About The Book
This is the first biography of Sarah B. Cochran, who probably didn’t expect to become Henry Clay Frick’s Gilded Age business competitor. But when her husband and only child died suddenly, she took over the family coal and coke business at a time when it was illegal, and some thought unlucky, for women to work in or around Pennsylvania coal mines.
Beginning in her forties, Sarah engaged with the world through both quiet and public philanthropic activity that shifted power, championed others and influenced causes. In one case, her philanthropy competed with that of Andrew Carnegie. Coupled with her public suffrage activity, Sarah’s life raises the question of whether American women needed to be philanthropists and activists in ways that their male peers did not. Despite her contributions to the built environment, she can be difficult to identify without already knowing she existed. This book introduces her story to a broader audience and serves as a model for those who want to document the lives of other "lesser mortals"... people whose stories and accomplishments have been left out of the larger historical narrative.
About Sarah B. Cochran
Who was she, and why don't you already know about her?
It’s hard to find Sarah if you don’t already know she’s there: She hasn’t been included in certain scholarship about women in mining communities, and multiple U.S. Censuses have displayed her occupation as a blank space or the word “None.” Because she remained so invested in her own community, she’s not broadly known.
Sarah Boyd Moore was born in 1857 to a Fayette County, Pennsylvania farming family that was so poor that stories persist about how Sarah and her sister shared one dress just to be able to attend school on alternating days. In a fairy tale-like story, she and a young coal magnate named Philip Cochran fell in love and married. But the story continued beyond the typical fairy tale ending of marriage. Philip introduced her to the coal business at a time when business was considered a man’s world.
When Philip and their only child died at the turn of the 20th century, Sarah was a 44-year-old widow whom Philip had left in “full charge, care, and control” of mining interests in western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee. While Sarah could have cashed out, she remained in the industry for the rest of her life, grew her businesses threefold, and competed with Henry Clay Frick at a time when women and girls were legally barred from working in or around Pennsylvania coal mines.
As a way to help grieve her husband’s and son’s deaths, Sarah became involved in philanthropy and said she found new light in the world by doing so. Her philanthropy was often related to her religious faith, family, and causes that mattered to her. Today the dollar value of her philanthropy is estimated to be around $53 million: That included building college dormitories for men and women at Allegheny College and Otterbein University; building multiple churches; paying for local people’s education; purchasing a house for a Phi Kappa Psi chapter; hosting the Methodist bishops of the world at her home; endowing collegiate academic chairs; and serving as a trustee of Allegheny College, American University, and Beaver College (now Arcadia University).
As the suffrage movement swept through Pennsylvania in 1915, Sarah could have supported it anonymously. Instead, she opened her estate to host a public fundraising rally that reportedly drew 500-600 people to hear Anna Howard Shaw speak.
Sarah's Tudor-style estate, called Linden Hall at St. James Park, was dedicated in 1913 with 30+ rooms and located on over 600 acres of land in Fayette County’s mountains. A story is still told about how Sarah offered to sponsor all of its Italian stone masons for American citizenship after they finished the building. Sarah also commissioned a spectacular Tiffany window that Agnes Northrop designed to depict Linden Hall’s garden in full bloom. This monumental window was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2023, and Linden Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places with the Cochran Church that Sarah built in Dawson, Pennsylvania.
Sarah's story continues to resonate today as one about a first and only, a regional philanthropist, and a change agent whose philanthropy raises questions about whether women need to be philanthropic in ways that their male peers do not.
About the Author
Growing up with Sarah B. Cochran's story made a difference.
Growing up with Sarah’s story meant that I saw a relationship between capitalism, feminism, and philanthropy that some might find unusual. It also gave me the luxury of taking for granted what women could accomplish and a role model for how a businesswoman could contribute to the greater good.
I earned a B.A. in Economics and International Relations at Smith College, an M.B.A. in Marketing from Rutgers Business School, and a Certificate in Historic Preservation from Drew University’s Caspersen School of Graduate Studies.
During my nineteen-year corporate career I was also a trustee of the Alice Paul Institute and held volunteer leadership positions for nonprofits at the global and local levels for organizations such as Smith College's Office of Admission, the Alumnae Association of Smith College, and the United Way of Greater Mercer County (New Jersey). I have written about or discussed the book for various organizations including Pittsburgh's NPR affiliate WESA 90.5FM, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Women’s History Museum, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Smithsonian-affiliated Senator John Heinz History Center. I'm also proud to have shared research materials with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, donated artifacts to various museums and archives, and even gotten Sarah included in a board game.
I live in New Jersey with my husband and daughter. In my free time, I love to travel, read, learn about jewelry, and continue the genealogical research that I've been doing since 1984.
Praise
“This book is an important addition to industrial history and the history of southwestern Pennsylvania.”
--Amanda Peters, Coal and Coke Heritage Center, Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.
“This wonderful biography brings to life Sarah B. Cochran, a philanthropist, college trustee, and coal industry executive in the early 1900s. Like her contemporaries, including philanthropists Phoebe Hearst, Olivia Sage, and Jane Stanford, Sarah inherited a fortune that she used to better her community. Kimberly Hess masterfully explores the many facets of her life, helping us to understand Sarah’s transformation after the death of her husband and son, and her powerful use of philanthropy to advance the causes she believed deeply in.”
--Joan Marie Johnson, author of Funding Feminism: Philanthropy, Monied Women, and the Women’s Rights Movement
“The story of Sarah Cochran is a quiet surprise for anyone who cares about philanthropy today. Her life is an inspiration showing the lasting good that comes from regional philanthropy and from major donors who are not, what we would call today, "mega-donors." It's also a testament to the ongoing generosity of women, who tend to give more quietly, but no less impactfully than their male peers. And it reminds us to celebrate the unknowing inheritors of Sarah's legacy, those women who have made their ways in new industries, hail from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and have different causes than Sarah, but share her spirit of not withdrawing from the world to live in comfort, but to engage with the things they care about.”
--Dara Weinerman Steinberg, Philanthropic Advisor
"A faithful telling of an extraordinary life, A Lesser Mortal reveals our power to contribute despite barriers of loss, circumstance, and others' estimations of our worth."
--Katie Burke, author of Urban Playground: What Kids Say About Living in San Francisco
"Kimberly’s writing is bright, perfect for shining a light on Sarah B. Cochran."
–Gloria Forouzan, historian
“Kimberly Hess has presented the history of a feminist in crisp detail with a great deal of supporting evidence and intelligent conjecture when necessary. Marriage created the opportunity that changed Sarah's life. Sarah in turn created opportunities for many more women (and men) through her financial generosity as well as her stature in the male dominated world of coal and coke.”
–Donna M. Griffin, former Director of Global Operations, Chubb Group Of Insurance Companies
“Meticulously researched, A Lesser Mortal restores all of the richness of Sarah’s very significant life.”
--Donna Edwards-Jordan, Genealogist/Genealogy Educator, North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
“Kudos to Kimberly Hess for bringing Sarah Cochran's philanthropy and activism to a wider audience. Thoroughly researched and captivating to read, Hess' biography introduces us to a forward thinking woman who ran her husband's coal and coke business after his untimely death and whose public philanthropy in her lifetime was estimated to be about $2 million (about $53 million today).
--Andrea Pactor, Retired, Women's Philanthropy Institute, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy