Harris, Sarah Coates, 1824-1886
Biography
Sarah Coates Harris (1824-1886) was the daughter of Samuel and Margaret Charrington Coates, members of Bradford Monthly Meeting, Chester Co., Pa. In 1847, she married Daniel Smith Harris, a river boat captain, mining entrepreneur, and early settler of Galena, Illinois. She was an dedicated reformer, naturalist, lecturer, and physician, serving as the chairman of the Botany Committee of the Jo Daviess County Horticultural Society, president of the Ladies Temperance Union of Galena and of the Union Freedmen's Aid Association of Galena. She was also active in Soldiers' Monument Association and the women's suffrage movement, contributing articles, letters and reports for publication. At age forty-five she entered medical school at the Hahnemann Medical College in Chicago and practiced until her death in 1886.
