Sarah Jane McDonald was born around 1842 in North Carolina to Neill and Margaret McDonald. Her father was a farmer who owned $250 of real estate and $2,000 of personal property by 1860. She married Noah Deaton around 1866, and they had at least nine children: Angus, born around 1867; Francis, born around 1869; Charles, born around 1871; Flora, born around 1873; Walter, born around 1875; John, born around 1877; William, born around 1879; James, born around 1881; and Mary, born around 1884. They lived in McNeills, North Carolina, and her husband worked as a farmer and “carriage wood maker.” By 1870, they owned $50 of personal property. She remained in Moore County for the rest of her life, and she died in 1909.