This is a transcription of the Mary R. Sanborn of Laconia, NH 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 185.
Mary R. Sanborn
AMONG the practical, helpful lives, illustrating the character of New Hampshire womanhood, is that of Mary R. Sanborn of Laconia, daughter of Rev. Abram and Mary (Harriman) Sanborn, born in Sanford, Me., but a resident of the old Granite state, in which her father was born, since infancy, her childhood’s home being in the town of Ossipee. Her great-grandfather, Daniel Sanborn, Jr., was a Revolutionary soldier, and one of her brothers–a heroic youth, not fifteen years of age when he enlisted in the Sixth New Hampshire Regiment–lies buried at Arlington; hence her warm interest in the welfare of the soldiers of the republic. Educated at North Parsonfield, Me., and the Masonic school at Drake’s Corner, Effingham, she taught successfully several years, but subsequently adopted the occupation of writer and copyist, in which capacity she has been actively engaged at Laconia for twenty-five years, the last five years as policy writer in the insurance office of Melcher & Prescott. She is one of the few women in the state holding the office of notary public, having been commissioned by Governor Tuttle in 1891. Miss Sanborn is a member of John L. Perley, Jr., Relief Corps; has represented the corps in department convention, and the department in national convention. She was the first New Hampshire woman obligated in the Relief Union, auxiliary to the Union Veterans’ Union; was appointed national installing officer; instituted Rosanna W. Beaman Relief Union, No. 1, of Laconia, of which she was the first president; was a delegate to the national convention in Boston, and elected national president in August, 1893; labored with great zeal and efficiency for the welfare of the order, and was reelected president at Rochester, N. Y., in 1894. Throughout her busy, unostentatious life Miss Sanborn has ever been mindful of the needs of others, and many a young girl, through her sympathy and encouragement, has found the way to a career of usefulness and success. In religion she is a Unitarian.