SARAH JANE SUSAN ABAGAIL LENORA KATHERENE CUNNINGHAM BRAZELL COLLINS

                                                    1848-1936    
That was quite a long handle for a little girl, but Southern Belles had several names.  They called her "Sallie" for short.

 

Sarah Jane was the daughter of Robert and Martha Cunningham.  She and her parents survived the War of the Northern Aggression and in 1868 married William Monroe "Bill" Brazell in Aurora, Marshall County, AL.   Robert Cunningham owned slaves prior to the War.  There was one slave that Sarah Jane just loved, a 16 year old negro girl named Hepsibah.  Hepsibah milked the cows and helped with the other household chores.  Hepsibah would give Sarah Jane a cup of warm milk to drink at milking time.  When a cow would kick, Hepsibah would shove her head into the cow's flank and throw her over.  Sarah Jane would laugh when telling her grandchildren this story.

 

She must have been quite a character.  She was a small woman, but very wiry.  Sarah Jane had a mind of her own, was stubborn and must have had quite a temper.  Maybe she had to be very determined to raise a family of nine children by herself after Bill died at the age of 42 in 1888.  She was 40 years old at the time his death.
 

Sometime after Bill's death, Sarah Jane decided to get married again.  The man she was going to marry was a man named William Thomas Collins.  He lived about a mile down the road from her.  He was Travis Brazell's mother's father.  Everyone said that Sarah Jane was a stubborn woman.  Evidently, Mr. Collins was as stubborn as Sarah Jane.  They went to Tolar, TX and got married.  When they got back to her house she said, "Stop the horse!",  because he was driving on past her house to his house.  He said, "We are going to live at my house", so after a big argument, she hopped out of the wagon and went into her house.  They never lived together a single day.

 

Sometime before November 1897, Sarah Jane's family all pulled up stakes and moved to Roger Mills County, Oklahoma Territory.  The probable reason that the Brazell Clan migrated to Oklahoma was the opening of land for homesteading.  The Brazells were farmers and needed land. And Central Texas had been enduring a long lasting droutht in the mid 1880's.
The Homestead Act allowed any person 21 years old or older and who was an American citizen to claim 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years and improving it.  Roger Mills County was open for homesteading.

Sarah Jane lived most of her later years with her daughter Jettie and her husband , Charlie Hensley.  She never knew exactly how old she was.  She never learned to read or write.

 

She raised a large family and suffered a lot of hardships.  She was a very hardy lady.  She died 31 Jan 1936.  It was a very cold day.  She is buried at Strong City, OK.  The cemetery is located 1 mile south of Strong City in Section 25-14-23.