# Representative women of New England/Sarah J. Hale

​SARAH JOSEPHA HALE, author and philanthropist, was born October 24, 1788, in Newport, N.H. She was a daughter of Captain Gordon and Martha (Whittlesey) Buell and grand-daughter of Nathan and Thankful (Grifhn) Buell and of Joseph and Sarah (Whittlesey) Whittlesley, all descendants of New England Puritans, early settlers of Connecticut.
Captain Gordon Bu(>ll served as an officer in the Revolution, and after the war he settled in Newport, N.H.
When only sixteen years old, Sarah J. Buell began teaching school, which profession she followed for nine years. In 1813 she married David Hale, a lawyer, of Newport, and in 1822 by his death she was left a widow with five children.
Mrs. Hale had already become a worker with her pen, contributing to various newspapers and other periodicals. In 1823 she published a collection of her verses, entitled "The Genius of Oblivion, and Other Poems." Her first novel, "Northwood," was issued in Boston in 1827, under the title of "The Book of Flowers."
In 1828 Mrs. Hale removed from her home among the hills to Boston, to take the position of editor of the Ladies' Magazine, the first publication of its kind for women in America. In 1837 the Magazine was merged into Godey's Lady's Book of Philadelphia, Mrs. Hale becoming its literary e<litor and serving in that capacity till her retirement in 1877.
Among the publications of Mrs. Hale were "Sketches of American Character," "Traits of American Life," "Flori's Interpreter" (also published in London), "The Way to Live Well and to be Well while we Live," "Grosvenor, a Tragedy," and a Dictionary of Poetical Quotations. Her most important work, safe to say that by which she will be longest remembered, was "The Woman's Record," originally published in 1852 (other editions appearing later), an octavo volume of nine hundred pages, containing biographical sketches of more than two thousand distinguished women. Of this book ​she said, "I have sought to make it an assistant in home education, hoping the examples shown and characters portrayed might have an inspiration and power in advancing the moral progress of society." The account of herself in its pages is in part as follows:—
"I was mainly educated by my mother and strictly taught to make the Bible the guide of my life. The books to which I had access were few, very few in comparison to the number given children nowadays; but they were such as required to be studied, and I did study them. Next to the Bible and the 'Pilgrim's Progress' my earliest reading was Milton, Addison, Pope, Johnson, Cowper, Burns, and a portion of Shakespeare. I did not obtain all his works until I was nearly fifteen. The first regular novel I read was 'The Mysteries of Udolpho,' when I was quite a child. I name it on account of the influenco it exerted over my mind.
"I had remarked that, of all the works I saw, few were written by Americans and none by women. Here was a work the most fascinating I had ever read, always excepting 'Pilgrim's Progress,' written by a woman. How happy it made me! The wish to promote the reputation of my own sex and do something for.my own country was among the earliest mental emotions I can recollect. These feelings have had a.salutary influence by directing my thoughts to a definite object: my literary pursuits have had an aim beyond self-seeking of any kind."
A woman of original ideas and forceful will, Mrs. Hale in her day, the middle quarters of the nineteenth century, took the initiative in various public movements of patriotic, philanthropic, or religious nature. In Philadelphia, whither she removed from Boston in 1841, and where she died on April 30, 1879, she founded the Ladies' Medical Missionary Society of that city, and also the Seamen's Aid Society, of which she was the first president. She is credited with having been the first to suggest and to advocate (which she did for twenty years) the setting apart annually of the last Thursday in November as a day of national thanksgiving, President Lincoln being the first to adopt the suggestion by designating this date in his national Thanksgiving proclamation.
American patriots of to-day may well bear gratefully in mind the zeal and efficiency with which Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale more than half a century ago promoted the completion of the granite obelisk that perpetuates the memory of the battle of Bunker Hill. It is a page of almost forgotten history. A few years after the laying of the corner-stone of the monument, which took place on June 17, 1825, the funds of the Monument Association had all been expended, and the shaft had risen only to the height of forty feet. In January, 1830, as narrated in Professor Packard's brief history of the work, the directors received and accepted from Mrs. Hale a "proposition to raise funds for its continuance by an appeal to the ladies of New England." The efforts of the ladies at this time resulted in the contribution of less than two thousand dollars, by 18,34 amounting to nearly three thousand dollars. Other sums were received, and the structure grew to the height of eighty feet. In the report of the association in June, 1840, "doubt was expressed whether the j)resent generation would witness the completion of the monument. ... In a sewing-circle of Boston several ladies proposed the idea of a fair in its behalf."
Under the management of a committee consisting of Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Mrs. William H. Prescott, and other ladies of Boston, the fair was held in Quincy Hall in September, 1840, and continued seven days. A paper called The Monument, edited by Mrs. Hale, was printed daily in the fair building. The fair was admirably conducted. The proceeds, amounting to thirty thousand dollars, with twenty-five thousand dollars from other sources, afforded the means for completing the monument.