<John Fulkerson>...and his wife had two children, a boy Richard, who died young and Sarah Ann <Verna Weldon's grandmother> born in 1840... When Sara Ann's mother died the father <John> remarried a widow named RICHARDSON who had children of her own. Sarah Ann determined to run away and get married and at age 14 she married William Thomas SMITH. Presumably they were married in Kentucky. Grandmother Sara Ann gave Verna many details of the clothes and the marriage, yet there is a license in Iowa for this couple in 1856 in Davis County. Quite a puzzle! Were they married twice? Did Sara Ann confuse Bloomfield, Kentucky with Bloomfield, Iowa? Anyway she hand tucked his wedding shirt, and he had a black broadcloth suit. She had a white mull dress with small blue raised clover-like figures on it. It had double puffed sleeves and she had black pumps.

They carried their wedding clothes in a bag and they rode horseback to the town of Bloomfield, Kentucky, where they were married by a minister. Her father built them a log cabin and they had a rawhide bed with a feather mattress and two pillows, an ironpot and skillet, two knives and forks and spoons, and she cooked over the open fireplace. She told of gathering fruit in the forest plums, and pawpaws and making fruit and jellies. She made Methiglum wine out of honey.

In grandfather Smith's family there were two boys, William Thomas and Simon Peter, and two small girls. The father was named Jessie SMITH.

Sarah Ann and William returned to Kentucky to be with his people. In 1859 Sarah Ann returned to Iowa. Her two little sisters-in-law went with her. The parents had died and for some reason her husband William was not with her. It was too early for him to have been in the Civil War. She went in a buckboard with only corn to eat. She ground the corn between rocks to make mush for the children, and also fed the corn to the horses.

Sara Ann's son William was born in 1860 in Dubuque Iowa. James Egar SMITH arrived in 1862 in Iowa and Joseph Washington in 1866. Marion was born in Kansas and died there. They built a log cabin on the Kaw River, probably near Marion, Kansas. The cabin was still standing in 1918.

The family migrated from Kansas into Oklahoma Territory. The young sisters-in-law were still with them and their blond fairness was most fascinating to the Indians. From Oklahoma they went by train to California. They had four children with them, food to eat and only four dollars in money. The blond girl must have married in Oklahoma, for the youngest child with them was Don SMITH.

They went to Geyserville, Calif. and rented a farm, called the old "Miller Place". There they had two children who died and are buried in the Rural Fulkerson Cemetery in Santa Rosa. Later they bought 100 acres of tree covered land, oak trees. They bought it from Mary MIZE (a Fulkerson) and it was a part of a Mexican grant, the ZWACHO Rancho. It had a Mexican type house with an enclosed court yard and a pump room in the middle of the house so they would have a supply of water in case of attack by the Indians.

The front yard was full of cotillion roses and Scotch broom and Castilian roses. They had five acres of apple orchard with numerous types of apples. They furnished dried apples and cider. It was on a clear creek that flowed the year round.

William SMITH became very prosperous on this farm. He built a 22 room Southern type house. Most of the acreage was planted to grapes. This brought in a good living until the coming of prohibition wiped out the business and their fortune. Eventually they had thirteen children, eleven of whom lived and helped farm that property.