Sarah C. E. Mayo › Hymnals

Mayo, Sarah Carter Edgarton. (Shirley Village, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, March 17, 1819--July, 1848, Gloucester, Mass.). A sensitive child, who often burst into tears when called upon to recite, she attended the village school and a single term at an academy in Westford, Mass. During those years she read everything she could get her hands on, then later was largely self-taught in Latin, French, and German. She began writing prose and poetry for The Universalist and Ladies' Repository at age 16, soon becoming its editor. She also wrote several works on the language of flowers.

After an engagement of several years, she married Amory Dwight Mayo on July 28, 1846, who about that time became the minister of the Independent Christian Church of Gloucester, Mass. Shortly after her early death, he husband published a memoir of her, which includes many excerpts from her writings and correspondence. The latter includes some interesting comments on a trip she made by canal boat to Niagara Falls, with visits along the way. She remained a devout Universalist all of her life.

--Leonard Ellinwood, DNAH Archives

See also S.C. Edgarton.