Sarah Elizabeth Foss

Brief Life History of Sarah Elizabeth

When Sarah Elizabeth Foss was born on 26 December 1827, in Scarborough, Cumberland, Maine, United States, her father, Calvin Ira Foss, was 27 and her mother, Sarah Brackett Carter, was 27. She married Matthias Cain Cowley on 17 October 1857, in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 2 daughters. She lived in Salt Lake, Utah, United States in 1850 and Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States for about 20 years. She died on 14 June 1899, in Bountiful, Davis, Utah, United States, at the age of 71, and was buried in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States.

Photos and Memories (25)

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Family Time Line

Matthias Cain Cowley
1829–1864
Sarah Elizabeth Foss
1827–1899
Marriage: 17 October 1857
Matthias Foss Cowley
1858–1940
Sarah Isabella Cowley
1860–1861
Ezra Carter Cowley
1862–1863
Ann Elizabeth Cowley
1864–1930

Sources (58)

  • Sarah Cowley in household of Esra Foss, "United States Census, 1870"
  • Sarah Elizabeth Foss, "Maine, Births and Christenings, 1739-1900"
  • Sarah Elizabeth Foss, "United States Western States Marriage Index"

World Events (8)

1830 · The Second Great Awakening

Being a second spiritual and religious awakening, like the First Great Awakening, many Churches began to spring up from other denominations. Many people began to rapidly join the Baptist and Methodist congregations. Many converts to these religions believed that the Awakening was the precursor of a new millennial age.

1832 · Calais Branch is Chartered

The State of Maine chartered the Calais Railway in 1832, one of the first railway charters to be granted by the state. Construction was very long, as the project was reorganized, abandoned, transferred to other companies, and extended several times. It was finally completed in 1898.

1846

U.S. acquires vast tracts of Mexican territory in wake of Mexican War including California and New Mexico.

Name Meaning

English: either topographic name from Middle English foss ‘ditch’ (from Old English foss ‘ditch’, Latin fossa) or a habitational name from one or more of the many places so named, such as Voss in Plympton Saint Mary and Great Fossend in Burlescombe (both Devon), the River Foss (North Yorkshire), Foss Beck (East Yorkshire), and the Fosse Way, a Roman road running between Lincoln (Lincolnshire) and Axminster (Devon) via Leicester (Leicestershire), Cirencester (Gloucestershire), and Bath (Somerset), named in the Old English period from the ditch that ran alongside it.

Danish: from fos, vos ‘fox’, applied as a nickname for a sly or cunning person, or as a topographic or habitational name referring to a house distinguished by the sign of a fox.

Norwegian: habitational name from a farmstead so named from Old Norse fors ‘waterfall’, examples of which are found throughout Norway.

Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.

Possible Related Names

Story Highlight

Sarah Elizabeth Foss Cowley Fox - Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude

Sarah Elizabeth Foss Cowley Fox Sarah was born in Maine in 1827. It is not known when she crossed the Plains. She was married to Matthias Cowley in 1857 and they had four children. Tw …

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