Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Sarah F. Colburn, 1850-?
By Thomas Dublin, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Binghamton University
Sarah F. Colburn was born in Massachusetts in 1850, parents uncertain. She never married as far we can tell from census listings. By 1900 she resided as a single woman in the Portland, Maine household of her married sister, Mary, and her brother-in-law, John Greene. a partner in a shoe store. Her occupation was noted as a servant. The 1910 census found her at 60 years of age, living in the same Portland family, though at a different address.
Between 1904 and 1908 she served on the enrollment committee of the Maine Woman Suffrage Association, of which she was the Superintendent in 1908. For several of these years she was a member of the association's board of directors.
No death record has been found for Colburn and no census record after 1910.
Sources:
Day, Bates, and Anthoine, "Historical Sketch of the Maine Woman Suffrage Association," in the League of Women Voters Scrapbook, 69.129.2 in Digital Maine, accessed online at https://digitalmaine.com/lwvme/101.
1904-1908 proceedings of annual meetings of the MWSA note Colburn on the Enrolment Committee.
In 1905, "Spirit of '76: devoted to the principles, incidents and men of '76 and Colonial Times," met in home of Sarah F. Colburn on Glenwood Ave. in Portland.
"Maine Woman Suffragists," Bangor Daily News, 3 November 4 1904, p. 2.
Federal Manuscript Census of Portland, Maine, 1900 and 1910, household of Sarah F. Colburn. Accessed via Ancestry Library Edition.