Sarah was married May 1855 in Embarrass, Outagamie, WI to:


Children of Nathan and Sarah Davis:


Nathan died in 1863 leaving Sarah with Watie (6), Charlotte (4) and Charles (1). Sarah’s next spouse was another native of Chenango County, NY and of the Davis family.

Our first record of Sarah Babcock by name is the 1850 US Census that listed her as 11 years old, living with her parents and and siblings in Otselic, NY. Sarah’s first husband, Nathan Davis, was her neighbor in 1850, both recorded on the same page of the census. The 1855 Wisconsin Census, recorded June 1st in Embarrass, strongly suggests that Nathan and Sarah were married by then. Unfortunately, only the the heads of families were named in 1855, but the Jehu Babcock and Nathan Davis families were adjacent entries. The Babcock and Davis families were neighbors again in Caledonia, Wisconsin by 1860.

Sarah and Nathan’s first child, Watie, was born in 1857, the same year as Mary L Babcock. The following photograph of Sarah, Watie and Charlotte was found at an auction in Weyauwega, Wisconsin and sent by Paula Vaughn on 22 Apr 2005 to Glenna Maria Johnson (see the Davis connection page) who passed an image on to us.

Sarah’s second husband, Joshua Eaton, was her first husband’s first cousin. According to census records, Sarah and Joshua’s first child, Halbert, was born in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Joshua’s father had established a farm in Iowa. By 1870, Joshua, Sarah, Watie, Charlotte, Charles and Halbert had moved to Iowa to be near his family. Sarah and Joshua had a second child, John, about 1871. About 1872, Joshua’s brother Albert was married. Albert and Ellen’s first child was Frank, born March 1873, and their second child was Caroline, born May 11, 1874. Joshua died April 23, 1874, aged 38 years, leaving Sarah with Watie (17 – already back in Wisconsin and married), Charlotte (14), Charles (11), Halbert (8) and John (3). We have DNA matches with descendants of Caroline Eaton that very strongly indicate Caroline was actually Sarah’s child. We assume that Albert and Ellen Eaton took their niece Caroline as their own so the widowed Sarah could be near her family and other five children back in Wisconsin.

An 1874 plat of Caledonia shows S. A. Eaton as the owner of 60 acres adjacent to her brother S(ilas), brother Wm and her father J(ehu) Babcock. The house just north of her 60 acres is believed to be hers and to be the one shown in the photograph above.

The 1875 Wisconsin Census recorded names of family heads and numbers by gender. It showed John Malison was the head of the family adjacent to the Silas, William and Jehu Babcock families. We presume Sarah was the female and her sons Charles, Halbert and John were the other three males in that household. In 1880, S A Malison was paralyzed, living near the Silas and Jehu Babcock families with her sons Charles Davis (18) and Halbert (14) and JV (9) Eaton. John Malison was not there, but ‘single’, working for a farmer near Eau Claire. There is no record of Sarah marrying John nor as a family head in 1885 nor of her death, but if cemetery lots were used in order, Sarah Eaton died after her niece, Laura (1876-1885), and before her father, Jehu (1812-1889).