Memories of Sarah Caroline Batty Calder

One year at the annual 4^th of July Chuck wagon Breakfast held in Paris, Idaho I asked my Uncle O’Dell Smith (my father’s oldest brother) if he could tell me anything about his grandparents. He hemmed and hawed around a bit and then told me these two stories about his mother’s mother, Sarah Caroline Batty Calder.

He said that it seemed like whenever he would go over to visit her she would tell him to go and find her purse. When he brought it to her, she would “give him a sixpence”. Sarah Caroline was born in Whittington, Derbyshire, England on May 17, 1870 and came to America at the age of 12 when her oldest sister Annie arranged for her to work in “the Bishop’s” house tending children and keeping house because his wife wasn’t in the best of health. Sarah Caroline later married Bishop Robert Calder in polygamy. One of their children was Rosella, my grandmother.

The second story Uncle O’Dell told me sheds light on Sarah Caroline's personality. The details are a bit fuzzy; nonetheless I want to share it in hope that someone out there can set it all straight. Uncle O’Dell couldn’t get through telling it without giggling a number of times while sustaining an enormous grin. It seems that his grandma Sarah Caroline was making a steamed pudding; something she did every year for Thanksgiving or Christmas and it was tied up in a cloth bag. Her husband (second marriage, Robert Calder had passed away) made a rather large fuss about how much he disliked the pudding. When she had taken quite enough she opened up the window and THREW IT OUT!

And I wonder where the women in my family get their edge . . .

The making of steamed pudding did carry on however, regardless of this telling incident. Rosella made a Thanksgiving pudding every year for her family and to date it is one of my father’s, Kent Smith’s fondest memories of that holiday. I don't have any direct information as to where Sarah Caroline got her recipe or know how as to how to make her steamed pudding, but England is the capital for such things. I like to think that she learned it from her mother or older sister Annie and her homeland.

C. R. Savage Photo of Thomas E. Ricks Company

I’ve been anxious to post this wonderful picture taken by Charles R. Savage in the summer of 1866 somewhere on the plains from Nebraska to Salt Lake City. Mr. Savage was part of the Thomas E. Ricks mule train company that left in early July arriving in Salt Lake City on August 29, 1866. His purpose was to take pictures of the country, landmarks along the route. The bonus to our family is that we have ancestors that were on this very wagon train with him, Agnes McDowell Smith and her children a total of 11 in their group. Unfortunately, C. R. Savage wasn’t very successful in his trade while on this journey. You can read his trail excerpt and find out all the pitfalls of photography in the 1860’s -- it was hard enough being a pioneer, just imagine being a photographer as well! So, this one photo might be all that we have of the company made of 251 people. I like to imagine that somewhere in this picture one or two of those faces are Smith’s.

Click on the image to make it larger and see if you can see any family features and get back to me. I think the man with straw hat holding the young girl on his shoulder looks like someone familar.