Sarah Ann Smith (maiden name: Turner) was born on April 2, 1817, in Pennsylvania to John and Elizabeth Turner. She was baptized in Trinity Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 26, 1824. Her mother died in 1830, and her followed in 1843. She married John W. Smith around 1839, and they had at least four children: William, born around 1840; Frances, born around 1843; Thomas, born around 1846; and Louis, born around 1849.
By 1860, they were living in Dover, Delaware, and her husband was working as a farmer. They owned $8,000 of real estate and $5,000 of personal property. Her husband died in 1878, and by 1900, she was living in her son Louis’s household in Dover. She died of “old age” in Dover on August 13, 1903.