Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Sanborn, Edwin David

SANBORN, Edwin David, educator, b. in Gilmanton, N. H., 14 May, 1808; d. in Hanover, N. H., 29 Dec., 1885. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1832, taught for a year at Gilmanton, studied law, and afterward divinity at Andover seminary, and became professor of Latin at Dartmouth in 1835. In 1859 he became president of Washington university, St. Louis, Mo., but in 1863 he returned to Dartmouth as professor of oratory and belles-lettres. In 1880 he assumed the new chair of Anglo-Saxon and the English language and literature. He received the degree of LL. D. from the University of Vermont in 1859. He married, on 11 Dec., 1837, Mary Ann, a niece of Daniel Webster. He was a leader in public affairs in his town and state, and was several times elected to the legislature. Besides contributions to newspapers and magazines, he published lectures on education, a “Eulogy on Daniel Webster” (Hanover, 1853), and a “History of New Hampshire” (Manchester, 1875). — His daughter, Katharine Abbott, author, b. in Hanover, N. H., in 1839, taught English literature in various seminaries, and held that chair in Smith college for several years, resigning in 1886, in order to follow literary pursuits in New York city. She has lectured in public on literary history and allied subjects, and written on education, and for several years was a newspaper correspondent in New York city. She has also edited calendars and holiday books. Under the name of Kate Sanborn she has published “Home Pictures of English Poets” (New York, 1869); the “Round Table Series of Literature Lessons” (1884); “The Vanity and Insanity of Genius” (1884); “Wit of Women” (1886); and “A Year of Sunshine” (1887).