Sarah was born in Franklin Twp., Gloucester Co., NJ, the daughter of William B. Ashcraft and Hannah Jackson. Her mother died when she was an infant, and after her father died she was raised by her stepmother, Louisa Ledden Ashcraft.
Her father and step-mother moved to the Southwark Ward of Philadelphia, PA, by 1840, where her father was a tavern keeper. She married David M. Campbell on 2 June 1851 in Philadelphia.
According to family tradition, Sarah died from suffocation after taking medication prescribed for a goiter. She left behind five young children and her husband, who never remarried during the nearly 40 years he survived her. She was buried first in Mercer Cemetery, Trenton. Her and her stepmother's remains were later relocated to her husband's plot in Riverview Cemetery.
Also according to family tradition, an oil portrait of Sarah was rolled up and put in the casket of a daughter-in-law (d. 1938), who never knew her but had left instructions for this to be done as an act of spite toward the Campbell family.
Note: There has been some question as to her birth year. Multiple records make it clear that she was born in 1829 or 1830. These include her father's 1830 & 1840 census records and her own 1860 Census entry. However, she was listed incorrectly as aged 18 in 1850, and as aged 36 in her newspaper death notices. Her inscription on the monument at Riverview Cemetery, giving her birth year as 1834, is clearly in error in this regard. (This in not her original gravestone. Her remains were re-interred here from Mercer Cemetery following her stepmother's Louisa Ashcraft's death, after Sarah's widower David Campbell bought the plot at Riverview.)
Because of the discrepancy in the ages given for Sarah in different records, the death of William B. Ashcraft's first wife Hannah Jackson in 1830 (see her memorial), and the appearance that his second wife Louisa Ledden Ashcraft was Sarah's birth mother, Sarah was believed to be a Ledden descendant and reported as such by me (Joseph R. Klett) in various venues for many decades. Extensive DNA evidence now makes it clear that Sarah was the biological daughter of Hannah Jackson Ashcraft. Hannah Jackson was one of 10 sisters. To date, well over 200 significant autosomal DNA matches between Sarah's descendants and descendants of Hannah's sisters and cousins have been discovered. No significant matches have been discovered between Sarah's descendants and countless descendants of Louisa Ledden Ashcraft's close relatives.
Thus it is evident that Sarah was the biological daughter of Hannah Jackson Ashcraft, but raised--perhaps from infancy--by Louisa Ledden Ashcraft. Sarah might have been born at or about the time of Hannah's death in Apr. 1830, in which case she was really 37 (rather than 36) at death.
Her father and step-mother moved to the Southwark Ward of Philadelphia, PA, by 1840, where her father was a tavern keeper. She married David M. Campbell on 2 June 1851 in Philadelphia.
According to family tradition, Sarah died from suffocation after taking medication prescribed for a goiter. She left behind five young children and her husband, who never remarried during the nearly 40 years he survived her. She was buried first in Mercer Cemetery, Trenton. Her and her stepmother's remains were later relocated to her husband's plot in Riverview Cemetery.
Also according to family tradition, an oil portrait of Sarah was rolled up and put in the casket of a daughter-in-law (d. 1938), who never knew her but had left instructions for this to be done as an act of spite toward the Campbell family.
Note: There has been some question as to her birth year. Multiple records make it clear that she was born in 1829 or 1830. These include her father's 1830 & 1840 census records and her own 1860 Census entry. However, she was listed incorrectly as aged 18 in 1850, and as aged 36 in her newspaper death notices. Her inscription on the monument at Riverview Cemetery, giving her birth year as 1834, is clearly in error in this regard. (This in not her original gravestone. Her remains were re-interred here from Mercer Cemetery following her stepmother's Louisa Ashcraft's death, after Sarah's widower David Campbell bought the plot at Riverview.)
Because of the discrepancy in the ages given for Sarah in different records, the death of William B. Ashcraft's first wife Hannah Jackson in 1830 (see her memorial), and the appearance that his second wife Louisa Ledden Ashcraft was Sarah's birth mother, Sarah was believed to be a Ledden descendant and reported as such by me (Joseph R. Klett) in various venues for many decades. Extensive DNA evidence now makes it clear that Sarah was the biological daughter of Hannah Jackson Ashcraft. Hannah Jackson was one of 10 sisters. To date, well over 200 significant autosomal DNA matches between Sarah's descendants and descendants of Hannah's sisters and cousins have been discovered. No significant matches have been discovered between Sarah's descendants and countless descendants of Louisa Ledden Ashcraft's close relatives.
Thus it is evident that Sarah was the biological daughter of Hannah Jackson Ashcraft, but raised--perhaps from infancy--by Louisa Ledden Ashcraft. Sarah might have been born at or about the time of Hannah's death in Apr. 1830, in which case she was really 37 (rather than 36) at death.
Sarah was born in Franklin Twp., Gloucester Co., NJ, the daughter of William B. Ashcraft and Hannah Jackson. Her mother died when she was an infant, and after her father died she was raised by her stepmother, Louisa Ledden Ashcraft.
Her father and step-mother moved to the Southwark Ward of Philadelphia, PA, by 1840, where her father was a tavern keeper. She married David M. Campbell on 2 June 1851 in Philadelphia.
According to family tradition, Sarah died from suffocation after taking medication prescribed for a goiter. She left behind five young children and her husband, who never remarried during the nearly 40 years he survived her. She was buried first in Mercer Cemetery, Trenton. Her and her stepmother's remains were later relocated to her husband's plot in Riverview Cemetery.
Also according to family tradition, an oil portrait of Sarah was rolled up and put in the casket of a daughter-in-law (d. 1938), who never knew her but had left instructions for this to be done as an act of spite toward the Campbell family.
Note: There has been some question as to her birth year. Multiple records make it clear that she was born in 1829 or 1830. These include her father's 1830 & 1840 census records and her own 1860 Census entry. However, she was listed incorrectly as aged 18 in 1850, and as aged 36 in her newspaper death notices. Her inscription on the monument at Riverview Cemetery, giving her birth year as 1834, is clearly in error in this regard. (This in not her original gravestone. Her remains were re-interred here from Mercer Cemetery following her stepmother's Louisa Ashcraft's death, after Sarah's widower David Campbell bought the plot at Riverview.)
Because of the discrepancy in the ages given for Sarah in different records, the death of William B. Ashcraft's first wife Hannah Jackson in 1830 (see her memorial), and the appearance that his second wife Louisa Ledden Ashcraft was Sarah's birth mother, Sarah was believed to be a Ledden descendant and reported as such by me (Joseph R. Klett) in various venues for many decades. Extensive DNA evidence now makes it clear that Sarah was the biological daughter of Hannah Jackson Ashcraft. Hannah Jackson was one of 10 sisters. To date, well over 200 significant autosomal DNA matches between Sarah's descendants and descendants of Hannah's sisters and cousins have been discovered. No significant matches have been discovered between Sarah's descendants and countless descendants of Louisa Ledden Ashcraft's close relatives.
Thus it is evident that Sarah was the biological daughter of Hannah Jackson Ashcraft, but raised--perhaps from infancy--by Louisa Ledden Ashcraft. Sarah might have been born at or about the time of Hannah's death in Apr. 1830, in which case she was really 37 (rather than 36) at death.
Her father and step-mother moved to the Southwark Ward of Philadelphia, PA, by 1840, where her father was a tavern keeper. She married David M. Campbell on 2 June 1851 in Philadelphia.
According to family tradition, Sarah died from suffocation after taking medication prescribed for a goiter. She left behind five young children and her husband, who never remarried during the nearly 40 years he survived her. She was buried first in Mercer Cemetery, Trenton. Her and her stepmother's remains were later relocated to her husband's plot in Riverview Cemetery.
Also according to family tradition, an oil portrait of Sarah was rolled up and put in the casket of a daughter-in-law (d. 1938), who never knew her but had left instructions for this to be done as an act of spite toward the Campbell family.
Note: There has been some question as to her birth year. Multiple records make it clear that she was born in 1829 or 1830. These include her father's 1830 & 1840 census records and her own 1860 Census entry. However, she was listed incorrectly as aged 18 in 1850, and as aged 36 in her newspaper death notices. Her inscription on the monument at Riverview Cemetery, giving her birth year as 1834, is clearly in error in this regard. (This in not her original gravestone. Her remains were re-interred here from Mercer Cemetery following her stepmother's Louisa Ashcraft's death, after Sarah's widower David Campbell bought the plot at Riverview.)
Because of the discrepancy in the ages given for Sarah in different records, the death of William B. Ashcraft's first wife Hannah Jackson in 1830 (see her memorial), and the appearance that his second wife Louisa Ledden Ashcraft was Sarah's birth mother, Sarah was believed to be a Ledden descendant and reported as such by me (Joseph R. Klett) in various venues for many decades. Extensive DNA evidence now makes it clear that Sarah was the biological daughter of Hannah Jackson Ashcraft. Hannah Jackson was one of 10 sisters. To date, well over 200 significant autosomal DNA matches between Sarah's descendants and descendants of Hannah's sisters and cousins have been discovered. No significant matches have been discovered between Sarah's descendants and countless descendants of Louisa Ledden Ashcraft's close relatives.
Thus it is evident that Sarah was the biological daughter of Hannah Jackson Ashcraft, but raised--perhaps from infancy--by Louisa Ledden Ashcraft. Sarah might have been born at or about the time of Hannah's death in Apr. 1830, in which case she was really 37 (rather than 36) at death.
Gravesite Details
Heartfelt thanks to Judy Ryan for creating this memorial and the photo.
