Sarah “Sally” Edwards was born to Zachariah Edwards and Tabitha (Speight) Edwards on 5 March 1791 in Wake County, North Carolina. The known siblings of Sarah are Jones and James Edwards. Most likely the couple had more children.

Little is known about Sarah’s early years other than she married Dempsey Pope at the age of sixteen on 17 March 1807. Sarah and Dempsey’s first six children were girls. Their next four children were boys followed by two more girls. Over twenty-seven years, Sarah had a total of twelve children.

Sarah and Dempsey departed Wake County for Robertson, Tennessee around 1820. Robertson County is north of Nashville. Sarah’s brothers Jones and James Edwards joined the party traveling west. If going by wagon pulled by oxen, travelers could travel between eight and twenty miles per day in those days. The five-hundred-and-seventy-mile trip could have taken as little as one month but more likely closer to two, and maybe even longer. They settled on the banks of the Red River. While in Robertson, James Madison Pope, their first son was born.

Leaving Robertson County behind, the family moved to Mosquito Creek, the first settlement in Blue Mound, Illinois.¹ According to some history books, Dempsey and Sarah were the first settlers of Mosquito. Their son Willis was the first child born in the area that was to become Macon County in 1829. If the name, Mosquito Creek, is any indication as to its attributes, the mosquitos must have been in plentiful supply.

When the 1850 census was taken, five of the Pope children were still living at home. Sons William, Willis, and Zachariah most likely helped with the farm as Dempsey was seventy years old. Daughters, Penelope and Matilda, also lived at home.

After forty-six years of marriage, Dempsey died on 17 December 1853. He was seventy-three and she was sixty-two. Unable to continue with the farm she most likely sold her land or divided it among her children. Seven years later, in 1860, she lived with her youngest son Zachariah and his wife Emily. Often widows lived with their children after the death of their husbands.

Two years later Sarah lost James and Zachariah to disease shortly after they had enlisted to fight in the Civil War.

In testimony given in 1867, when her daughter-in-law, Louisa Pope, was seeking an increase in her widow’s pension from the U.S. government, Sarah swore that she had been present at the births of all of her grandchildren born to James.

The document above has been transcribed below with changes to the punctuation to make it easier to read.

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