She was the only survivor in her family of the terrible Camanche Iowa tornado of June 3, 1860, one of the biggest tornadoes ever seen in Iowa. Her parents, younger half- brother, Gregoire grandparents and aunt were all killed by the storm. She was carried 1/2 mile away and lost a leg.

Her mother, Catherine, died shortly after her birth and her step-mother was her mother's younger sister, Sarah, after whom she likely may have been named. Her mother's siblings were mostly born in Onondaga County, NY, which is where the Walrods were from, so they likely knew each other before moving to Iowa in the early 1840s.

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There is some confusion in a few Ancestry.com family trees over her parentage as enumerated in the 1860 census; the Camanche tornado had wiped out her family and she is staying with her relatives- the Hiram Walrods; note she is not listed with Hiram's children, but last- after a servant. However Hiram did have a daughter, Sara Alice, also born in 1853; she used her middle name- Alice- and married William Ten Eyck. They are in Elmwood cemetery in De Witt, IA. The Nicholas R. Walrod family is still in the same census because if you were living on June 1, 1860 you were still enumerated in that census. See the printed rules of enumeration at the top of the schedule.

KG

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--From the 1943 Walrod genealogy:

-Sarah, the only survivor of her father's family who were all killed in the terrible Comanche tornado of June 3, 1860. Although Sarah lost a leg in this tornado she later married Charlie Stevens and they raised a family of four children, two of whom met violent deaths. Her life was full of tragedy.

Her children:

Elmer H. Stevens 1870 – 1885

Edna Mary Stevens (Banbury) 1873 – 1940

Charles Anson Stevens 1879 – 1904

Glenward W. 1884-1900