Local historian; b. 21 Mar. 1825 in Bridgewater, Mass. Daughter of Rev. Richard Manning Hodges, minister of the First Congregational Church of Bridgewater from 1821 to 1833. Her mother was Elizabeth Quincy Donnison, daughter of William Donnison, Judge of Common Pleas, Adjutant General, and aide to Governor Hancock. In 1836 the family moved to Cambridge and purchased a house on the corner of Waterhouse and Garden streets. Sarah Swan attended a school in Cambridge and took private lessons from Margaret Fuller. She married Rev. Joshua Swan on 16 Apr. 1851 and went to live in Kennebunk, Me., where Swan was an ordained minister of the First Congregational Church. During the Civil War she joined the local Soldier's Aid Society and, in 1863, became the local manager for the U.S. Sanitary Commission, a national organization that in part served to provide clothing and foodstuffs to Union soldiers at the front. In 1869, failing health forced Swan to resign his position, and the family moved to Cambridge and bought a house at 6 Berkeley St. Sarah Swan was a charter member of the Cambridge Historical Society, and arranged the records of her family and wrote an account of her mother's old home in Boston, at the corner of Washington and Winter streets. She was active in the First Church, Cambridge Hospital, and the Home for the Aged. She died at home (167 Brattle St.), on 17 Oct. 1910.
From the description of Hodges-Swan family papers, 1698-1909 (bulk 1845-1909) (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 154689947
