Sarah Elisabeth Tharpe b? d? m: 4 March 1867

Sarah Elisabeth Tharpe, my most elusive ancestor.  What I know for certain is that she married Alexander McGehee on 4 March 1867, in Grayson County, Texas.  That is all I know for certain.  According to their eldest daughter, Siddie Rhuehamie McGehee Caton, Sarah was born in Arkansas.  According to Siddie's siblings, Sarah was born in multiple other states. 

Family lore says she died around 1900 when her  youngest child, Minnie Mae McGehee Doughty, was 12 & she is buried in Oil Springs Cemetery in Carter County, Oklahoma.  I have been to Oil Springs Cemetery and if Sarah is buried there I will never know for certain because what would be her headstone is gone except for a blank piece of concrete.

I have spent 15 years searching for Sarah and I have not gotten very far.  It is as if she and Alexander disappeared off the grid once they were married.  I can find Alexander on cenus records prior to his marriage and after his marriage, but not during. Were they in hiding, did they just happen to miss every census, or are they on a census with a name misspelling that I haven't searched and Soundex doesn't pick up?  I don't know.

I know where her children were born and have searched census records for every town, surrounding town, county, state, etc.  I have been able to find their children as adults and I have obtained death certificates but each one says their mother's birthplace is unknown or a different state, and I have researched them all.

Since Sarah died prior to Oklahoma statehood, there is no death certificate for her and I have not been able to find an obituary.  It also does not appear that she and Alexander owned any property.

I do know there was a family Bible but as with so many other family Bibles, it burned with Siddie & her husband's house.

I am hoping to connect to others searching the Tharpe surname.  If anybody has a suggestion or notices a way to search that I have not exhausted, please let me know.