The Story of Sabina Mary Rooch, my Great-great grandmother

While doing some family history several months ago, I found some cousins of my dad who had some information I didn't. I was able to help them a little, too. Here is the story of one of my great-great grandmas. A city girl thrown into county life, she lost two sons and her husband at fairly young ages. The following is an unedited, short biography.

"Sabina Mary Rooch was born in Boston, Massachusetts on February 28, 1849.She was the first child of J. Fredrick Rooch and Eva Marie Gunther. She came to San Fransisco in 1851 or 1852 and in 1860 went to Anaheim with the original colonists.

She married Daniel Sorensen on May 17, 1866 in Los Angeles and they had seven children. They settled on the land that Daniel and his brothers Christian and Anton bought from Pio Pico, the last Spanish Governor of California. At this time this area was int he middle of no where and it was hot and dusty. Sabina was a city girl and this had to be a traumatic experience for her. She not only took care of her husband and children, but also took care of the household chores for her husbands two brothers and 6-8 ranch hands for the main meal in the afternoon.

Even with all the men around, she had trouble getting some things done. She would ask and ask for someone to cut some wood for her stove and she was usually ignored. One day she stopped asking and let the wood run out. That afternoon she went outside and clanged the bell for dinner and all the men came running for their meal. They came in the house and she was sitting in her chair. They all stood there silent looking at the table. It had one platter with a pigs tail on it. They turned to her and she said, "No wood, no dinner."

She was always having to chase the pigs from her vegetable garden because the pens needed fixing. Many times she asked for the pends to be fixed but to no avail. One day she saw them in her garden and instead of chasing them, she grabbed a gun, went outside and shot every one of them. She went into the house and sat down. The men hearing the shots came running. They saw the dead pigs in the garden and went into the house to check on her. She said "If someone will remove the dead pigs from the garden I will get a vegetable for our dinner but it will be a cold day in hell before we will have any pork."

Frustrations were many for this young girl. Needless to say it was a hard life for her and this is probably the reason Daniel sold his interests in this land to his brother. Sabina and family returned to Anaheim in 1876.

Two of her children, Frederick and Willie, preceded her in death. Her daughter Sophie preferred a more cosmopolitan life and moved to San Fransisco, though she maintained a home in Los angeles also. The others remained in Southern California. She moved to Los Angeles about 1910 and remained there until her death on August 25, 1918. She is at the Inglewood Park Cemetary."

I'm not sure who wrote this; I'm assuming it was her daughter Sophie, or possibly daughter Pauline.

Family history can be so interesting. I love having accounts of life before my time. It makes me appreciate the modern conveniences I have (like a clothes washing machine, a car, and modern medicine), but also makes me wish I was born a hundred and fifty years ago, when life was a little simpler.

I do like my modern medicine, though.

(If you are reading this and think we might be related, by all means please email me or leave a comment!)