(Contributed by the Thomas Tolman Family Organization. Excerpt from Judson Tolman: Pioneer, Lumberman, Patriarch by E. Dennis Tolman, Second Edition, 2004, page 102).

Sarah Bell was born May 21, 1854 in Richville, Tooele, Utah to Cyrus and Alice Bracken Tolman. Sarah was their fourth child and second daughter. Sarah grew up in the Tooele Valley and learned the many chores of a pioneer woman. She was nineteen years old when she married Moses H. Bruneau, who was born July 17,1841 in France to Matthew and Rosalie Huet Bruneau. Moses immigrated to America and then migrated to Utah. We do not have a record of their meeting or courtship, but Moses was thirteen years older than Sarah. They were married and sealed in the Endowment House, March 3, 1873 in Salt Lake City.

Moses and Sarah became the parents of four children, born in Tooele: Rosalie (March 21, 1874), Sarah Jane (March 4,1875), Ammon Joseph (May 28, 1876), and Anna Bell (November 20, 1877).

Moses was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints eight months before he and Sarah married. According to descendants, he only joined so Sarah would marry him. There were rumors of abuse and the marriage ended in a divorce, June 16, 1879. The divorce decree split the children between them, until Sarah’s death.

Sarah Bell died August 4, 1879 in Tooele at the age of twenty-five. She left a young family: Rosalie was only five years old, Sarah Jane was four, Ammon Joseph was three and Anna Bell was just two. As far as we know, Moses was not true to any of the commitments he had made to Sarah and the children or the Church. Sarah was buried in the Tooele Cemetery.

Moses ran a saloon in Tooele and gave the children over to be reared by Catholic nuns. Rosalie and Sarah Jane choose to become Holy Cross nuns and devoted their lives to that faith. They died in Utah and are buried in Salt Lake City. Ammon Joseph married Elizabeth Rhoda Marshall, June 21,1896. They became the parents of eight children. Hannah Bell married William Morgan Ajax of Tooele, September 6, 1904. They had children and later
divorced. Moses died in Salt Lake City March 9, 1916 and was buried in Tooele.

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