Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/133

100 with eighty-eight thousand nine hundred seventy-six paid subscriptions. Miss Waldcn, with her genial manners and her cheering business budget, has been a welcome official visitor at annual executive committee meetings. With her clear head, her lofty aims, and earnest spirit, she is an appreciated force in the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

ULIELMA PENN SANBORN was born in Readfield, Me., February 20, 1839, a daughter of Samuel and Joanna (Pierce) Sanborn. Among her ancestors on both sides were some who held responsible jiositions in early colonial life and some who served in the war for independence. She is therefore eligible to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Society of Colonial Dames. Miss Sanborn acquired her elementary education in the little red school-house of the district in which she lived. Her family moving to the suburbs of Augusta when she was ten years old, she had a few years of such teaching as the country schools then afforded. During this time she had plenty of good books and news- papers to read at home.

Stress of circumstances sent each child of the household as a wage-earner, and at the age of fourteen the cotton-mill in Augusta became the scene of her labors. Wearying of the monotony' and small pay in that locality, she went to Lawrence, Mass., where she was employed in the Pacific Print Works. The free library connected with this place afforded Miss Sanborn the greatest pleasure. She speaks enthusiastically of the benefits derived from its use.

The year 1861 found her at home in Augusta with her mother and the younger children, as the men had all "gone to the war." For a few months she worked on soldiers' coats; but this labor was not satisfactory, and plans were marie for learning type-setting, then a comparatively new business for women. With fair success this occupation was followed for five years, when failing health compelled its abandonment. Circumstances opened a way for sewing. Orders were received from the best and most influential families, among them the Blaines. Mr. Blaine was Speaker of the House at Washington in 1872; and Mrs. Blaine, need- ing some one to accompany her thither, as family assistant in various ways, proffered the situation to Miss Sanborn, who welcomed the pleasant change. This proved a most delightful winter, as the generous and kindly ways of the family accorded her many privileges not usually vouchsafed to an employee. She went everywhere, saw everybody and everything worth .seeing, joining the family at their table and meeting their guests, a bit of education novel and broad. At the end of the session Mr. and Mrs. Blaine gave her a pass from Baltimore to California and return. She left at once for the sunny land. Making her home there with a brother and finding immediate emoloyment at her trade, she earned enough to travel the length and breadth of that State, visiting among other places of note the Yosemite Valley and the big trees. She made these journeys on horseback, after the manner of those days. In October of the same year she s))ent three months in the frontier settlements of Kansas, and tarried in several other States, reaching Maine in the early part of 1873. In March she opened dressmaking rooms, with dreams of the Centennial in her mind, a dream that was realized and so thoroughly enjoyed that the larger plan for attending the Paris Exposition in 1878 seemed feasible. As her aged parents on the farm were then in comfortable circumstances, the trip was taken; and the three and a half months in England, Scotland, and France were a never-to-be-forgotten pleasure.

Craving something beyond the walls of her busy dressmaking establishment, and having no special journey in view, in 1880 she took up the Chautauqua literary and scientific course of study by correspondence. Working busily in her rooms all day, this meant study for evenings and Sundays. In 1884 the two weeks' vacation found her at Chautauqua ready to be graduated in a class numbering fourteen hundred. Dr. Lyman Abbott delivered the address and awarded the diplomas. In this immense class Miss Sanborn ranked well.