Sarah Livonia Crist

Sarah Chaffin was born Sarah Lavonia Crist Chaffin. She was married three times. First to John Ellis Chaffin (1832 - 1870) in 1854; second to Elisha Anglin (1798-1874) in 1873; and third to John Archer (1830 - 1914) in 1874. Sarah was married to John Ellis Chaffin until he died in 1870. All of their children were born of John Ellis Chaffin and Sarah Lavonia Crist Chaffin. Sarah married Elisha Anglin until he died 1874. Sarah Chaffin was married to her third husband John Archer, until she died in 1912. Sarah is buried next to her first husband, John Ellis Chaffin. At the time of her death, Sarah Chaffin's last name was Archer. Sarah Chaffin's parents were Stephen Crist and Anny Parker.

Sarah was the great granddaughter of John Parker who was killed in the Fort Parker Massacre in 1836. This is the same location from where Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped.

Sarah was the daughter of Stephen Crist and Anny Parker Crist. Her children with John Ellis Chafin, who she married January 10, 1854, in Anderson County, Texas, were as follows:

1. Eli Riley 1855-1874

2. George Nathaniel 1857-1886

3. Mary Amanda 1859-1905

4. Theodocia Ernest 1862-1863

5. John C. 1868-1868

Sarah, John Ellis, Eli, George, Mary, Theodocia, and John C. are all buried at Mount Antioch Cemetery, Prairie Hill, Limestone, County, Texas.

After John Ellis Chaffin died, Sarah married Elisha Anglin 13 Sept. 1873, Limestone County, Texas. He died in Jan 1874, Mount Calm, Texas.

She then married John Archer on 22 Oct 1874, Limestone County, Texas.

Sarah did not have children by the second and third husbands. She lived in Mount Calm the rest of her life.

• *******************

Obituary of Mrs. Sarah L. Crist Chaffin Anglin Archer -- 1838-1012 , Limestone County, Texas: The obituary describes the house that her first husband and the father of her children, John Ellis Chaffin, built. No source has been cited. Mrs. Sarah L. Archer entered into sweet eternal rest at 6:30 PM, Saturday, December 7, 1912, at her home five miles east of Mt. Calm, Limestone County, Texas.

She was born May 25, 1838, at Fort Houston, Anderson County, Texas. She moved to Limestone County, Jan 5, 1854, and was numbered among the early settlers of that county. Her age was 74 years and 26 days. Mrs. Archer was born in Fort Houston, near where her father, Stephen Crist, cleared his farm and built a safe and substantial house that would withstand the onslaught of the wily and treacherous savage. This work brought to a satisfactory state of completion; the family moved on to the place, and it was here that Mrs. Archer grew up into a pure and charming womanhood surrounded by all the comfort that could be had in that early day. Her father owned a good many slaves until the war and set them free, and was quite an extensive and thrifty planter.

Her mother was Annie Parker, daughter to Elder Daniel Parker who founded the first Baptist Church in Texas, the Pilgrim Primitive Baptist Church. Elder Parker was a brother to Silas Parker, the father of Cynthia Ann Parker, the noted Parker's Fort Indian Captive who remained with the Indians nearly twenty-five years and became the mother of Quanah Parker. All of her brothers, seven in number, were in the Confederate Service and dozens of cousins, many of who never returned.

Mrs. Archer, was the eighth of eleven children of Stephen Crist and Annie Parker. Mrs. Archer, by her first marriage with John Chaffin, was the mother of six children: Eli Riley, George Nathaniel, Mary Amanda, Theodocia Ernest, William Reason, and John E. - all deceased.

Mrs. Archer first married John Ellis Chaffin in Anderson County, Texas., on January 5, 1854,and they moved to Limestone County, the same year where they set up housekeeping in a small log house that Mr. Chaffin had built the year previous. He soon moved it down in the edge of the timber on the Navasota River, and on this beautiful spot, surrounded by the majestic oaks and the endless beauties of nature, she resided until her death-not however in the same house.

Necessity compelled them to provide a more comfortable and commodious house, and in 1866, they began to build the house that at the present time occupies the site of the first log cabin. Ox teams from Anderson County hauled most of the lumber in the house, about 12 miles above Palestine by Mr. Chaffin. To haul the lumber and build the house required about two years.

A part of the timber, such as the sills, sleepers, plates, and shingles, was cut out of the surrounding forests, every alternate of the joints was made of Anderson County pine. The shingles were hewn from trees that stood in the front of the house, and were about twice as long as ordinary shingles. Those on the front of the structure were "pegged" on the boring holes with a small gimlet and whittling wooden pins about the size of a ten or twenty penny nail and driving them through the holes made by the gimlet.

The chimney was a large stick and dirt affair, with an opening for the fireplace nearly wide enough to throw a whole stick of cord wood in, and many noted pioneers at different times sat in the flow of its cheerful blaze. She and Mr. Chaffin acquired several hundred acres of land around the place, and were very successful in farming and stock raising.

When the civil war broke out, John Chaffin joined the Confederate Army and was stationed at Galveston during the war. His wife visited him frequently and took a barrel of molasses and large quantity of meat, clothing, medicine and other necessaries for the soldiers. She never lost an opportunity to send something to the soldiers at the front, where supplies were often scant.

John Chaffin died on February 8, 1870. They were married twenty-four years. On Sept 13 1873, Sarah was married to an aged man, Elisha Anglin, who lived only a short time after their marriage. Mr. Anglin was one of the settlers at Parker's Fort, near Groesbeck, Texas, where the massacre by the Comanche Indians took place in 1836. He died on January 17, 1874.

John Archer married Mrs. Sarah L.(Crist) Chaffin Anglin on October 22, 1874; three years and nine months after the death of his first wife, Commella. She enjoyed a peaceful, happy, Christian life with Mr. Archer in her comfortable home on the bank of the Navasota, surrounded with countless varieties of fragrant flowers, both wild and cultivated, and an inestimable wealth of relics, souvenirs, keepsakes, beautiful old wartime fabrics and hand made laces, every article of which revived sweet memories of the past.

Her collection of photographs and old Daguerre types of faces long ago laid to rest, never failed to take the thoughts of the visitor back many decades along the roadway of life, and one could not help but envy this old couple their serene happiness in the midst of their priceless treasures.

She was an old Primitive Baptist, and her house was a home for old Baptists. Many will remember her kind hospitality; a kind and faithful wife and mother of 6 children, all of who preceded her in death. She had been in poor health for two years, although suffering from no special disease, just a decline in her vital forces.

Rev. Cardwell of Corsicana conducted a very impressive funeral service at the residence, after which with sorrowing hearts and brimming eyes, her relatives and friends followed her to the old Mt. Antioch Cemetery, near Mt. Calm and gently laid her to rest beside the husband of her youth to await the resurrection morn.

Carolyn Morrow Cheney added this on February 12, 2008.

SOURCE: Find A Grave.com

• Residence: United States Census, 1850 - 1850 - Anderson, Texas, United States
• Residence: United States Census, 1860 - 1860 - Limestone, Texas, United States
• Residence: United States Census, 1870 - 1870 - Texas, United States
• Residence: United States Census, 1880 - 1880 - Justice Precinct 5, Limestone, Texas, United States
• Residence: United States Census, 1900 - 1900 - Justice Precinct 2, Limestone, Texas, United States
• Residence: United States Census, 1910 - 1910 - Justice Precinct 2, Limestone, Texas, United States
  • Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Apr 3 2023, 12:06:54 UTC

    ---

• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Apr 3 2023, 12:06:54 UTC