Sarah Dilley Bennett

Quick Facts

Significance:

1 of 4 women to cross DEVA in 1849, Death Valley '49er

Date of Birth:

1825

Date of Death:

09/29/1857

Sarah Ann Dilley was born in Delaware County, Ohio in 1825 to Almira D. Jameson and Deriah John Dilley. In 1840, she married Asabel Bennett in Iowa County, Wisconsin. The couple had three children before they left for the West— George, Melissa J., and Martha Ann. In 1849, the family decided to head to California in search of gold, joining the trail westward from Kanesville, Iowa as part of the Badger Company. They arrived in Salt Lake City too late in the season to cross the Sierra Nevadas as planned, so they instead turned south with the party led by Captain Hunt.

The Bennetts joined parties with the Arcan family when they split away to take the “shortcut” through Death Valley. The Bennett party consisted primarily of Asabel & Sarah Bennett, as well as Sarah’s father, “Mr. J.P. Dilly.” The Bennetts traveled with Manly on their way to Salt Lake City, so they were quite invested in each other’s survival through Death Valley. When the Bennetts chose to leave Captain Hunt’s path to cut through DEVA, Manly followed them out of a sense of duty towards the Bennett family.

Sarah trusted Manly wholeheartedly and Manly stayed with the rest of the travelers to assist Sarah and her children out of the valley; by the end of the journey, Manly even saw her as akin to his mother. In Death Valley in ‘49, Manly recorded a scolding he got from Asa for being too honest about the journey and the length ahead of them where Sarah could hear it. Apparently, upon hearing Manly’s declaration, Sarah realized there was another month to go and with five mouths to feed, determined that she and the children would starve before they reached California. Sarah was frequently recorded in a panic over her children as they suffered from extreme thirst, but her extreme caution saved her and her children on many occassions. After Manly and Rogers scouted ahead and returned to the waiting party, the Bennetts turned some old “hickory shirts” into carriers for the children that were then secured to “Old Crump,” the family’s oxen.

When they finally made it out of Death Valley, the whole party was a mess. Manly noted that “Mrs. Bennett’s dress hardly reached below her knees, and although her skirts were fringed about the bottom, it was a kind that had not been adopted as yet in general circle of either Spanish-American or good United States society. The shortness of the dress made the curious rawhide moccasins only the more prominent, and the whole makeup of the party was a curious sight.”

After cleaning themselves up at the Rancho San Francsisquito, Mrs. Bennett seemed to revert back to her “proper” self. Within the year, the Bennetts were living in El Dorado. Despite the hardships faced to arrive in California, Asabel (“Asa”) sought wealth for his family through gold. He prospected in El Dorado for a couple years, but by 1852 the Bennett family was settled in Santa Clara. In 1853, Sarah gave birth to John Rogers in San Jose. In 1856, Sarah gave birth to Ella.

Sarah Bennett died of consumption in 1857 in San Jose. Asa detached from family life, giving baby Ella away to the Scott family from Scott’s Valley, California. Martha and Melissa, who were born before the trip to DEVA, eventually landed in the Plaza Church Orphans Home in Los Angeles. George and John Rogers traveled with Asa through Idaho and into Nevada in search of good prospects.