Sarah Haines Redfield: Teacher with a Pilgrim Pedigree

1821-1904

Letter written by Sarah Haines (Redfield) Yeomans to her grandson, Charlie Crooks

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      Sarah Haines Redfield was born in Stamford, in Delaware County, New York, on December 8, 1821, the daughter of James Grinnell Redfield and Susan Barlow. She was the third of 11 children. Her siblings were Albert (1818), Sophronia (1820), Mary Elizabeth (1823), Joseph Barlow (1825), Susan (1828), Zilpha (1830), Esther Meroa (1831), Harriet Newell (1833), James (1836) and Priscilla (1838). All of her siblings reached adulthood and married. Her older brother Albert actually married his half first-cousin!

      Sarah Haines Redfield is our link to the Pilgrims, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, her 5-great-grandparents. The family moved from Plymouth, Massachusetts, to Rhode Island, and then to Saybrook, Connecticut. In 1794, James Redfield Sr. moved from Connecticut to Delaware County, New York. At an early age, James Sr. was a cabin boy on an American privateer near the close of the Revolutionary War. The earliest known Redfield ancestor was William Redfin, our 8-great-grandfather, who was born in England in about 1620 and came to the Boston area in the 1630's.

      Sarah's father, James Grinnell Redfield, served as a lower-level officer in the War of 1812. Although he lived on a farm, his primary occupation was making and selling clothing. In addition, he served as supervisor of Stamford, an assemblyman representing Delaware County, superintendent of the poor, and  Justice of the Peace. The family initially lived in Stamford, but then moved to Delhi, about 20 miles away. According to oral family traditions, Sarah taught school.

      On October 12, 1843, Sarah Haines Redfield married James Yeomans. About 8 years later, they moved to Illinois and raised their family! They moved by oxcart, settling first in Squaw Grove, then Sugar Grove, then Peotone and finally, in 1866, they moved to Onarga, where they made their home. (See blog for James Yeomans Jr.)

      When her husband died in 1876 in Onarga, Sarah was only 54 years old and she lived for 28 more years. Initially, her daughter Meroa, who was single, or her son, Edwin James, widowed, must have lived with her.  Two years later, Meroa and Edwin both married in Onarga in a double wedding. By at least 1880, Sarah was living with her brother, Joseph Barlow Redfield, in Chicago, Illinois, probably because Joseph's wife had died in 1879. Joseph was quite successful and is listed variously as an auditor and assistant secretary for Chicago and North Western Railroad and as a lawyer. By 1900, though, Joseph is living with his recently married daughter and Sarah is living with her daughter, Meroa, in Gilman. Dad's Aunt Helen remembers Sarah as a stickler for doing things a particular way, e.g., drying the dishes, and thought she was a bit tyrannical! Aunt Dorothy remembers that when the Redfield Family visited them, they would give each child a dollar!

      Sarah no doubt had a major educational influence on her grandson Charles (our grandfather) and his siblings! On June 28, 1904, she wrote a letter to Charlie on his way to the Philippines and two weeks after his 21st birthday. "I was delighted to get (personally) a letter from you. Hope I shall get more such... We are much interested in what you tell us of far off lands. Thank you for the small coin. It is a curiosity." She mentions expecting to go to Waukegan and Chicago in a few weeks, probably to visit her son and brother. On July 8, she died in Waukegan, age 82. She never received any more letters from Charlie, but Charlie cherished his last letter from Sarah and Dad had a copy of that letter after all these years.