Daughter of well-known Sabbatarian pioneer Leonard W. Hastings, Sarah Hastings was baptized by James White in 1850. During her teenage years she wrote a number of spiritual appeals in articles and letters published in the Youth's Instructor and Review. Ellen and James White were close friends of the Hastings family and appealed to the children to give their lives to God after the death of their mother in 1850. In her 1859 diary Ellen White mentions a brief meeting with “Amelia Hastings” in Somerville, Massachusetts. No sources have been found relating to Sarah Hastings after 1860, except for the information in her brother Frederick Hastings’ obituary, that Sarah, together with four of her siblings, all died before 1918 and had all died Seventh-day Adventists. 1EGWLM 843.4
See: 1850 U.S. Federal Census, “Sarah A. Hastings,” New Hampshire, Hillsborough County, New Ipswich, p. 273; 1860 U.S. Federal Census, “Amelia Hastings,” Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Somerville, p. 77; W. [James White], “Our Tour East,” Advent Review, August 1850, pp. 14, 15; “Sr. Amelia Hastings Writes From New Ipswich … ,” Youth's Instructor, May 1853, p. 62; Amelia S. Hastings, “From Amelia S. Hastings,” Youth's Instructor, March 1854, pp. 23, 24; S. A. Hastings, “Experience,” Youth's Instructor, October 1858, p. 78; S. A. Hastings, “Jesus Pities,” Youth's Instructor, February 1859, pp. 10, 11; S. A. Hastings, “Chastening,” Youth's Instructor, August 1859, p. 62; S. A. Hastings, “Lo, I Am With You Alway,” Youth's Instructor, December 1859, p. 95; S. A. Hastings, “A Death Scene,” Youth's Instructor, February 1860, p. 15; S. A. Hastings, “Extracts From Letters,” Review, May 20, 1858, p. 7; James White to “My Dear Afflicted Brother,” Mar. 18, 1850; Ellen G. White, Lt 10, 1850 (Mar. 18); Ms 7, 1859 (Sept. 14 entry); obituary: “Frederick Hastings,” Review, June 6, 1918, p. 21. 1EGWLM 843.5