Rames, Sarah

Born: 1806-10-18 Logan County, Kentucky

Died: 1884-01-28 Delavan, Illinois

Alternate name: Ogden, Martin

Sarah Ogden married Nathaniel Rames on March 8, 1829, in St. Louis, where she had a daughter, Martha. On April 16, 1830, the couple settled in Springfield, Illinois, where they had two more children, John and William. Nathaniel supported the family as a blacksmith. In 1836, Sarah's daughter and husband died, and she administered the latter's estate. On October 30, 1839, she married Nathaniel B. Martin in Springfield, but he abandoned her just six days after their marriage, leaving her with his debts and jeopardizing the property that her first husband had provided for her. In 1839, with the help of her attorney Thomas Moffett, Sarah petitioned the Illinois General Assembly for a divorce on the ground of desertion, but the effort was unsuccessful. Finally, in March 1842, with Moffett as her lawyer, she obtained a divorce from her second husband in the Sangamon County Circuit Court. Sarah never remarried, and lived the remainder of her life in Springfield, where she attended the Baptist church for more than fifty years and was a neighbor of the Moffett family. In 1850, she was the head of a household, living with her sons, and she owned $600 in real property. In 1860, she was living with her son John, a saddler, and his young family. She died of heart failure at the age of 78.

John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 592, 598; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Sangamon County, 30 October 1839, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 12 March 1836, 2:7; 26 March 1836, 2:7; 1 November 1839, 2:7; Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 30 January 1884, 3:3; Petition of Sarah Martin to Illinois General Assembly; A Bill to Dissolve the Bonds of Matrimony between Nathaniel B. Martin and Sarah Martin his Wife; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Sangamon County, IL, 105; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 124-25; Martin v. Martin, March Term 1842, Docket Book C, 1840-1844, 132a, Illinois Regional Archives Depository, University of Illinois Springfield; Gravestone, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, IL.