Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Sarah Doan La Fetra 1843 ~ 1919

Mrs. Sarah Doan La Fetra, temperance and missionary worker, was born in Sabina, Ohio, June 11, 1843. She is the daughter of Rev. Timothy and Mary Ann Custis Doan, her mother being of the Virginia Custis family. In early youth, religious truths made a deep impression on her mind and heart, and al sixteen she was converted and became an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She improved every opportunity for study in the public schools and prepared herself in the Normal School of Prof. Holbrook in Lebanon, Ohio for teaching. She taught in a graded school in Fayette County, Ohio, for some time before her marriage with George Henry La Fetra, of Warren County, Ohio. Three sons were born to them, the youngest dying in infancy.

Mrs. La Fetra was a charter member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of the District of Columbia, was the treasurer for some time, and Iron 1885 served as president for eight years. She was one of the founders of the Florence Crittendon Hope and Help Mission in Washington. All local missionary work has had her sympathetic support. She presided for years over a temperance hotel in the heart of the nation's Capital, and not only did she make it attractive but successful financially.

She is connected with the Metropolitan Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church. She has at various times been president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society and of the Ladies' Association. She is the vice-president of the Washington District, Association for Foreign Missions. A recent honor has been conferred on her by the Baltimore branch of the Woman's Foreign Society in voting to erect a building at Bidar, India, to be called "The Sarah D. La Fetra Memorial," in recognition of her effective labors in that society.

Mrs. La Fetra possesses a warm heart and generous public spirit, so that it has been said of her "every woman's work is made lighter by coming in touch with her." She is an intensely patriotic woman and the historic Metropolitan Methodist Church, so well known as the church of Grant, Logan and McKinley is supplied with beautiful flags largely through her efforts.

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.