Sarah Anne Worthington King Peter (10 May 1800, Chillicothe, Ohio - 6 February 1877,

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

) was an American philanthropist and patron of the arts.

Life

Sarah Anne Worthington was born on May 10, 1800, at Chillicothe, Ohio. Her father,

Thomas Worthington Thomas or Tom Worthington may refer to: *Thomas Worthington (Douai) (1549–1627), English Catholic priest and third President of Douai College * Thomas Worthington (Dominican) (1671–1754), English Dominican friar and writer * Thomas Worthington ...

, was Governor of Ohio, from 1814–18, and also served in the United States Senate. She attended private schools in Frankfort, Kentucky, and in Washington, D.C. On May 15, 1816, she married Edward King, son of Rufus King of New York. In 1831, she and her husband moved from Chillicothe to Cincinnati, where he died on February 6, 1836. Following Edward King's death, she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to be near two of her children attending Harvard. In October 1844, she married William Peter, British consul at

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. During her residence at Philadelphia, she founded on December 2, 1850, the

Philadelphia School of Design for Women Philadelphia School of Design for Women (1848–1932) was an art school for women in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Housed in the former Edwin Forrest House at 1346 North Broad Street, under the directorship of Emily Sartain (1886–1920), ...

now Moore College of Art and Design. Today, Moore College of Art & Design annually enrolls more than 500 women in its undergraduate BFA program. She attended

St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia St. Peter's Church is a historic Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal church located on the corner of Third and Pine Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It opened for worship on September 4, 1761 and served as a place of worship for man ...

at Third and Pine during this time. William Peter died on February 6, 1853.Meehan, Thomas. "Sarah Peter." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 18 June 2016 Returning to Cincinnati, she spent most of her remaining years as a patron of art, and in works of charity and philanthropy, and established the Ladies' Academy of Fine Arts. Sarah Peter became a Catholic convert at Rome in March, 1855, being instructed there by

Mgr Mermillod Gaspard Mermillod (22 September 1824 – 23 February 1892) was a Swiss Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Despite a lengthy investiture conflict with the Calvinist Canton of Geneva, he served as Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva from 1883 t ...

. The foundations of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

, the

Little Sisters of the Poor The Little Sisters of the Poor (french: Petites Sœurs des pauvres) is a Catholic religious institute for women. It was founded by Jeanne Jugan. Having felt the need to care for the many impoverished elderly who lined the streets of French towns ...

in Cincinnati and other institutions owed much to her generosity. In 1862, she volunteered as a nurse, and went with the sisters who followed General Grant's army in the southwest after the Battle of Pittsburg Landing.

References

Sources

*King, ''Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Sarah Peter''(Cincinnati, 1889); *''Catholic Telegraph'' (Cincinnati), files; *''Freeman's Journal'' (New York), files. {{DEFAULTSORT:Peter, Sarah 1800 births 1877 deaths Converts to Roman Catholicism Moore College of Art and Design 19th-century American philanthropists