Family history says that Sarah was born in Indian Territory along the Oregon Trail. That she was abandoned by her Indian birth parents and picked up by Permenus Hooker and his wife Charlotte Jane Kinkead Hooker in 1848 as the Hooker family was traveling west to Oregon Territory. She is believed to have been about 6 months old when they found her. According to family history, she was reared by the Hooker family along with three other children born to Permenus and Charlotte in Oregon.

That story has been handed down for generations in the Sullivan/Miller/McBeth/Ashford families. It is a nice story; however, the census records do not bear out that story, nor does DNA testing. The census data seems to reflect that Sarah was born to Permenus and Jane Hooker about 1850 after they arrived in Oregon.

Sarah's death certificate states her year of birth as 1843 in Polk County, Oregon, to Permenus Hooker. For sure, that is incorrect. The Hookers were not even in Oregon in 1843. The obituary published in the Polk County Itemizer after Sarah's death states that she was born near Dallas (Oregon) May 30, 1850.

In 1863 Sarah Catherine married Thomas Jefferson Sullivan in Dallas, Oregon. They had eight children:

Julia Ann Sullivan (1865-1932) who married John W. Miller
Amanda Jane Sullivan (1866-1960) who married William Haemer Ashford and later Alvin Orrahood
Hattie Nevada Sullivan (1870-1928) who married Samuel McBeth
George Washington Sullivan (1876-1962) who married Sarah Belle Clark
Ira Henderson Sullivan (1877-1964) who married Gertrude Waterhouse and later married Lennah Adams
Thomas Jefferson Sullivan, Jr. (1881-1938) who never married.
Elva Rean Sullivan (1885-1969) who married Wilbur Rhoades
Susan Lessie Sullivan (1893-1973) who married Charles Trueax

Sarah died at her home in McTimmonds Valley on May 4, 1924.