Sarah Kidder

Kidder became majority owner and president of the NCNGRR upon the death of her husband in 1901. Under her management, she was able to retire the company's debt and return dividends to the shareholders.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theunion.com/news/sarah-kidder-she-ran-the-narrow-gauge-railroad-for-twelve-golden-years/|title=Sarah Kidder She ran the Narrow Gauge Railroad for 'Twelve Golden Years'|last=Brower|first=Maria E.|date=2003-05-17|website=The Union|location=Grass Valley, CA|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-04}} During this period the railroad also built the Bear River Bridge, which was at the time the tallest in California. It cut two miles,{{Cite journal|date=April 1909|title=Constructing a Very High Railway Bridge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=546cAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA192|journal=The Bridgemen's Magazine|volume=9|pages=192–193}} and eight minutes, from the length of the trip between the two ends of the railroad.{{Cite web|url=http://www.pacificng.com/template.php?page=roads/ca/ncng/index.htm|title=Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad|website=Pacific Coast Narrow Gauge|access-date=2019-04-04}}{{cite magazine|url=http://www.truewestmagazine.com/jcontent/true-westerners/true-westerners/western-women-we-love/5014-the-traditional-sarah-kidder-surprised-everyone-with-her-success|title=Railroad's First Lady|last=Bommersbach|first=Jana|date=February 1, 2007|magazine=True West Magazine|access-date=2009-05-18}}

In 1913, shortly after settling a legal challenge to her ownership of the railroad, she sold her stock and moved to San Francisco.{{Cite web|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SSTR19130501.2.9&srpos=7&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22sarah+kidder%22-------1|title=NEVADA COUNTY NARROW GAUGE CHANGES HANDS STOCKHOLDERS ALL DISPOSE OF THEIR INTERESTS LAST WEEK|date=1 May 1913|website=California Digital Newspaper Collection|publisher=Truckee Republican|location=Truckee, CA|access-date=2019-04-04}}

Born Sarah A. Clark in Ohio, Kidder married civil engineer John Flint Kidder in 1874.{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}} They moved to Grass Valley, California the following year.{{cite news|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19010411.2.43&srpos=2&e=-------en--20-SFC-1--txt-txIN-john+kidder-------1|title=John F. Kidder's long struggle against death is at an end|date=April 11, 1901|access-date=2009-05-21|newspaper=The San Francisco Call|issue=132|volume=87}} Their home was a large mansion (sources disagree on eighteen or twenty-eight{{Cite web|url=https://www.theunion.com/news/local-news/students-solve-110-year-mystery-of-final-resting-place-of-countys-narrow-gauge-railroads-first-family/|title=Students solve 110-year mystery of final resting place of county's narrow gauge railroad's 'first family'|last=Hamilton|first=Brian|date=2014-03-23|website=The Union|location=Grass Valley, CA|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-04}} room) mansion, adjacent to the railroad tracks. She hosted social gatherings and also did volunteer work for an orphan society.

Her adopted daughter, Beatrice, married Harvard University graduate Howard Ridgely Ward, and had three children.{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1905/09/21/101829292.pdf|title=Married|date=September 21, 1905|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2009-05-18 }}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jccnAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA314|title=Harvard College Class of 1903 Quindecennial Report|publisher=Plimpton Press|year=1920|pages=314|language=en}}

Kidder remained in San Francisco after selling the railroad, and died there in 1933, at the age 94. She is interred at the Odd Fellow's Columbarium.

In honor of Sarah, John, and Beatrice Kidder, the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus planted three trees in Grass Valley's Clamper Square.{{cite news|url=https://www.theunion.com/news/a-familys-arboreal-home-on-clamper-square/|title=A family's arboreal home on Clamper Square|last=Wyckoff|first=Bob|date=2008-05-09|work=The Union|access-date=2009-05-21|location=Grass Valley, CA}} Two other plaques mentioning Kidder have also been placed at either end of the railroad.{{Cite book|url=http://www.ecv5917.com/dutchman_plaques/1995%20Plaque%20Book/1995%20Plaque%20Book.html|title=E Clampus Vitus Plaque Book 1930-1995|year=1995|location=Oakland, CA|pages=106, 190, 192}}

The Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum's railbus is named after Kidder.{{Cite web|url=http://ncngrrmuseum.org/rolling-stock.html|title=Rolling Stock|website=Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum|language=en|access-date=2019-04-04}}

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/shesbeenworkingo00levi|url-access=registration|title=She's Been Working on the Railroad|last=Levinson|first=Nancy Smiler|date=1997|publisher=Lodestar Books|isbn=9780525675457|language=en|chapter=Sarah Clark Kidder: Short Line Railroad President}}
• {{Cite book|title=Never Come, Never Go! The Story of Nevada County's Narrow Gauge Railroad|year=1986|publisher=Nevada City Publishing Company |isbn=0961526106|editor-last=Wyckoff|editor-first=Robert M.}}

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Category:1830s births

Category:1933 deaths

Category:20th-century American railroad executives

Category:People from Grass Valley, California

Category:Women business executives

Category:20th-century American businesswomen

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