele, Utah where he married a 3rd time to Mary Angeline Tuttle the following January. Carmelia must have followed shortly afterward as she married (3) 9 April 1853, William Henry Harrison Sagers, at Tooele. He was also 20 years older than she.

Their daughter, Eliza Jane, was born 25 September 1854 at Tooele. Another daughter, Mary Ann, was conceived prior to Camelia's separation from Sagers.

Camelia married (4) 22 February 1857 at the Salt Lake LDS Endowment House, John Newman Barker; her daughter, Mary Ann, was born 25 April 1857 and adopted by Barker. When this little girl died at 5 months old, John Newman Barker recorded in his journal, "Mary Ann Barker, daughter of Claudine Frances Camelia died October 4, 1857 at 3 o'clock. Buried in the Willow Creek burial grounds, age 5 months and 5 days." "Rest in peace sweet babe until the resurrection morn And then will burst the bond of death and call sweet Mary forth".

Barker also adopted Eliza Jane Sagers, thereafter known as Eliza Jane ("Jane") Barker.

Camelia and Barker's two sons were born in Salt Lake City, John Orson 1858 and William Edward 1860. When they moved to Wellsville, James Ephriam was born to Camelia in 1862.

She and John Newman Barker spent a time in Montana during the gold rush, leaving the children with Mary Ann, John's first wife, to see if they could better their living. They returned to Utah, only to find they were excommunicated from the Church for leaving. They were devastated by the news. Because plural marriage had been outlawed, the family was in disarray and Camelia felt she was without a home.

At a later period, she returned to Montana, where she had been working as an actress. She eventually married (5) an Everet West Norris and was living during the 1860's as "Norris" in Helena, Lewis & Clark County, Montana; but the sons living with her at the time were named "Barker or Norris". Barker was still married to a first wife, so it is not known wheather the Norris surname was used to avoid the persecution and consequences for living in polygamy. She was, however married to Norris.

Her history reports that Norris went into the Montana gold fields, never to return, presumed to have died there.

When she died, in 1901, she was buried as Camelia F. Barker in the John Newman Barker family lot. Her stone reads, "Francis C."

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jun 5 2018, 10:58:39 UTC