Oregon Women - Sarah McBee

The other night I felt extremely overwhelmed.  Things around here have been crazy busy.  The laundry is piling up, the cleaning the garage project is only half done, we haven’t been to the grocery store in three weeks, my car needs washed and cleaned out, there are literally six half finished major craft projects piled on my craft table, I haven’t filed our bill paperwork in four months, there are eight books on my nightstand waiting to be read, and the vacuum cleaner hasn’t seen the light of day in a month.

On top of that, the weather is getting warmer and we don’t have air conditioning.  That means super warm nights that are hard to sleep through.  What does that matter when my alarm is just going to go off at 6:00am to get up for work.  The struggle of digging through an entire closet filled with clothes, and yet I have nothing to wear.  Then there’s the mornings that I hit the snooze one more time and don’t have extra minutes to stand under the hot water while I try to wake up.  These are usually the mornings that I don’t have time to stop by the local coffee shop for my latte and bagel.

I continuously walk by the treadmill in my living room, feeling guilty that I am not walking on it.  Nothing like adding a little extra guilt on top of everything else.  The eating healthy thing has taken a back seat (not a lot of time and energy to do pre-planning for meals).  This means lunch out everyday.  Ugh, I swear I am on a first-named basis with the majority of the drive-up window employees in this town.

So why do I tell you all this.  Let’s go back to a few nights ago when I was feeling extremely overwhelmed.  I had decided to just give up and go to bed.  I picked up one of the eight books staring at me from the nightstand.  This was a new book, one I had picked up the weekend we were in Sumpter.  To be honest, I chose it the other night because it was the thinnest of the stack.  That’s really not the point to this whole story,  The point is how much this book changed my focus on my life.

The book, “Remarkable Oregon Women” is a series of short biographies of the extraordinary women who shaped the state I live in today.  Reading about what these women went through in their lives really made me think of how blessed I am and how petty most of the things I was stressing about are.  These women left everything they had behind and headed west, either by wagon train or by boat (which, in case you were wondering, had to go around the cape of South America).  Either way, it was months of traveling.  They buried family members along the way, gave birth, were attacked by Indians, and most were on the brink of starvation before they reach their destination.  Many would never see the family members they left behind again.

On our recent trip to Salem, Scott and I made a point of stopping by a couple of the pioneer cemeteries.

I had a list of women I had researched and we were able to locate a few of them.  Their stories are fascinating to me and I want to share them with you.  This is the first installment in a new series I’m calling “Oregon Women”.  Hopefully, you will enjoy getting to know these women also.

Today I want you to meet Sarah McBee.

Sarah McBee

Born: 23 May 1826 – Kentucky

Died: 13 Jan 1864 – Salem, Oregon

BIOGRAPHICAL:
Source - Sarah McBee Judson (daughter) in interview with Fred Lockley, Oregon Journal 27 June 1922

"My father, John McBee, who was born in Ohio, came to Oregon in 1852. My mother's maiden name was Sarah Matheny. She was born in Kentucky. My parents had four children when they started by ox team across the plains for the six-months trip to Oregon. John, who was about a year and a half old, died near the Blue Mountains. Ellen, who was a few months old, died not far from where the city of Pendleton now is. Mother's brother, many years later, took the map mother had made showing the location of the graves of her two babies and went up there to put headstones on the graves. He could locate only one of the graves, and it was in a field planted to wheat, so he couldn't tell just where the grave was. My brother George, 6 and Francis, 4½ years old made the trip in safety. My sister Elisabeth was born in 1853, not long after they took up their donation land claim. I was the next child and was born in 1859."

OBITUARY:
Died, in Salem, Marion Co., on the 18th day of January, 1864, Mrs. Sarah McBee, aged 37 years, 7 months and 20 days.

Sister McBee united with the M.E. Church in the State of Missouri, a number of years ago, but was baptized and admitted into full connection by Rev. David Rutledge, during his pastoral relation to this charge. Her Christian experience may be summed up in the apostle's language, "For me to live in Christ, to die is gain." She was taken with diphtheria while watching by the bedside of an afflicted daughter, and in a few hours expired while seated in a chair. Her last words were, "Jesus take me, Jesus take me."

Sister McBee and four of her children are now over the river, while the husband and three children are on this side. May they all at last compose an unbroken family in heaven.
Isaac Dillon
Pacific Christian Advocate 23 January 1864 2:6

NOTES:
1850 MO CENSUS - Sarah McBee, age 25, b. Kentucky, is enumerated with  John McBee, age 31, occupation farmer, b. Ohio, along with George W., age 3, b. Missouri, Frances, age 2, b. Missouri, and John, age 6 months, b. Missouri.
1860 Marion Co. CENSUS lists S. McBee, wife of J. 33 yrs. Born in KY.

SOURCES:
DAR pg 30
1850 MO CENSUS (Ray Co., Dist. #75, FA #577)
OJ 27 June 1922
PCA 23 Jan 1864 2:6