Rebecca was the fourth child born but the oldest daughter in her family. her parents were raising a large family and she was needed at home as a housekeeper and nurse. Rebecca did not get much opportunity to go to school so she learned to read at home. She was not a fluent reader nor writer but was able to read the newspaper and figure her accounts for the food stuff that she sold from her home.

When Rebecca was a young girl she lived across the road from the Prophet Joseph Smith's home in Nauvoo, and carried water from his well. She witnessed much of the mob violence. She often carried lunch to her father while he was working on the temple. She saw the vision and the mantle of the Prophet Joseph rest upon Brigham Young.

Rebecca met Henry Sanderson at Nauvoo while in her early teens. When living in Pigeon Grove with her father's family he courted her. They were married in 1850 she being eighteen years old. Rebecca was a beautiful, fine featured, round faced, young lady with red-gold hair that curled about her face, and had a quiet even temperament.

They started for Utah in the Summer of 1850 facing the hardships and living circumstances that challenged the pioneers. After arriving in Utah they lived in South Salt Lake and Union Fort. Rebecca, husband and three children went to Fort Supply, Green River County, Wyoming. They returned to Salt Lake after burning Fort Supply to the ground because of the threat of Johnston's Army.

Later, they went to help settle Sanpete County and eventually made their home in Fairview.

When the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad was being laid through Sanpete the road ran through the corner of her land. Rebecca made up a dining room and kitchen in the spare log house. She and her daughter, Lucinda, cooked meals for the workers the entire summer.

Rebecca lived a full and beautiful life. She and Sarah Jane Cole, the second wife, lived very congenially close together. She had fifteen children; raised all but one little boy who died from the measles and two others died before they were married. Rebecca was seventy-five at the time of her death.

International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers. Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, Vols. I-IV. Publishers Press, 1998.

Children: James Sanderson Jr., Mary Jane Sanderson, Amanda Sanderson Cox, Julia Sanderson, Rebecca Ann Sanders, William Henry Sanderson, Martha M. Sanderson, Maria Louisa Sanderson, John Martin Sanderson, Ada Delia Sanderson, Emily Sanderson, Lucinda Sanderson, Alma Joseph Sanderson and David Sparks Sanderson