Sara Louisa Oberholtzer

Sara Louisa Oberholtzer
"A Woman of the Century"
"A Woman of the Century"
BornSara Louisa Vickers
May 20, 1841
Uwchlan Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedFebruary 2, 1930(1930-02-02) (aged 88)
Occupation
  • Poet
  • activist
  • economist
LanguageEnglish
Alma materThomas' Friends Boarding School, State Normal School in Millersville
Literary movementTemperance
Spouse
John Oberholtzer
​
(m. 1862)​
Children2
ParentsPaxson Vickers (father)

Sara Louisa Oberholtzer (née, Vickers; May 20, 1841 – February 2, 1930[1]) was an American poet, activist, and economist. Interested in the uplifting of humanity, she gave close attention to the introduction of school savings-banks into the public schools since 1889. She made an address on the subject in the first meeting of the Women's Council, in Washington, D.C. in February, 1891, which was printed in their "Transactions." Her address on school savings banks before the American Academy of Political and Social Science, in Philadelphia, in May, 1892, was printed in pamphlet form by the Academy. Her "How to Institute School Savings Banks," "A Plea for Economic Teaching " and other leaflet literature on the subject had broad circulation. She was widely instrumental in establishing school savings banks in the United States, Canada, Australia and the Sandwich Islands. She was also elected world's and national superintendent of that work for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W. C. T. U.), which enlarged its channels.[2] As W. C. T. U. World's Superintendent of School Savings Banks, Oberholtzer hoped to introduce this system in other countries beyond the U.S.[3]

  1. ^ Anna Lane Lingelbach (1934). "Oberholtzer, Sara Louisa Vickers". Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
  2. ^ Willard & Livermore 1893, p. 589.
  3. ^ Chapin 1895, p. 18.