Mendon May Day 1876
Sarah Lavinia Walker Queen of May
Mrs. Sarah L. Walker Hughes—
A pioneer of Mendon and one of the first May Day Queens of the community celebration.
Sarah Lavinia Walker—
Mother was born September 12th, 1858 at Salt Lake City. When she was six years old they moved to Mendon. She with her father, mother, sisters, Mary and Elizabeth and brother John Robert, settled in Mendon, Cache County, Utah in 1864, where she helped to develop the country along with the other members of the family. When mother was about twelve years old she with the family moved to Centerville, Utah where grandfather took charge of the Jennings Ranch in the northwestern part of Centerville. They stayed here about two years, then they moved back to Mendon. Her father was a wheelwright by trade. When the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement was first organized in Mendon ward, mother was chosen counselor, Larsine (Seny) Sorensen Richards, as first president.
Mendon Mourns Passing of Prominent Pioneer—
Death today claimed one of Mendon’s oldest and most highly respected pioneers— Sarah Lavinia Walker Hughes, eighty-five, widow of Charles Hughes. She died at the family home from infirmities incident to age following a lifetime of maternal and civic achievements. Born September 12th, 1858 in Salt Lake City, she was a daughter of George and Mary Hopkins Walker. In 1864 at the age of six, she settled with her parents in Mendon and had resided there during her entire life with the exception of two years in Centerville. Her record of church service is lengthy: She was counselor in the first Young Women Mutual Improvement Association, organized in Mendon ward, chosen as one of the first Queens of the May in the Mendon celebration of 1876, had been a Relief Society teacher practically all her life, was Daughters of Utah Pioneer Camp and Legion Auxiliary Chaplain, and was a devoted mother anxious that all her children have the advantages of good education. Mrs. Hughes had two sons serve on L.D.S. missions, one serve in the first world war and has four grandsons in the current war. She was married to Charles Hughes on December 12th, 1878 in the Salt Lake Endowment house. He died February 1st, 1933. Surviving are four of her seven sons and daughters: Mrs. Mary Ann Bird, John Owen Hughes and Miss Gladys Hughes of Mendon, and Mrs. Edith H. Winn of Centerville; twenty-one grandchildren and twenty great-grandchildren. A son, Henry Gorril Hughes, prominent Cache County educator, died a year ago. A grandson, Captain Wendell H. Sorensen, was reared by Mrs. Hughes. Funeral arrangements will be announced by the W. Loyal Hall Mortuary.
Notes…
Sarah L. Walker Hughes was the May Queen during the 1876, United States Centennial year. This was also the same year that George A. Custer and his soldiers were killed at the Little Big Horn, on June 25th, 1876. The news of this event was first sent to the nation from the telegraph key in Franklin, Idaho. Her daughter, Lavinia Hughes was also a May Queen, in about 1899. Lavinia married A.N. Sorensen and Wendell H. Sorensen was their only child.