Sarah Jane Page was born November 13, 1842, in Lockhart, Texas, to John and Susan Ann Page. Her father was a prosperous miller. He died of consumption in November 1949. Her mother remarried Hugh McLaurin in 1850, and he brought Susan Ann and the family to Blanco in 1853. 

Sarah Jane eventually married Samuel Johnson in 1861, and they had a son just as Samuel enlisted in the Confederate Army and went away to fight.  When the war was over, he did not return and Sarah had not heard from him.  Assuming he had been killed, she eventually married David James Trainer in 1868.  David and Sarah were married for some time and had children, the oldest being William Pinkney Trainer. One day on a trip into town the Trainer family met Samuel Johnson,  belatedly returning from war. The two men talked for some time and decided to let Sarah Jane make the decision of whom to stay with.  Sarah chose to remain with David.