Sarah Emily Wall Cowley
HISTORY OF SARAH EMILY WALL COWLEY
Compiled by Marilyn Thomsen
Sarah Emily Wall Cowley was a pioneer of 1856. She was born at Horsley, England on February 7, 1840, a daughter of William and Sarah Sansom Wall. Her parents joined the Church of England before being converted to the Mormon Church. There were nine children in the Wall family, the two oldest being Joseph and Sarah Emily.
Emily was a natural-born mother. She loved dolls, and while still living in England, her aunt would always bring her a doll whenever she came to visit them, because Emily took such good care of them. She saved them all and when it came time for her to leave England, she had forty dolls. Emily couldn’t bring one of them with her as there was no room for such things.
When the Mormon Saints were preparing to leave England to come to Utah, Emily’s family didn’t have enough money for all of them to go at one time. They believed The Church of Jesus Christ was true and were sincerely anxious to go with the Saints to America. They decided to send Joseph and Emily. Emily was only 15 and her brother Joseph was 18. Before they left, Apostle Hyde gave them a blessing and promised them that if they were true and faithful and obeyed the council of those in authority over them, they would arrive in Zion in safety, as would the little girl placed in Emily’s care. Joseph, Emily, and the little girl left their homes in England and sailed to America. When they arrived at Iowa City, Iowa, there were assigned to the Fifth Handcart Company of the season. They were advised to stay at Winter Quarters until spring, but the company was anxious to go on to Zion. A vote was taken and it was decided that they should start for Utah. The three young people were assigned one handcart.
Sarah Emily Wall and her brother Joseph started out well prepared to make the journey on foot, as their mother had purchased 15 pairs of shoes for each of them. When they could not longer carry so much, these two discarded part of their clothing and their shoes, giving them to those who were less fortunate than they.
Part way across the plains, Joseph became ill. For many days he grew worse, and finally the entire company had to stop for three days. Still he grew worse. Those in authority said they would have to leave him behind to be picked up or buried by the next company, as they would have to move on, for the provisions were getting low and the snows would fill the passes. Emily had perfect faith that the blessing they had received at the start of their journey was given to them for a purpose and that every
