Sarah Maria Clinton Perkins

Sarah Maria Clinton Perkins ( Clinton; pen name S. M. Perkins and S. M. C. Perkins; April 23, 1824 – December 2, 1905) was an American Universalist minister, social reformer, lecturer, editor, and author of Sunday school books. Early in life, she was engaged in educational work. She was involved in the temperance movement and advocated for women's suffrage. She was an early abolitionist and an early Prohibitionist. Perkins was a highly educated woman, a writer and speaker of rare force. Moving to Cleveland, Ohio, after being widowed in 1880, she was for many years actively connected as National Lecturer with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). She filled various other positions in reform associations including, President of Cleveland's Equal Franchise Club, and president of the Literary Guild of Cleveland.

Early life and education Sarah Maria Clinton was born in Otsego, New York, near Cooperstown, April 23, 1824. She was the seventh of a family of nine children, and one of six daughters. Her parents were Joel and Mary Clinton. On her father's side, she was connected with DeWitt Clinton, who was a cousin of her grandfather. On her mother's side, she was descended from the Mathewson family, well known in the early history of Rhode Island and Connecticut. Her mother was the daughter of a Puritan of the strictest type, and trained her daughter according to the old-fashioned rules which came over in the Mayflower.

When Perkins was ten, her father died, leaving no property. The mother struggled hard to support the family. She first trained her children to cherish a faith in God, and in the triumph of good over evil. She set them examples of industry and economy, by carrying her burdens cheerfully, and denying herself first. at West Concord, Vermont, February 13, 1877 She was the superintendent of infirmary work for the Ohio WCTU. She was sent by the National WCTU to Kansas, Texas, and the Indian Territory. it was also devoted to the uplift of the home and womanhood.

Selected works Alice and Her Friends, by S. M. C. Perkins, 1875 Eugene Cooper, by S. M. Perkins, 1876 Objections considered : an address given at Washington, D.C., before the Seventeenth Annual Convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association, Jan. 21, 1885, 1885 Helen, or, Will she save him?, by Sarah M. Perkins, 1886 Infirmaries, 188? Six of Them, by Sarah Maria Perkins, 1898 Pioneer Work, 1904 The cousins, or, The pulling down of Stronghold The child of the snow drift