Representative women of New England/Gulielma P. Sanborn

by Mary H. Graves

GULIELMA 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. GULIELMA PENN SANBORN Again application to business until her father and mother needed her personal attention. In 1891 she bought a beautiful home on a high hill in Augusta, which she named "Ben Venue/' Here her parents came from the lonely farm to live with her, and here, when the summons came, they "lay down to pleasant dreams." For the past Urn years, having built green- houses, she has carried on a most successful florist's business. Each year she has done something to improve the land Jind surround- ings, not the least of her enterprises being the drilling of an artesian well, five hundred and sixty feet deep, and the erection of a tower, tank, and windmill, the whole costing not less than three thousand dollars.

Miss Sanborn was a pioneer in the ten-hour system for working women, being the first to run her business on that rule. In all ways she has tried to better the condition of wage- earning women. Busy as she is, she has been active in W. C. T. U. work, has been a club woman since the birth of clubs, and a tower of strength in the Sunday-school and church. She counts it among her greatest privileges that she has been favored with the opportunity of listening to cultivated and eminent preachers, as the Rev. Drs. Webb, and McKenzie, Bing- ham, Ecob, and others.

Looking back upon a long and Busy life, that has been a happy one, she is still actively en- gaged as a florist, and cherishes the hope that her declining years may be useful, helpful to others, and not a burden to herself.

Miss Gulielma P. Sanborn joined Koussinoc Chapter, Daughters of the Ainerican Revolu- tion, in the autumn of 1902, and has since joined the National Society of that patriotic order, her application for membership in the latter having been accepted by the board of manage- ment in Washington, D.C, April 27, 1903, and her name placed on the list of members. Her eligibility in these two instances, as well as her qualifications for uniting with the So- ciety of Colonial Dames, comes from the pub- lic services of some of her maternal ancestors, briefly recorded below. Miss Sanborn's parents, Samuel Sanborn, of Yarmouth (bom May 17, 1806, died February 11, 1893), and Joanna Pierce, of Westbrook, Me., were married in 1828. They had eight children — Elizabeth Dunbar, Joseph Pierce, Albion Irving, Gulielma Penn (the subject of this sketch), Thomas Tristram, Samuel Porter Elwell, Benjamin Franklin, and Cora Frances — the eldest bom in Westbrook in 1830, and the youngest in Augusta in 1855. The four now living are Albion and Porter in California, Gulielma in Augusta, and Cora near Boston. Albion and Thomas served in the Civil War as third assistant engineers on gunboats in the navy.

The mother, Mrs. Joanna Pierce Sanbom, who died October 13, 1895, was born in West- brook, Me., November 29, 1810, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Storer) Pierce and a descendant in the seventh generation of Daniel Pierce, of Newbury, Mass. The Pierce line is: Daniel,** Benjamin,' Thomas,* the Rev. Thomas,*^ Thomas,' Joanna.'

Daniel* Pierce, the immigrant progenitor of this branch of the Pierce family, joining the Massachusetts Bay Colony at an early date, resided for three or four years in Watertown, and about the year 1638 removed to Newbury, Mass., where he died in 1677.

DanieP Pierce served as Deputy from New- bury to Massachusetts General Court, 1682-83; member of the Council of Safety, 1689; Rep- resentative to General Court, 1692; Councillor, 1693-1703; Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Essex, 1698-1703. He was made Captain of the Newbury foot com- pany, October 7, 1678, and. appointed Colonel of the Second Essex County Regiment soon after the organization of the Provincial government under the new charter in 1692. He died in 1704.

Benjamin' Pierce, bom in February, 1668-9, son of Colonel. Daniel, resided in Newbury. He married Lydia Frost (bom in 1674), daugh- ter of Major Charles^ Frost, of Kittery, Me., by his wife, Mary Bolles.

Thomas^ Pierce, bom in 1706, son of Benjamin and Lydia, married in February, 1732-3, Abigail Frost, born in 1712, daughter of Lieutenant Charles' Frost (son of Major Frost) and his wife, Sarah Wainwright. The Rev. Thomas* Pierce, born in Newbury in 1737, was ordained in Newbury as a Presbyterian minister in September, 1762, and settled as pastor of the church in Scarboro, Me., where he died in 1775. Coffin mentions him as a graduate of Harvard in 1759, evidently an error, as his name is not in the college catalogue. He probably studied at Harvard for a time before going to Gloucester, Mass., where he taught school previous to entering the ministry, and where he found his wife, Anna Haskell, whom he married in November, 1762. She was the daughter of Captain William^ Haskell, of Gloucester, the fourth of the name in direct line. William' Haskell, the immigrant progenitor, settled in Gloucester. He was made Lieutenant of the train-band in 1661, and afterward was Captain. In 1672 and in several later years he served as Representative to General Court.

Thomas" Pierce, born in October, 1763, son of the Rev. Thomas and his wife Anna, married about 1783 Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph and Joanna (Graves) Storer, of Westbrook, then Falmouth, Me. Of this union were born eleven children, Joanna, who became the wife of Samviel Sanborn, as recorded above, being the youngest.

Major Charles^ Frost, father of Lydia, the wife of Benjamin Pierce, was born in England, and came to this country with his father, Nicholas Frost, in 1634. He was killed by Indians in 1697, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. He served as Deputy from Kittery to Massachusetts General Court in 1658 and in five later years. He was commissioned Captain in July, 1668; was made Commander-in-chief of the military forces of Maine, with the title of Sergeant Major, in August, 1689; and served as a Councillor or Assistant, 1693-97.

Sarah Wainwright, wife of Lieutenant Charles' Frost and mother of Abigail, wife of Thomas* Pierce, was daughter of Captain Simon Wainwright, of Haverhill. Her father com- manded a garrison during the Indian troubles, and was slain in an attack on the town, August 29, 1708. His wife was Sarah Gilbert.

Joseph Storer, of Falmouth, father of Elizabeth, Miss Sanborn's maternal grandmother, was a soldier of the Revolution. He enlisted for three years in the latter part of 1776, but tiled at Fishkill, in the State of New York, in 1777. In the Revolutionary Rolls of Massachusetts, in the State archives, "Joseph Storer: Appears in a list of men raised to serve in the Continental Army from Col. Peter Noyes's (1st Cumberland Co.) regt. Town belonged to, Falmouth. Town enlisted for, Falmouth. Term of enlistment, 3 years. Joined Capt. Blaisdell’s co.. Col. Wigglesworth's regt." (vol. xliii. 43 c).

Again: "Joseph Storer: Appears with rank of Corporal on Continental Army Pay Accounts of Capt. Smart's co.. Col. Smith's regt., for service from Jan. 6, 1777, to July 19, 1777. Residence, Falmouth. Reported, 'died.'" (Vol. xiii., part 1, p. 152.) Lieutenant Colonel Smith succeeded Colonel Wigglesworth.

Joseph Storer was survived by his wife Joanna, whom he married in Falmouth in 1764. Nearly half a century after his death, in accordance with a resolve passed by the Legislature of Maine in March, 1835, entitled a "Resolve in favor of certain officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and the widows of the deceased officers and soldiers," and in answer to her application made in June, 1835, Joanna Storer received a grant of State bounty land. She lived to the age of ninety-nine years and three months.