Harlan, Sarah (Moncrief) Hawkins

Submitted by
Marti Graham

Mrs. Sarah Moncrief Harlan, who died in the Confederate Home, at Ardmore, December 15, 1926, was unquestionably one of the most remarkable pioneers in Oklahoma. She was born in Sumter County, Alabama, January 30th, 1829, so she lacked but a few weeks of being ninety-eight years old at the time of her death. Her parents were Sampson Moncrief, of French-English extraction and a native of Georgia, and his wife, Susan Vaughan, who was of Highland Scotch-Choctaw extraction, being of one-fourth Indian blood. Her father, who had been left an orphan early in life and who had been forced to make his own way in the world, was in independent circumstances but did not appreciate the importance of giving his children more than the most meagre and rudimentary education and it, was only the most insistent urging and pleading by the daughter, seconded by her mother, that induced him to to permit her to attend school for several additional terms.

After gaining a fair education, she married Erasmus B. Hawkins, who was a native of Kentucky. Several years later, in 1851, they decided to move from Mississippi to the Choctaw country, in the Indian Territory. They traveled by steamboat, landing at Fort Coffee. Within twelve hours after arriving there, she was stricken with cholera, an epidemic which caused the death of several friends and relatives. With her husband, she selected a location near Skullyville, where they made their home. There her husband died.

Several years later, she married Aaron Harlan, who was a merchant or trader. Having opened a trading establishment at Tishomingo, her husband moved the family to that place. During the Civil War, while her husband was absent from home in the Confederate service, she lived part of the time at Bonham, Texas, where her children and stepchildren were in school. Foreseeing that the war would last several years and that supplies of all kinds would be scarce before it ended, she laid in stocks of drygoods, coffee, etc., to tide her household through to the end of the struggle. At last peace was restored and the home life was resumed at Tishomingo. Her husband’s business, which had been demoralized and destroyed by the war, was re-organized and in due time the days of prosperity returned. However, a dishonest partner brought bankruptcy. Valiantly, Major Harlan struggled to re-establish himself in business, out at White Bead Hill, beyond the Washita. There he sickened and died, leaving Mrs. Harlan to face the world with a burden of care but with as brave a heart as ever beat in the breast of woman.

She made her home at Caddo, where she became recognized as a positive factor in the life of the community. Other troubles and griefs came but she met them all with a calm courage that never could be defeated. Old age came on, only to find her ever young in spirit. The friends and dear ones of early life all passed away. Her children of the third generation grew to manhood and womanhood and still she lived with faculties unimpaired. A year before the end of life, she expressed a desire to go to the Confederate Home and be with old people, though she was ever welcome in the homes of grandchildren and other relatives and friends. There the end came.

Her remains were taken back to the old home at Caddo, where the funeral services were held in the Methodist Church, of which she was the founder, and the interment was in the family burial ground, where she was laid to rest beside the grave of her husband, who had passed away more than half a century before. Many years before her death, Mrs. Harlan had been persuaded to reduce her memoirs to written form for the benefit of her descendants, the result being a manuscript of unusual historical interest.

Source: Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 5, No. 1, March 1927, p. 101.

Information posted as courtesy to researchers only. The poster is not related to nor researching any of the above.