This is a transcription of the Sarah E. (Farley) Runnells biography from New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Daughters and Residents of the Granite State, Who are Worthy Representatives of their Sex in the Various Walks and Conditions of Life, The New Hampshire Publishing Co., Concord, NH, 1895, page 59.
Sarah E. (Farley) Runnells
THE Farleys and Hardys of Hollis were among the noted families in the early history of the town. Sarah E. Farley, daughter of Enoch and Abby (Hardy) Farley, born in Hollis, June 9, 1834, comes of an ancestry of which any American woman may well he proud. Her two great-grandfathers, Lieut. Benjamin Farley and Phineas Hardy, were among the first soldiers of the Revolution, and fought at Lexington and Bunker Hill. In the latter contest, also, two great uncles on the maternal side, Joseph and Nathaniel Wheat, were killed. Miss Farley was educated in the Hollis schools and at the Milford seminary, then under charge of Gilbert Wadleigh. She taught successfully in the village school at Hollis, and at Dunstable, Mass., for five years, and on September 9, 1858, was married to Daniel F. Runnells, a successful merchant of Nashua, where she has since resided, and has been active and prominent in society, church, and organized charitable and benevolent work. She is an interested member of the W. C. T. U., and of the ladies’ organizations connected with the Pilgrim church, but her efforts have been more especially directed to the work of the Nashua Protestant Home for Aged Women and the Woman’s Relief Corps. She was a member of the board of managers of the former institution for ten years, and for several years past has been president of the same, and has contributed largely to its success. She has been president of the local Woman’s Relief Corps. and was department president of the order for New Hampshire in 1891, one of the most prosperous years in its history. She was a member of the National Council, W. R. C., in 1892-’93, and has been urged to allow the use of her name as a candidate for national president. She has been identified with various other public and private charities, and has kept abreast with the times in all matters of social, literary, and educational interest. She has two daughters, Florence and Katherine, educated at Wellesley, and one son, Frederick D., a graduate of Dartmouth, class of 1893.