Sarah Armstrong Montgomery Green Wallis – a name as long as her rich, complex life as a pioneer woman walking overland to California and later leading the suffrage movement for women’s rights in California. She was born in southern Ohio, into a large family that moved west into Indiana and settled in western Missouri, where her parents died before 1842. Sarah married Allen Montgomery at age nineteen and in 1844 they joined the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party that was the first wagon train to reach California.
Allen and Sarah Montgomery lived and worked near Sutter’s Fort in California, where Sarah learned to read and write from other pioneer women. In this rough frontier outpost, Sarah organized the first known quilting party in California, bringing wives and daughters together for women’s support.
Allen Montgomery participated in the Bear Flag Rebellion in 1846, and at war’s end, he went to Hawaii, deserting Sarah in San Francisco. Two years later Sarah wed Talbot H. Green, who turned out to be an imposter named Paul Geddes, a Pennsylvania bank clerk who had absconded with bank funds and deserted his wife and children ten years earlier. Mr. “Green” went back East to settle his affairs, leaving Sarah with a substantial amount of property, but never returned to her.
Sarah Montgomery Green, now pregnant, had her illegal marriage annulled and in 1851 delivered a healthy baby boy, Talbot Green. In 1854, she married Joseph Wallis, a prominent attorney and politician from Santa Clara. Joseph adopted Sarah’s son and Talbot Wallis went on to become the tenth director of the California State Library in 1882 and in 1886.
In 1856, using her own funds, Sarah acquired title to the 250-acre Mayfield Farm, from Elisha Crosby in the village of Mayfield, adjacent to farm land destined to become Leland Stanford Junior University. Sarah and Joseph built a large home on the farm and two daughters and two sons were born to the couple – Eva Wallis (Bounds), Josephine Wallis (Ingalls), Joseph Wallis, Jr, and William Wallis.
Sarah and Joseph became an investors in the San Francisco-San Jose Railroad and persuaded the railroad management to move the local station from a distant crossing to the new town of Mayfield (now California Avenue, Palo Alto). Joseph Wallis was the local justice of the peace for several years and served as a state senator after his election in 1862. For the remainder of his life, he was always “Judge Wallis”.
While in Mayfield, Sarah, supported by her husband, joined other strong-minded women with progressive views, to become a founder of the suffrage movement in California. She became president of the California Women’s Suffrage Association in 1870 and led the successful lobbying for passage of a bill allowing women to practice law in the California court system and providing that no one be denied admission to a state college based on gender. When the famous Elizabeth Cady Stanton toured the West Coast promoting women's suffrage, she spoke at a meeting held at Sarah's Mayfield Farm.
The long economic depression of 1873-1878 depleted Sarah's wealth and she sold Mayfield Farm in 1878, relocating to a smaller house in Mayfield, where she continued to work in the local women's movement. After Joseph's death in 1898 and more financial losses, Sarah lost her second Mayfield home. Her eldest son Talbot provided her with a cottage of her own in Los Gatos, next door to her younger sister, Caroline Armstrong Belshee.
When Sarah died at Los Gatos in 1905, there were many tributes to this pioneer California woman. Historian Hubert Bancroft called Sarah, “a woman of somewhat remarkable qualities.”
Her tributes noted that a younger brother, John Wesley Armstrong, had followed Sarah to California from Missouri and became a respected attorney, director of the California State Library and a Superior Court Judge. Sarah is at rest in Union Cemetery in Redwood City, alongside her husband and their 23-year-old-son, Joseph S. Wallis Jr., who died of typhoid fever in 1882, while in Sacramento beginning his practice as an attorney, like his father.
The Wallis family Mayfield Farm location from 1857 to 1878 is marked by California State Landmark No. 969 "Homesite of Sarah Wallis - Mayfield Farm" on La Selva Drive in Palo Alto. South of California Avenue in Palo Alto, stands “Sarah Wallis Park” that commemorates where the second Wallis family home in Mayfield was located.
The Wallis family name is also remembered by Wallis Court, a street in Palo Alto across from Alta Mesa Cemetery, where there is a burial monument for a son of Sarah and Joseph Wallis – William A. Wallis and his wife Sadie.
Bio: Cheryl Anne Stapp, Author-Historian Sutter’s Fort State Park, Steve Staiger, Palo Alto Historical Association, Allen Rountree.
Allen and Sarah Montgomery lived and worked near Sutter’s Fort in California, where Sarah learned to read and write from other pioneer women. In this rough frontier outpost, Sarah organized the first known quilting party in California, bringing wives and daughters together for women’s support.
Allen Montgomery participated in the Bear Flag Rebellion in 1846, and at war’s end, he went to Hawaii, deserting Sarah in San Francisco. Two years later Sarah wed Talbot H. Green, who turned out to be an imposter named Paul Geddes, a Pennsylvania bank clerk who had absconded with bank funds and deserted his wife and children ten years earlier. Mr. “Green” went back East to settle his affairs, leaving Sarah with a substantial amount of property, but never returned to her.
Sarah Montgomery Green, now pregnant, had her illegal marriage annulled and in 1851 delivered a healthy baby boy, Talbot Green. In 1854, she married Joseph Wallis, a prominent attorney and politician from Santa Clara. Joseph adopted Sarah’s son and Talbot Wallis went on to become the tenth director of the California State Library in 1882 and in 1886.
In 1856, using her own funds, Sarah acquired title to the 250-acre Mayfield Farm, from Elisha Crosby in the village of Mayfield, adjacent to farm land destined to become Leland Stanford Junior University. Sarah and Joseph built a large home on the farm and two daughters and two sons were born to the couple – Eva Wallis (Bounds), Josephine Wallis (Ingalls), Joseph Wallis, Jr, and William Wallis.
Sarah and Joseph became an investors in the San Francisco-San Jose Railroad and persuaded the railroad management to move the local station from a distant crossing to the new town of Mayfield (now California Avenue, Palo Alto). Joseph Wallis was the local justice of the peace for several years and served as a state senator after his election in 1862. For the remainder of his life, he was always “Judge Wallis”.
While in Mayfield, Sarah, supported by her husband, joined other strong-minded women with progressive views, to become a founder of the suffrage movement in California. She became president of the California Women’s Suffrage Association in 1870 and led the successful lobbying for passage of a bill allowing women to practice law in the California court system and providing that no one be denied admission to a state college based on gender. When the famous Elizabeth Cady Stanton toured the West Coast promoting women's suffrage, she spoke at a meeting held at Sarah's Mayfield Farm.
The long economic depression of 1873-1878 depleted Sarah's wealth and she sold Mayfield Farm in 1878, relocating to a smaller house in Mayfield, where she continued to work in the local women's movement. After Joseph's death in 1898 and more financial losses, Sarah lost her second Mayfield home. Her eldest son Talbot provided her with a cottage of her own in Los Gatos, next door to her younger sister, Caroline Armstrong Belshee.
When Sarah died at Los Gatos in 1905, there were many tributes to this pioneer California woman. Historian Hubert Bancroft called Sarah, “a woman of somewhat remarkable qualities.”
Her tributes noted that a younger brother, John Wesley Armstrong, had followed Sarah to California from Missouri and became a respected attorney, director of the California State Library and a Superior Court Judge. Sarah is at rest in Union Cemetery in Redwood City, alongside her husband and their 23-year-old-son, Joseph S. Wallis Jr., who died of typhoid fever in 1882, while in Sacramento beginning his practice as an attorney, like his father.
The Wallis family Mayfield Farm location from 1857 to 1878 is marked by California State Landmark No. 969 "Homesite of Sarah Wallis - Mayfield Farm" on La Selva Drive in Palo Alto. South of California Avenue in Palo Alto, stands “Sarah Wallis Park” that commemorates where the second Wallis family home in Mayfield was located.
The Wallis family name is also remembered by Wallis Court, a street in Palo Alto across from Alta Mesa Cemetery, where there is a burial monument for a son of Sarah and Joseph Wallis – William A. Wallis and his wife Sadie.
Bio: Cheryl Anne Stapp, Author-Historian Sutter’s Fort State Park, Steve Staiger, Palo Alto Historical Association, Allen Rountree.
Sarah Armstrong Montgomery Green Wallis – a name as long as her rich, complex life as a pioneer woman walking overland to California and later leading the suffrage movement for women’s rights in California. She was born in southern Ohio, into a large family that moved west into Indiana and settled in western Missouri, where her parents died before 1842. Sarah married Allen Montgomery at age nineteen and in 1844 they joined the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party that was the first wagon train to reach California.
Allen and Sarah Montgomery lived and worked near Sutter’s Fort in California, where Sarah learned to read and write from other pioneer women. In this rough frontier outpost, Sarah organized the first known quilting party in California, bringing wives and daughters together for women’s support.
Allen Montgomery participated in the Bear Flag Rebellion in 1846, and at war’s end, he went to Hawaii, deserting Sarah in San Francisco. Two years later Sarah wed Talbot H. Green, who turned out to be an imposter named Paul Geddes, a Pennsylvania bank clerk who had absconded with bank funds and deserted his wife and children ten years earlier. Mr. “Green” went back East to settle his affairs, leaving Sarah with a substantial amount of property, but never returned to her.
Sarah Montgomery Green, now pregnant, had her illegal marriage annulled and in 1851 delivered a healthy baby boy, Talbot Green. In 1854, she married Joseph Wallis, a prominent attorney and politician from Santa Clara. Joseph adopted Sarah’s son and Talbot Wallis went on to become the tenth director of the California State Library in 1882 and in 1886.
In 1856, using her own funds, Sarah acquired title to the 250-acre Mayfield Farm, from Elisha Crosby in the village of Mayfield, adjacent to farm land destined to become Leland Stanford Junior University. Sarah and Joseph built a large home on the farm and two daughters and two sons were born to the couple – Eva Wallis (Bounds), Josephine Wallis (Ingalls), Joseph Wallis, Jr, and William Wallis.
Sarah and Joseph became an investors in the San Francisco-San Jose Railroad and persuaded the railroad management to move the local station from a distant crossing to the new town of Mayfield (now California Avenue, Palo Alto). Joseph Wallis was the local justice of the peace for several years and served as a state senator after his election in 1862. For the remainder of his life, he was always “Judge Wallis”.
While in Mayfield, Sarah, supported by her husband, joined other strong-minded women with progressive views, to become a founder of the suffrage movement in California. She became president of the California Women’s Suffrage Association in 1870 and led the successful lobbying for passage of a bill allowing women to practice law in the California court system and providing that no one be denied admission to a state college based on gender. When the famous Elizabeth Cady Stanton toured the West Coast promoting women's suffrage, she spoke at a meeting held at Sarah's Mayfield Farm.
The long economic depression of 1873-1878 depleted Sarah's wealth and she sold Mayfield Farm in 1878, relocating to a smaller house in Mayfield, where she continued to work in the local women's movement. After Joseph's death in 1898 and more financial losses, Sarah lost her second Mayfield home. Her eldest son Talbot provided her with a cottage of her own in Los Gatos, next door to her younger sister, Caroline Armstrong Belshee.
When Sarah died at Los Gatos in 1905, there were many tributes to this pioneer California woman. Historian Hubert Bancroft called Sarah, “a woman of somewhat remarkable qualities.”
Her tributes noted that a younger brother, John Wesley Armstrong, had followed Sarah to California from Missouri and became a respected attorney, director of the California State Library and a Superior Court Judge. Sarah is at rest in Union Cemetery in Redwood City, alongside her husband and their 23-year-old-son, Joseph S. Wallis Jr., who died of typhoid fever in 1882, while in Sacramento beginning his practice as an attorney, like his father.
The Wallis family Mayfield Farm location from 1857 to 1878 is marked by California State Landmark No. 969 "Homesite of Sarah Wallis - Mayfield Farm" on La Selva Drive in Palo Alto. South of California Avenue in Palo Alto, stands “Sarah Wallis Park” that commemorates where the second Wallis family home in Mayfield was located.
The Wallis family name is also remembered by Wallis Court, a street in Palo Alto across from Alta Mesa Cemetery, where there is a burial monument for a son of Sarah and Joseph Wallis – William A. Wallis and his wife Sadie.
Bio: Cheryl Anne Stapp, Author-Historian Sutter’s Fort State Park, Steve Staiger, Palo Alto Historical Association, Allen Rountree.
Allen and Sarah Montgomery lived and worked near Sutter’s Fort in California, where Sarah learned to read and write from other pioneer women. In this rough frontier outpost, Sarah organized the first known quilting party in California, bringing wives and daughters together for women’s support.
Allen Montgomery participated in the Bear Flag Rebellion in 1846, and at war’s end, he went to Hawaii, deserting Sarah in San Francisco. Two years later Sarah wed Talbot H. Green, who turned out to be an imposter named Paul Geddes, a Pennsylvania bank clerk who had absconded with bank funds and deserted his wife and children ten years earlier. Mr. “Green” went back East to settle his affairs, leaving Sarah with a substantial amount of property, but never returned to her.
Sarah Montgomery Green, now pregnant, had her illegal marriage annulled and in 1851 delivered a healthy baby boy, Talbot Green. In 1854, she married Joseph Wallis, a prominent attorney and politician from Santa Clara. Joseph adopted Sarah’s son and Talbot Wallis went on to become the tenth director of the California State Library in 1882 and in 1886.
In 1856, using her own funds, Sarah acquired title to the 250-acre Mayfield Farm, from Elisha Crosby in the village of Mayfield, adjacent to farm land destined to become Leland Stanford Junior University. Sarah and Joseph built a large home on the farm and two daughters and two sons were born to the couple – Eva Wallis (Bounds), Josephine Wallis (Ingalls), Joseph Wallis, Jr, and William Wallis.
Sarah and Joseph became an investors in the San Francisco-San Jose Railroad and persuaded the railroad management to move the local station from a distant crossing to the new town of Mayfield (now California Avenue, Palo Alto). Joseph Wallis was the local justice of the peace for several years and served as a state senator after his election in 1862. For the remainder of his life, he was always “Judge Wallis”.
While in Mayfield, Sarah, supported by her husband, joined other strong-minded women with progressive views, to become a founder of the suffrage movement in California. She became president of the California Women’s Suffrage Association in 1870 and led the successful lobbying for passage of a bill allowing women to practice law in the California court system and providing that no one be denied admission to a state college based on gender. When the famous Elizabeth Cady Stanton toured the West Coast promoting women's suffrage, she spoke at a meeting held at Sarah's Mayfield Farm.
The long economic depression of 1873-1878 depleted Sarah's wealth and she sold Mayfield Farm in 1878, relocating to a smaller house in Mayfield, where she continued to work in the local women's movement. After Joseph's death in 1898 and more financial losses, Sarah lost her second Mayfield home. Her eldest son Talbot provided her with a cottage of her own in Los Gatos, next door to her younger sister, Caroline Armstrong Belshee.
When Sarah died at Los Gatos in 1905, there were many tributes to this pioneer California woman. Historian Hubert Bancroft called Sarah, “a woman of somewhat remarkable qualities.”
Her tributes noted that a younger brother, John Wesley Armstrong, had followed Sarah to California from Missouri and became a respected attorney, director of the California State Library and a Superior Court Judge. Sarah is at rest in Union Cemetery in Redwood City, alongside her husband and their 23-year-old-son, Joseph S. Wallis Jr., who died of typhoid fever in 1882, while in Sacramento beginning his practice as an attorney, like his father.
The Wallis family Mayfield Farm location from 1857 to 1878 is marked by California State Landmark No. 969 "Homesite of Sarah Wallis - Mayfield Farm" on La Selva Drive in Palo Alto. South of California Avenue in Palo Alto, stands “Sarah Wallis Park” that commemorates where the second Wallis family home in Mayfield was located.
The Wallis family name is also remembered by Wallis Court, a street in Palo Alto across from Alta Mesa Cemetery, where there is a burial monument for a son of Sarah and Joseph Wallis – William A. Wallis and his wife Sadie.
Bio: Cheryl Anne Stapp, Author-Historian Sutter’s Fort State Park, Steve Staiger, Palo Alto Historical Association, Allen Rountree.
Inscription
There are no headstones or markers for Sarah, Joseph Wallis or their son Joseph Wallis Jr.
