Sarah Lanman Smith

Sarah Lanman Smith (also known as, Sarah L. Huntington Smith; June 18, 1802 – September 30, 1836) was a 19th-century American Christian missionary, memoirist, and school founder. In 1835, she established the American School for Girls, which became the Lebanese American University. In 1830-1831, Smith (then Huntington) and Sarah Breed established and conducted a Sunday school among the Mohegan Native American tribe in Connecticut. In 1833, she married Rev. Eli Smith and they embarked for Beirut, via Malta and Alexandria. Five years later, in ill-health, she was wrecked on a voyage to Smyrna, but escaped in a boat, dying soon after. Her memoirs were published by Dr. Edward W. Hooker in 1839. Early life and education Sarah Lanman Huntington was born in Norwich, Connecticut, on June 18, 1802. She was the daughter of Jabez Huntington, Esq. She grew up in Norwich, and was educated with missionary sympathies and feelings. One of her ancestors was John Robinson, of Leyden, who was from a long line of missionaries. Her paternal grandfather was Jedediah Huntington, a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, high sheriff of New London, Connecticut, and one of the early members of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Her paternal grandmother, Mrs. Faith Huntington, was daughter of Jonathan Trumbull, who was Governor of Connecticut during the American Revolution; and whose brothers were Jonathan Trumbull Jr., also a governor of Connecticut; Colonel John Trumbull, the American painter; and Joseph Trumbull, commissary general of the Continental Army. Her maternal grandfather was Peter Lanman, Esq., of Norwich, a man of religious character; among whose ancestors, in the county of Plymouth, Massachusetts, were several individuals of eminent piety. Her maternal grandmother, the Sarah Spaulding Coit Lanman, whose name she bore. The Rev. Joshua Huntington, of the Old South Church, Boston, was a half-brother of her father. She was exceedingly attached to her friends. Her father was almost her idol. The affection for her mother, who died when Sarah was young, she transferred to her step-mother. Smith had a sister and three brothers. Being of a delicate constitution when a child, there was some difficulty in training and governing her. A fond nurse, sometimes by injudicious kindness, did much to counteract the corrections of her parents.