Sally 'Sarah' Clark was born to Timothy Baldwin and Mary (Polly) Keeler Clark on 1 August 1803 in New Fairfield, Fairfield, Connecticut. Sally was the oldest daughter and child in the family of twelve children. When Sally was about four or five years old the family moved to Vienna Township, Trumbull County, Ohio in the fall of 1807 or 1808.
In 1816 her family took a trip by a flat boat with a Methodist preacher, Oliver Lewis and his family to a new home in Indiana Territory. Floating on the Big Beaver River that conversed with the Ohio River would have been a common way to travel. The families would sing and pray on their journey toward their new home.(1)
Sally was 15 years old when she married William Cole on 26 August 1818 in Kentucky. She was living in Indiana when their first child was born 29 March 1819 and was named Timothy Clark Cole. This child lived ten days and passed away on 8 April. In 1826 Sally and William had three children (Mary Ann, Elizabeth, John Fletcher) with another child (John) that died in infancy. They were living in Madison, Indiana. By 1829 Sally had given birth to eight children and one more of her children had died in infancy. In 1836 she had given birth to eleven children in Indiana.
Sally passed away on 2 February 1842 in Ripley County, Indiana. She had given birth to fourteen children, eight of who died in infancy. Sally was 37 and half years old when she died. She had a life of headship and toil leaving her husband William to care for 6 unmarried children.
Sources: (1) A. Charles Clark, Timothy B. Clark, p131-133.
