Sarah Lanman Huntington was born in Norwich, Connecticut on June 18, 1802 to Jabez and Mary Lanman Huntington. She attended a private female academy taught by Nancy Hyde and Lydia Huntley (Sigourney) and at age 16 she attended a boarding school in Boston. 

Sarah was a member of Second Congregational Church, when in 1827 she began a mission to the Mohegan Indians. By converting some to Christianity and starting the Mohegan Congregational Church, and the Mohegan School, she saved the Tribe from being removed from their tribal lands and moved west of the Mississippi by the federal government because they were “uncivilized and unchristian.”

 

On July 21, 1833, Sarah married the Rev. Eli Smith. They sailed from Boston on September 21,

landing in “Beyroot, Syria,” (Beirut, Lebanon), on January 28, 1834. There, as an “assistant missionary,” she resolved to “enlighten the benighted females of Syria” and in 1834 founded, the first school for girls in the Turkish Empire, serving as its first teacher until illness forced her to leave Beirut on June 11, 1836.

 

Following a shipwreck, Sarah, with Eli, completed an arduous and debilitating voyage to Smyrna (Izmir, Turkey) where she died of consumption on September 30, 1836 at age 34. She was buried in Boojah, Turkey. Her bestselling Memoir inspired scores of American females to become missionaries.

 

Mrs. Smith’s “Beyroot Female School,” the precursor of Lebanese American University, introduced American education to females in the Middle East, thus initiating the liberation of girls and women in that region.