Sarah Jane Rice

Sarah crossed the Atlantic on the ship George W. Bourne in 1851 with her husband William McKeachie and five children: John (age 12), Emma (age 7), James (age 5), Sarah ( age 3) and William (an infant.)  They were all on the ill-fated steamboat Saluda.  William, John and baby William were apparently killed in the explosion.  Sarah and three of her children (ages 8, 7 & 3) were listed among the severely injured by the Lexington Express newspaper in an "Extra"  on 13 April 1852.  At some point widow McKeachie married William Magee, a fellow passenger on the Saluda, and on 17 October 1852 she was rebaptized in Salt Lake City, Utah as Sarah McGee.  In the 1860 Utah census she was Sarah "Magae" at Ogden, Utah but in 1870 she was Sarah "Magee" in Churchill County, Nevada.  She was buried at Wadsworth, Washo County, Nevada.  Her birth and death dates are confirmed by the inscription on her gravestone, which lists her name as "Sarah J. Magee."

Her daughters Sarah and Emma accompanied her to Utah.  The fate of her son James is unknown.