Sarah, or “Sallie,” was born a slave in TN in 1852 and died in 1931 in Virginia City, MT. After emancipation Sarah made her way to Virginia City as the nanny for a white family chasing the gold rush. She stayed on in the town working as a housekeeper at the Madison House Hotel. Sarah married a black miner and they had four children, all who eventually died. She successfully divorced the husband due to his physical abuse. Later she married a white farmer and miner, Stephen Bickford, raising four children with him. After he died she became the sole owner of the Virginia City Water Company, making her the first female person of color to own a utility company in Montana, and possibly the country. Sarah bought the “Hangman’s Building,” using it for her office and as a tourist attraction, charging visitors to see the beam where five men had been hung by vigilantes. Credit given to Laura Joanne Arata, author of “Race and the Wild West : Sarah Bickford and the Legend of Virginia City, Montana, 1870-1930”.