Sarah Jane Anthony, (aka Sally or Sal) was born 1 Oct 1814 in Kortright, NY1 the eight of eleven children of John Anthony and Abigail Soule. She married James Aplington on 16 May 1833 in Sanford, Broome County, NY, 2. James was born 1812 in Deposit, NY3. He was the son of James Page Aplington and Catherine Dean4.
In 1852 Sarah Jane and James Aplington moved from Sanford, Broome County, NY to Polo, IL where many of the Aplington’s were living5. Sarah Jane’s parents, John Anthony and Abigail Soule moved from Sanford, NY in December 18566 and on 31 Jan 1857, John Anthony died there and is buried in the Buffalo Cemetery7.
In 1860 Sarah Jane and James were still living in Polo, but soon after that they moved to Aplington, IA. On 15 Sep 1867, James died of dropsy (edema), and Sarah Jane was left a widow at 538. In 1872 she moved with the family to western Kansas, were she took a homestead in the NE corner of Norton County9. While looking for the land patents, it was discovered that a portion of the homestead was also located in Phillips County, KS10.
Sarah Jane maintained the homestead first with her son, Alf, and later with her daughter, Helen. She kept a ranch here where freighters used to stop in the early days. This is where she brought her grandchildren Grace, Ada, Ed and Kate when her daughter Sarah Aplington Stevens died in 1874. In 1880 when the older children had gone off to Wisconsin to live with their father and new stepmother, Kate remained with Sarah Jane on this property. Sarah Jane died 30 Dec 1884 in Norton KS at age 7011.
Sarah Jane and James Aplington had eight children all born in Sanford, NY as follows12:
- Catherine Ann Aplington, b. 29 July 1833 Sanford, Broome County, NY; d. 3 March 1915; m. 10 July 1866 Rev. Isaac Hall
- Charlotte Aplington, b. 20 July 1836; d. 26 Feb. 1927; m. 12 Mar 1856 Cyrus Doty
- Murietta (Abigail) Aplington, b. 14 Feb 1839; d. 8 Jan. 1927; m. 23 April 1862 George G. Codner
- Sarah Ann Aplington, b. 1841; d. 13 Sep. 1874; m. 17 March 1867 David Ezra Stevens
- Nathan W. Aplington, b. 7 May 1843; d. 17 Jan. 1912; m. 29 March 1866 Ann Nash
- Helen A. (Nellie) Aplington, b. 22 July 1847; d. 26, Oct. 1907; m. 26 Sep. 1886 Herman H. Burns
- Lewis Alford (Alf, Affie) Aplington, b. Feb. 1851; d. 27 Nov. 1925; m. Maria (Mollie) Wiley
- Erastus Paine Aplington, b. 12 Oct. 1852; d. 10 June 1913; m. 13 Nov. 1873 Affa Goodsell
- Membership application, Russell D. Francis, no. 87885, General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Office of the Historian General, Plymouth, MA. ↵
- Mildred Mathews, Soule Kindred Newsletter, vol. 7 (1), 1973: 20. ↵
- Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection – Individual Records (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001 ↵
- Ibid. ↵
- Mildred C. Matthews, from collection of notes and letters in possession of Russell D. Francis. ↵
- Ibid. ↵
- Membership application, Russell D. Francis, no. 87885, GSMD. ↵
- Ibid. ↵
- Application no. 5767, 20 December 1884, in The Heirs of Sarah Jane Aplington, deceased (Norton County) homestead file bearing final certificate number 6744, 30 July 1888, Kirwin, Kansas Land Office; Record found in Norton County courthouse, Norton, KS. ↵
- Application no. 5767, 20 December 1884, in The Heirs of Sarah Jane Aplington, deceased (Phillips County) homestead file bearing final certificate number 6744, 6 May 1887, Kirwin, Kansas Land Office; Record found in Phillips County courthouse, Phillipsburg. KS. ↵
- Fairview Cemetery (Norton County, KS), Sarah Jane Aplington marker, photographed by Russell Francis, August 2017. ↵
- Mildred C. Matthews, from collection of notes and letters. ↵