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Sarah Ann Welborn was born 30 September 1844 in the state of Indiana, to John Chipman and Frances (Annable) Welborn. Most likely she was born in Posey county, where her parents met and married on 10 March 1836. Sarah was the 5th or 6th child born to this couple, all in Indiana. She did not live there long as we find the Welborn family on the first "expanded" U. S. Census on 28 October 1850 in Lafayette Co., Missouri.
The conditions in Missouri apparently did not suit the Welborn family particularly well either, as they were on their way to Texas by the mid-1850s. First they settled in the area of Sherman, Grayson Co., Texas. Then, they moved into Cooke Co., settling near Rosston. It was here that Sarah met and married Timothy James Hart on 10 June 1864.
We find Sarah and Timothy on the U. S. Census on 12 December 1870, living in Gainesville, Cooke Co., Texas. In the household, we find their firstborn, daughter Saphronia, aged 6. She is our direct ancestor. Also living with the family was Sarah's brother, Newton.
The family stayed in Cooke Co., Texas on through the 1880 U. S. Census, even though it is recorded elsewhere that the Indians drove her father and the rest of the family out of the area to Pilot Point in Denton Co., Texas, where he and her mother passed away in 1893. By then, her Timothy, "T. J.", as he preferred to be called, had passed away in an accident while riding through Jack Co., Texas. There, near the little town of Antelope, it is recorded by the family that his horse stepped into a gopher hole and fell over on him. He died of the injuries and is buried there in the little cemetery east of town.
While it might have been expected that Sarah would have moved back closer to her father, still living, instead she struck out to the West. We find records - in Deed Record, Book 8 - 9, p. 315 and 410, Dickens County, Texas - two purchases of land by "S. A. Hart" for $5.00 each. They are two lots of land in the town of Dickens and they were purchased on 19 April 1892 and 7 June 1892.
Apparently this area did not suit the family too well, as we find her on the 1900 U. S. Census in Hale Co., Texas, just north of Lubbock. There just outside the future town of Abernathy, the Hart family purchased land. This property is still in the family to this day, presently being managed by Sarah's great-granddaughter, Sidney Field.
While we have no written history to provide details, we can imagine it must have been a real struggle for the family to get established there. If you ever visit the area, you will note that originally the area had no trees. It was wide open country for hundreds of miles and everything for building had to brought in. The Hart family were true pioneers of the area. Sarah's sons - John Caleb, James Timothy, and Erlon Frederick "Lonnie" - all thrived in the area, each in their own way. Lonnie eventually ended up out in the Ruidoso Downs area of New Mexico where he and other members of the large Hart family were pioneers in the early 1900s. Her daughter, Ruth Ann, married Amos Pipkins and settled right in the general area where the Hart family had moved in 1900 and lived out a fulll life there. Her daughter, Nora Francis, married John Berry Coltharp and they spent most of their lives in New Mexico. Her youngest daughter, Lee Pearl, reached adulthood and married George William "Will" Chism, but died in her 20s in the little town of Taiban, New Mexico.
Only her oldest child and our direct ancestor, Saphronia, went a different direction, marrying George W. Roberson before the family ever left Cooke county. There is evidence Saphronia lived alongside the rest of her family for a period, as her oldest sons were all born in Texas. By the mid-1890s however, they had moved into Indian Territory and there she lived out her life.
All together, Sarah had 9 children - 3 sons and 6 daughters - 7 of whom reached adulthood and had children of their own.
As she grew older, Sarah lived with her daughter, Nora Coltharp, in Texico, Curry Co., New Mexico - right on the border between New Mexico and Texas. Here she wrote letters which are still in the family's possession [see documents]. From these years spent with the Coltharp family, we have a glimpse of what Sarah must have been like from her granddaughter, Sara Emily (Coltharp) Fletcher, named for her grandmother. The author had the pleasure of meeting Sara Fletcher at her home in Durango, Colorado in April 2001.
Sara Fletcher recalls her grandmother often rocking, working on quilts. She specifically remembered Sarah taking scraps from a quilt intended, but never started, for her son-in-law, John Berry Coltharp, by his mother - Emily - when he was a boy. As the family still had these scraps in their possession, Sarah took them and finished the quilt, obviously making quite an impression on her little granddaughter, to remember it so many years later.
She also recalled her mother, Nora, referring to her mother as being "Pennsylvania Dutch" and she spoke often of the "Pennsylvania Dutch" recipes favored by her mother, Sarah (Welborn) Hart. At the time, the author still had not been able to put together the Welborn ancestry and believed this to be a clue. Nothing known today however, supports this idea of "Pennsylvania Dutch" heritage. Having said that, it was with great interest that the author discovered in researching our Annable ancestry that a niece of Sarah's mother, Frances (Annable) Welborn, had a descendant write of her and her brother that they had "Pennsylvania Dutch" ancestry.
As the Annable family had come from Massachusetts, through New York, to Indiana, this does not make a lot of sense. However, little is known at present of the mother of Frances Annable, Ruth Moon. Perhaps it is in her ancestry that we will unlock the mystery to these references of "Pennsylvania Dutch" heritage.
Sarah lived a full and productive life, passing away on 1 June 1918. She is buried, along with several members of the Hart family, in the City Cemetery in Lubbock, Lubbock Co., Texas.
Author: Roger L. Roberson, Jr. • Last updated: 11 January 2003