Sarah's Gold

About the Book

Sarah's adventures begin in l854, when she, husband Will, and baby Eva, leave England under sail for America and follow the Overland and Mormon Trails to Salt Lake City. Sarah Cullimore Owen is 20 years old.  During the trek Sarah encounters quick-sand, freezing cold, and meets Sacajawea, Indian guide to Lewis and Clark.

The family  settle in Pleasant Grove, Utah, where Sarah views plural marriages first-hand and does not like what she sees.  After three more babies, one of whom dies, her husband Will asks Patience to join their household as a sister-wife. Sarah furiously declines. Frequently denied food and companionship from her Mormon neighbors she leaves her two younger children with her mother and father, who had arrived in l856 pushing hand carts all the way from Nebraska, to seek gold and independence in Boise, Idaho.

In Rocky Bar, Idaho Sarah grubstakes miners and accumulates enough gold dust to gather her flock together, including a new husband, William Montgomery.  With determination she sets out for Laramie, Territory of Wyoming, intending to meet a lawyer with a testamentary gift which would enable her to return to England.  Instead she is stranded in Laramie with neither husband nor money.  Undaunted she opens her Famous Cafe which coincides with the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad, and she and her three children survive a freezing winter in a tent.

Enter a graying, handsome Civil War Colonel who becomes a frequent visitor at her home. At first it isn't clear whom the Colonel is courting. Sarah invests in cattle and land and begins her world-wide travels. She spends four years in Japan, where she teaches English and becomes fascinated by the culture and by Buddhism.  Back in American she joins the Women's Suffrage Movement.

Sarah's children and grandchildren help build the frontier community of Laramie, including the first women's jury and the establishment of the University of Wyoming,.  Sarah's son is arguably the first to climb the Grand Teton.  The Colonel is elected Representative to the U.S. Congress from Wyoming Territory. Her granddaughter, Dr. June Downey, becomes an internationally known psychologist publishing many scientific articles, and heading the Department of  Philosophy at the University of Wyoming.

How, where, and how many times Sarah finds gold is told in this novel based on the life of the author's great-grandmother.

The book is written in the form of  Sarah's letters and notebook, interspersed with narrative and fiction, giving an intimate picture of this explosive and uncommon woman in uncommon times.

About the Author

Barbara Rockwell holds degrees from the University of Wyoming, the Virginia Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from George Washington University. After attending seminars at The Esalen Institute in California she founded The Orizon Institute in Washington, D. C. In the l980's she studied Hindu philosophy in India with Swami Chinmayananda. Born in Wyoming, she has lived and practiced in Washington, D. C. and Williamsburg, Virginia. Long interested in her pioneer ancestors, especially the women, she is an ardent feminist. The author's fascination with her great grandmother has been life long. Stories of Sarah from family records, letters, photographs, and gossip have intrigued her since early childhood. The author tells the story of Sarah's tumultuous life as though it were her own..