By Brianna Davey, undergraduate student, Central Connecticut State University
Sarah C. Grant was born in Canada between 1878 and 1880 to Isaac A. Grant and Anna M. Grant. Sarah and her family moved to Minnesota in 1886. She graduated from the St. Paul High School in 1895. During the commencement exercises, she read an essay she had written entitled “Types of Evil Geniuses” where she described the depictions of evil in the writings of Milton, Dante, and Goethe as being drawn from the behaviors of the people that the three authors were surrounded by. In the essay she stated, “If an American were to paint an ideal Satan it would be a man selling gold even at the foot of the cross”. Even at a young age Grant was outspoken in her beliefs.
After high school, she attended Minnesota State University and graduated in 1902 with an interest in social work. She then attended Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School for Nurses where she graduated in 1908 and according to census records moved back to Minnesota by 1910. In Minneapolis she resided in a hospital boarding house that included eight nurses and a variety of other hospital employees. She worked as a director of nursing. Shortly thereafter she worked at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in the social services department. Grant was mentioned in the hospital’s Eleventh Annual Report of the Social Service Department of the Massachusetts General Hospital January 1, 1916- January 1, 1917, where her work was described as being “excellent.” She was mentioned in the report because in April 1916 she fell ill and left the hospital after three and a half years of work.
In 1916 she did organizing work for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in Illinois, a workstint confirmed by a Library of Congress photograph. During her involvement in the suffrage movement, Sarah Grant was also a member of the National Woman’s Party and was very involved with the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage in the Fourteenth Congressional District in Illinois. She was a vocal supporter of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Grant advocated for women to have the rights of full citizenship and therefore suffrage. In a speech she gave from a car in Illinois she said, “The time has arrived when women should become citizens of their own country.” She urged other suffragists to remain non-partisan even though she threatened to vote for Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes instead of President Wilson in the 1916 election if the Amendment did not pass. This is because Hughes had been a vocal supporter of the suffrage movement. Sarah Grant’s jobs within both the NWP and the Congressional Union included being an organizer for the active committee for the Union, and a booster for the NWP. She also was involved in press work as she helped set up Union meetings in Nevada. She sent out letters, gave speeches on the street and worked with people such as Elsie Hill, the daughter of Connecticut congressman E.J. Hill, to speak out for the cause.
We lose track of Sarah Grant after about 1916. She may have married, or died relatively young, because we cannot find her in the 1920, 1930, or 1940 federal manuscript censuses or in marriage or death records for that period.
Sources:
"Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, August 05, 1916, Page 14, Image 14." News about Chronicling America RSS. Accessed May 01, 2017.
"Women Entitled to Use of Ballot,” Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.), August 08, 1916, Page 3, News about Chronicling America RSS. Accessed May 01, 2017.
"Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, September 06, 1916, Page 8, Image 8." News about Chronicling America RSS. Accessed May 01, 2017.
"Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, September 18, 1916, Page 7, Image 7." News about Chronicling America RSS. Accessed May 01, 2017.
"Sarah C. Grant in the 1910 Federal Census." Ancestry Library. Accessed May 01, 2017.
"St. Paul Daily Globe. (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, June 14, 1895, Image 1." News about Chronicling America RSS. Accessed May 01, 2017.
"St. Paul Daily Globe. (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, September 13, 1895, Page 4, Image 4." News about Chronicling America RSS. Accessed May 01, 2017.
Photograph and caption, Library of Congress website. Accessed online at https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000388/