being otherwise injured. He would probably have died but for the kind and patriotic hospitality of a wealthy citizen of the town, who threw open his house to him, as the poor wounded man was seen passing on a stretcher. Colonel Lee was then in the care of his cousin, the Rev. R. B. Howard, brother of Major-general Oliver Otis Howard, who commanded the Federal army at Gettysburg until the arrival of General Meade. Major-general O. O. Howard lost his right arm in the Battle of Fair Oaks, early in the war, but continued in active and distinguished service till the close of the war, a successful Christian soldier.
Mrs. Sargent returned to her home in Farmington with her two remaining sons. On November 5, 1868, she married the Hon. Peter S. J. Talbot, of East Machias, Me., descended from one of the oldest and most respected families of England, a man of unblemished character, repeatedly chosen by his fellow-citizens to fill positions of responsibility and honor in his native town and State. Mr. and Mrs. Talbot removed at once to Massachusetts, taking up their residence in Maiden, where they made their home for thirty-two years. In religion Mrs. Talbot is a Congregationalist. She is a life member of foreign and home missionary societies.
The two sons, Francis Taft and Winthrop Otis Sargent, were graduated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as mechanical and mining engineers respectively. Francis T. Sargent is actively following his profession in New York. Winthrop Otis Sargent, as mining engineer, was interested in the lead mines of Missouri. He was attacked with hemorrhage of the lungs, and died on September 5, 1901, leaving a son, bearing the name of his father, and a daughter, his wife having died two years previously.
When the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Massachusetts was organized as a branch of the W. C. T. II., with Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, president, Mrs. L. B. Barrett, secretary, and an executive committee of seven women, Mrs. Sarah E. Talbot, of Maiden, was one of the number, a charter member of the new organization. Public meetings were held, churches and halls were crowded, temperance enthusiasm increased, and many thousand inebriates were reformed, organizing themselves into Reform Clubs. Timid women, forgetting that they "should be seen and not heard," came out from their seclusion, went upon the platform, and as by inspiration joined in the rescue of those held in bondage of the intoxicating cup, their hearts quickened to realize the sorrows of those in despair. Ruined homes were visited, the wives and mothers brought into the fold of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, their children into the Loyal Temperance Legion and Sunday-schools. Thousands signed the pledge, redeemed forever from the curse of alcoholics and narcotics under this wonderful movement, which seemed like a breath of God from heaven moving upon the hearts of the people.
The first National Convention, resulting in the formation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, was held in Philadelphia, and the second the next year in Baltimore, Mrs. Talbot attending both as a delegate. At this later convention she had the pleasure of voting for Frances E. Willard as president of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which position she honored many years, until her death, leaving it the largest organization of women in the world. At the International Convention of the World's W. C. T. U., held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1903, our present national president, Mrs. L. M. N. Stevens, presiding, stated that delegates were there present from "fifty-nine different nations belonging to the World's W. C. T. U. Federation, representing every section of the globe, speaking in many different languages, demonstrating the harmony of the work, notwithstanding the diversity of languages," thus fulfilling the prophecy of our sainted president, Miss Willard, that "the white ribbon would yet encircle the globe."
Realizing the danger from indiscriminate use of alcohol as a medicine, the W. C. T. U. early organized a department for "Influencing Physicians not to use 'Alcoholic Medication,'" and appointed Mrs. Talbot its first superintendent for the State. She was also appointed the first superintendent of the State department of "Scientific Temperance Instruction
