Sarah Tarleton Colvin

Sarah Lightfoot Tarleton was born on September 12, 1865, in Greene County, Alabama, as the oldest child of Sallie Bernard (née Lightfoot) and Robert Tarleton.{{sfn|Tarleton|1900|pp=108–109}}{{sfn|Scarborough|1944|p=50}}{{sfn|The Baltimore Sun|1902|p=7}} Her father was a physician, having graduated from Yale University and served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.{{sfn|Tarleton|1900|pp=108–109}}{{sfn|Scarborough|1944|p=50}} Her mother was descended of Lieutenant Philip Lightfoot, who served in Harrison's Continental Artillery Regiment of Virginia, during the American Revolution.{{sfn|Gadsby|1909|pp=255–256}} When the war concluded, the family resided with Tarlton's paternal grandparents in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, where her brother, Robert Jr. was born. The family then moved to Mobile, Alabama, where her father died when Tarlton was three years old, from complications of his war service. Her sister Margaret was born the day after her father's death in 1868.{{sfn|Tarleton|1900|pp=108–109}}

After their father's death, the family moved often, living in various places in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi before settling in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1878. After her debut and a lengthy trip abroad, Tarleton enrolled in nursing school at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing,{{sfn|Scarborough|1944|p=50}} graduating in 1892, after a two year course.{{sfn|Scarborough|1944|p=50}}{{sfn|The Johns Hopkins Nurses Alumnae Magazine|1914|p=166}}

After completing her education and over her family's objections, Tarleton accepted the position as head nurse at Johns Hopkins for six months. She then worked briefly as a private duty nurse in New York City, before moving to Montreal, Canada to take a position at the Royal Victoria Hospital as an operating-room nurse. While in Montreal, she met Dr. Alexander R. Colvin, whom she married in Baltimore on June 1, 1897. After their wedding, the couple settled in Saint Paul, Minnesota.{{sfn|Scarborough|1944|p=50}}

Because continuing to work as a nurse after her marriage was considered improper, Colvin turned her attention to improving the educational standards of women in nursing.{{sfn|Scarborough|1944|p=50}} She worked on the board of the Deaconess Home from their arrival in 1897{{sfn|The Saint Paul Globe|1897|p=16}} and in 1906 was chosen as the founding president of the Minnesota State Graduate Nurses' Association.{{sfn|The Minneapolis Journal|1906|p=2}} She also worked for other civic clubs, including serving as a director for the Civic League,{{sfn|The Saint Paul Globe|1902|p=6}} as a founding member of the YWCA{{sfn|Foster|1924|p=371}} and as the president of the Anti-Tuberculosis Society.{{sfn|The Star Tribune|1913|p=9}} In 1915, she was one of the founders of the National Woman's Party, Minnesota branch, and served as its chair through 1920.{{sfn|Foster|1924|p=226}}

Colvin became one of the leading women's rights advocates in Minnesota{{sfn|Gilman|2012|p=1911}} and worked as a national organizer, traveling to other areas, like Kansas and Washington, D. C. to press for women's suffrage{{sfn|The Topeka Daily Capital|1916|p=6}}{{sfn|The Washington Herald|1918|p=4}} and birth control, which at the time was illegal in Minnesota.{{sfn|Gilman|2012|p=1911}} Simultaneously during World War I, she served as a Red Cross and army nurse. Given the rank of major, she was the Acting Surgical Chief of Nursing at Fort McHenry. As a member of the Silent Sentinels she participated in the White House pickets in 1918 and in January 1919 was arrested twice.{{sfn|Stevens|1920|p=357}}{{sfn|The Weekly Times-Record|1918|p=1}} Colvin described her imprisonment as both fearful and revolting, but after the first term, she participated in a hunger strike, which led to her second sentence.{{sfn|Adams|Keene|2010|p=175}}

When the war ended, Colvin joined both the disarmament movement and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), serving on the board of the Minneapolis Branch of the WILPF.{{sfn|The Star Tribune|1921|p=6}}{{sfn|The Minneapolis Star|1922|p=8}} Once women secured the vote, she joined the Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party, working to educate people on the issues{{sfn|Adams|Keene|2010|p=175}} and press for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.{{sfn|Gilman|2012|p=1911}} In 1933, she was elected as the national president of the National Woman's Party and turned her sights toward issues of equal pay.{{sfn|The Minneapolis Star|1933|p=7}}{{sfn|The Star Tribune|1933|p=26}} She was elected to serve on the state Board of Education in 1935{{sfn|The Minneapolis Star|1935|p=10}} and continued to press for nursing reforms and pay equality for both American and Canadian nurses through the end of the 1930s.{{sfn|The Minneapolis Star|1937|p=13}}{{sfn|The Minneapolis Star|1938|p=17}} In 1944, she published her autobiography, A Rebel in Thought, relating her experiences in the suffrage movement.{{sfn|Scarborough|1944|p=50}}

Colvin died on April 22, 1949, in Ramsey, Minnesota.{{sfn|Minnesota Death Index|1949}}{{sfn|The Minneapolis Star|1949|p=25}} She has been featured as one of the biographies of the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial Association{{sfn|The Turning Point Suffragist Memorial Association|2017}} and is honored on the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Memorial.{{sfn|Bauer|1999|p=ii}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book|last1=Adams|first1=Katherine H.|last2=Keene|first2=Michael L. |title=After the Vote Was Won: The Later Achievements of Fifteen Suffragists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oyaxYvSG6gAC&pg=PA175|year=2010|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=978-0-7864-5647-5}}
• {{cite book|editor1-last=Bauer|editor1-first=Heidi|title=The Privilege for Which We Struggled: Leaders of the Woman Suffrage Movement in Minnesota|date=1999|publisher=Upper Midwest Women's History Center|location=St. Paul, Minnesota|isbn=978-0914227106}}
• {{cite book|last1=Foster|first1=Mary Dillon|title=Who's Who among Minnesota Women; A history of woman's work in Minnesota from pioneer days to date; told in biographies, memorials and records of organizations|date=1924|location=St. Paul, Minnesota|oclc=6165666|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015027811010;view=1up;seq=232}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Gadsby|first1=Elizabeth|title=Mrs. Sarah Lightfoot Colvin #27699|journal=Lineage Book|date=1909|volume=28|issue=1899|page=255|url=https://archive.org/stream/lineagebooknatio28daug#page/255/mode/1up|access-date=2 January 2018|publisher=National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution|location=Washington, D.C.|oclc=865859287}}
• {{cite book|last=Gilman|first=Rhoda R.|title=Stand Up!: The Story of Minnesota's Protest Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bjpxWZn95oAC&pg=PA1911|year=2012|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society Press|location=St. Paul, Minnesota|isbn=978-0-87351-857-4}}
• {{cite news|last1=Scarborough|first1=Katherine|title=Former Hopkins Nurse Author When Nearing 80|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16205167/the_baltimore_sun/|access-date=2 January 2018|newspaper=The Baltimore Sun|date=June 25, 1944|location=Baltimore, Maryland|page=50|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite book|last1=Stevens|first1=Doris|title=Jailed for Freedom|date=1920|publisher=Liveright Publishing Corporation|location=New York, New York|url=https://archive.org/stream/jailedforfreedo01stevgoog#page/n438/mode/1up}}
• {{cite book|last1=Tarleton|first1=Charles William|title=The Tarleton Family|date=1900|publisher=Ira C. Evans, Printers|location=Concord, New Hampshire|oclc=8963742|pages=108–109|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/tarletonfamily00tarl#page/108/mode/1up|chapter=Robert Tarleton (104)}}
• {{cite journal|ref={{harvid|The Johns Hopkins Nurses Alumnae Magazine|1914}}|author=|title=1892|journal=The Johns Hopkins Nurses Alumnae Magazine|date=July 1914|volume=XIII|issue=3|page=166|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044103067930;view=1up;seq=180|access-date=2 January 2018|publisher=Johns Hopkins Hospital Alumnae Association|location=Baltimore, Maryland|oclc=7718745}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Minneapolis Star|1937}}|author=|title=Canada Nurse Import Charge is Scoffed at|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16210755/the_minneapolis_star/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Minneapolis Star|date=May 1, 1937|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|page=13|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Minneapolis Star|1949}}|author=|title=Deaths|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16235596/deaths_the_minneapolis_star/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Minneapolis Star|date=April 27, 1949|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|page=25|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Minnesota Death Index|1949}}|author=|title=Minnesota Death Index, 1908–2002: Sarah Tareton (sic) Colvin|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V4ZD-H25|website=FamilySearch|publisher=Minnesota Department of Health|access-date=3 January 2018|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|date=22 April 1949|id=certificate number 025539}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Star Tribune|1933}}|author=|title=Mrs. A. R. Colvin to Be Honor Guest|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16210514/star_tribune/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Star Tribune|date=December 17, 1933|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|page=26|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Star Tribune|1913}}|author=|title=Mrs. A. R. Colvin to Resign|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16210659/mrs_a_r_colvin_to_resign_the_star/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Star Tribune|date=April 11, 1913|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|page=9|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Minneapolis Journal|1906}}|author=|title=Nurses Incorporate|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16229707/nurses_incorporate_the_minneapolis/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Minneapolis Journal|date=November 19, 1906|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|page=2|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Baltimore Sun|1902}}|author=|title=Orphans Court Passed on Wills of Mrs. Tarleton and Mrs. Collins|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16208593/the_baltimore_sun/|access-date=2 January 2018|newspaper=The Baltimore Sun|date=February 13, 1902|location=Baltimore, Maryland|page=7|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Saint Paul Globe|1902}}|author=|title=President Chosen|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16229679/president_chosen_the_saint_paul_globe/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Saint Paul Globe|date=March 8, 1902|location=Saint Paul, Minnesota|page=6|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Minneapolis Star|1935}}|author=|title=Roosevelt Teacher will Guard Leisure Courses|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16205356/the_minneapolis_star/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Minneapolis Star|date=April 26, 1935|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|page=10|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|The Turning Point Suffragist Memorial Association|2017}}|author=|title=Sarah Tarleton Colvin|url=http://suffragistmemorial.org/sarah-tarleton-colvin/|website=Suffragist Memorial|publisher=The Turning Point Suffragist Memorial Association|access-date=3 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128125502/http://suffragistmemorial.org/sarah-tarleton-colvin/|archive-date=28 November 2017|location=Fairfax Station, Virginia|date=18 September 2017}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Minneapolis Star|1938}}|author=|title=Session Told Training Now Too Mediocre|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16209695/the_minneapolis_star/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Minneapolis Star|date=October 19, 1938|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|page=17|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Weekly Times-Record|1918}}|author=|title=She Takes the Wrong Attitude|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16210623/the_weekly_timesrecord/|access-date=3 January 2018|publisher=The Weekly Times-Record|date=October 10, 1918|location=Valley City, North Dakota|page=1|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Minneapolis Star|1922}}|author=|title=State Women Vote to Join Peace League|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16210430/the_minneapolis_star/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Minneapolis Star|date=March 25, 1922|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|page=8|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Minneapolis Star|1933}}|author=|title=St. Paul Woman Elected|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16205421/st_paul_woman_elected_the_minneapolis/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Minneapolis Star|date=November 6, 1933|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|page=7|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Washington Herald|1918}}|author=|title=Suffrage Leaders to Come to Washington|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16210704/the_washington_herald/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Washington Herald|date=April 30, 1918|location=Washington, D. C.|page=4|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Saint Paul Globe|1897}}|author=|title=(untitled)|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16229656/untitled_the_saint_paul_globe_saint/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Saint Paul Globe|date=November 7, 1897|location=Saint Paul, Minnesota|page=16|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Topeka Daily Capital|1916}}|author=|title=Visitor in Kansas|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16210157/visitor_in_kansas_the_topeka_daily/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Topeka Daily Capital|date=October 26, 1916|location=Topeka, Kansas|page=6|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Star Tribune|1921}}|author=|title=Women Want Civilian Representation at Parley on World Disarmament|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16210480/star_tribune/|access-date=3 January 2018|newspaper=The Star Tribune|date=July 13, 1921|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|page=6|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}

{{refend}}

{{Silent Sentinels}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Colvin, Sarah Tarleton}}

Category:1865 births

Category:1949 deaths

Category:People from Greene County, Alabama

Category:Writers from Alabama

Category:Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota

Category:Military personnel from Alabama

Category:Suffragists from Minnesota

Category:Johns Hopkins School of Nursing alumni

Category:American women nurses

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:American autobiographers

Category:American women non-fiction writers

Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers

Category:American women autobiographers

Category:Equal Rights Amendment activists

Category:National Woman's Party activists