Sarah Jones Hildreth (1816-1876) born in Dracut, Massachusetts, the daughter of Dolly Jones and Dr. Israel Hildreth. Having shown considerable talent in dramatics, she went to Boston at the age of sixteen for formal training, after which she acted onstage to great acclaim in Boston, New York, Charleston, South Carolina and Cincinnati, Ohio.
Sara Hildreth married Benjamin Franklin Butler on May 16, 1844, in Saint Anne’s Episcopal Church. Lowell. According to all accounts, she was beautiful, vivacious, and an influential partner in her husband's extensive activities.
Sarah Butler, urged her husband to pursue his political ambitions in the Lincoln administration, but this effort came to an end with Lincoln's assassination in April 1865. Benjamin Butler then turned his eyes to Congress and was elected in 1866 on a platform of civil rights and opposition to President Andrew Johnson's weak Reconstruction policies. Sarah Butler further encouraged Butler's supported of a variety of social reforms, including women's suffrage.
Image: Sarah Hildreth Butler
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