Sarah Emma Miller

Being the first white child of American parentage born in the state of Colorado, and accompanying her parents who reached Salt Lake Valley, July 29, 1847, then to California, July 1, 1851, to Beaver City, Utah, in 1857, in May 1866 they moved to the "Muddy" which is now Overton, Nevada., back to Utah in 1871 where they settled in Panguich. Finally to Arizona in 1877, living first at a camp on the Little Colorado River known as Taylor, and then to Snowflake in August, 1878.

She was born in Pueblo, Colorado, August 17, 1846, where her parents, William Decatur and Margaret Jane Casteel Kartchner, with a group of other emigrants from Mississippi, where awaiting the arrival of the Mormon Pioneers who were preparing to leave Illinois for the great Salt Lake Valley. Because of the sickness of her mother and the care of a large family, Sarah was pressed into service. At the age of seven she learned to cook, preparing the meals for the others. In spite of her household tasks, Sarah learned to spin and weave taking the raw wool, carding and spinning it into yarn, then weaving it into cloth and making all kinds of clothing.

On June 1, 1877, Sarah became the wife of Ninian Miler, and their delayed honeymoon trip began in November of that year when they started with their father's family and other families for the Indian infested land of Arizona. This trip lasted almost three months, but the honeymoon continued until the death of her husband on December 14, 1912.

SOURCE: In Our Own Words: The Lives of Arizona Pioneer Women, by Barbara Marriott. Interviewer: Roberta Flake Clayton, Navajo County.

The following is from the website Find A Grave.com:

A Descendent of the Kartchner/Wilcox family of Philadelphia, Sarah and her parents were commemorated as one of the first 2,090 Pioneers to enter Utah (from summer 1847 through summer 1848) on page 241 in "E.L. Sloan & Co Utah Gazetteer and City Directory for 1884 (Pioneer Section)".

As their first child was born while at winter quarters in Pueblo, it is recorded that she was the first white child to be born in the Colorado Territory. This event would later be acknowledged by the State of Colorado by a presentation of a gold medal to Sarah. The Kartchner's entered the Salt Lake Valley as part of the second major party to arrive, commonly known as the "Mississippi Saints". Her father conducted the first marriage ceremony for (Sarah) Emma to Oren Twitchel on January 1, 1864 in Beaver, Utah.

Children:

Emma Jane 25 Oct 1864 - 21 Jun 1865

William Delray 30 May 1866 - Aug 1866

Both believed to be buried in either Beaver or Iron County

It appears that Sarah and Oren divorced sometime after the 1870 census.

Sarah had 5 children with Ninian Miller, Prudence Miller Tanner, born in 1878, died in 1929; Margaret Miller Fish, born in 1879 and died in 1907; Marian Francetta Miller Tanner, born in 1882 and died in 1968; Allen Kartchner Miller, born in 1885 and died in 1986; Phoebe May Miller MacPherson, born in 1889 and died in 1970.