Sara Robinson.
Sara Tappan Doolittle Robinson was a Free-State supporter and author in Kansas.
Sarah Lawrence was born at Belchertown, Massachusetts, on July 12, 1827, to Myron and Clarissa Dwight Lawrence. She received an excellent education in the classical school of Belchertown and at Salem Academy. On October 30, 1851, she was married to Dr. Charles Robinson, who afterward became the first governor of the State of Kansas, to which state she came with her husband in 1854. Like her husband, she ardently supported the cause of freedom and played a prominent and helpful role in the struggle to make Kansas a Free State.
In her book, Kansas, Its Interior and Exterior Life, published in 1856, she described the scenes, people, and events of the conflict between the friends and foes of slavery in Kansas. The book was written when the scenes and incidents described were fresh in her mind, and her graphic pen pictures give the reader a presentation of the actual condition of affairs not to be found anywhere else in print. The book was not written to establish a theory or defend a partisan measure but aimed to tell just what happened in the territory. It had a wide circulation and significant influence and was regarded as one of the best works on the early history of Kansas. Mrs. Robinson also contributed extensively to periodical literature.
Governor Charles Robinson.
Her husband Charles died in August 1894. Sara passed away at her beautiful rural estate, “Oakridge,” a few miles from Lawrence, Kansas, on November 15, 1911. Their estate, valued at $200,000, was bequeathed to the University of Kansas.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated April 2026.
Also See:
Native American History in Kansas
See Sources.