Sarah Gardiner Lawton

Sarah Gardiner Lawton was my 3x great grandmother. Her daughter, Eliza Jane Carpenter married Zophar Skinner for whom this blog is named.

Sarah Gardiner Lawton

Sarah Gardiner Lawton was born in October 1828 to Clark Lawton and Sarah A. Gardiner in South Kingston, Rhode Island.

She married John Levy Carpenter, son of Daniel G and Mary Carpenter on 5 May 1845 in the Valley Falls Baptist Church in the village of Valley Falls, Rhode Island. At the time of marriage, both Sarah and John were both "of Smithfield" which bordered Valley Falls.

Marriage Record for
 John L Carpenter and Sarah G Lawton

"This may certify that Mr John L Carpenter and Miss Sarah G Lawton both of Smithfield were lawfully united together in Marriage on this the fifth day of May AD 1845 by me the Subscriber.
                                B.P. Byram
      Pastor of the Baptist Church
                      Valley Falls, R.I.

      Smithfield R.I.
                May 5, 1845"

Sarah Carpenter Obituary
Pawtucket Times, 1 March 1904

      Death of Mrs. Carpenter
Mrs Sarah Carpenter widow of John L Carpenter died last evening at her home on Braley's Hill in South Attleboro just over the state line at Valley Falls. Deceased was in her 77th year and had been ill but a few days troubles incident to old age being the immediate cause of death. Mrs Carpenter was an old resident of this section and was held in high esteem by a large circle of friends. She was the mother of Mrs. Zophar Skinner of Valley Falls.


I have not been able to determine where Sarah was buried but I suspect she was laid to rest next to her husband at Mineral Spring Cemetery in Pawtucket Rhode Island although there is no stone to mark her grave. Her parents are buried nearby, as are at least one of her children.

Mineral Spring Cemetery, Pawtucket, Rhode Island

I have many ancestors buried in this cemetery but somehow I had never visited it on my other trips back to Rhode Island. I think I have always  been side-tracked by Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls, and Oak Grove Cemetery in Pawtucket. Since my Dad's family has been in this part of Rhode Island forever, I have many family burials in all these cemeteries. And from reading the area censuses line by line looking for family members (back before the censuses were all indexed and on-line), I recognize so many of the names on the non-family graves!

Mineral Spring Cemetery is not in the best of shape, especially compared to nearby Oak Grove and Moshassuck Cemeteries. Many of the gravestones have been toppled, and over the years, a lot of them have become buried.

When I first visited this cemetery a few days ago, I ran into Ken Postle, a volunteer who has received a grant to hire neighborhood teens to unearth and reset some of these tombstones. I think he said he has the teens for a total of 1000 man-hours. It looked like the group was doing great work and have located many buried stones, and have started re-setting them. Great job, Ken! and kudos to you for organizing this effort!

Re-set Gravestones at Mineral Spring Cemetery

Both Moshassuck Cemetery and Mineral Spring Cemetery have a special section of the graveyard dedicated to the Rhode Island men who served in the Civil War. Both cemeteries have Civil War gravestones in other parts of the cemetery as well.

Civil War Memorial at Mineral Spring Cemetery

Unfortunately, most of the Civil War grave markers are buried too deeply in the ground to read the inscriptions.

I started taking pictures in the back left corner of the cemetery for www.BillionGraves.com (I will also post the pictures on www.findagrave.com ) but had to stop when a sudden rainstorm started. I only got about 20 photos taken, but one of them was of Zophar Skinner's gravestone. This Zophar was my g-g-g-grandfather. His son, Zophar, was the Zophar this blog was named for - I had previously photographed his grave at Moshassuck Cemetery.