aged 42, married the Reverend Jordan Winston Early, an AME minister who had risen from slavery. Sarah and Jordan Early had no children. Jordan Early retired from active minister appointments in 1888. Sarah Early helped her husband with his ministries, and also taught community schools. In total, she taught school for nearly four decades, as she believed education was critical for the advancement of the race. She served as principal of large schools in four cities as well. Reform activities Sarah W. Early became increasingly active in the Women's Christian Temperance Movement, one of numerous reform activities of the nineteenth century. In 1888 she was elected for a four-year term as national superintendent of the Colored Division of the Women's Christian Temperance Union; during her tenure, Early traveled frequently and gave more than 100 speeches to groups throughout a five-state region. Sarah W. Early became superintendent of the Colored Division within the WTCU. She was also a spokesperson for the Prohibition Party in Tennessee. Works Woodson's 1863 speech was collected and published by Bishop Daniel Payne, ed., The Semi-Centenary and the Retrospection of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore: Sherwood, 1868. Sarah J. W. Early, The Life and Labors of Rev. J. W. Early, One of the Pioneers of African Methodism in the West and South (1894), a biography of her husband. It has been classified among the post-Civil War slave narratives, as she covered Early's rise from slavery through his decades of missionary activities for the AME church. Legacy and honors 1888, Woodson Early was appointed superintendent of the Colored Division of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). 1893, Woodson Early was named "Representative Woman of the Year" at the Chicago World's Fair (World's Columbian Exposition). As per Findagrave.com Sarah J. W. Early was buried at the Greenwood Cemetery, Nashville, TN. References Further reading Ellen Lawson and Marlene Merrill, The Three Sarahs: Documents of Antebellum Black College Women, Edwin Mellen Press, 1984 Byron W. Woodson Sr., A President in the Family, Thomas Jefferson Sally Hemings and Thomas Woodson, (Westport CT, Praeger, 2001) External links Sarah J. W. Early, Life and Labors of Rev. Jordan W. Early, One of the Pioneers of African Methodism in the West and South, Nashville: Publishing House A.M.E. Church Sunday School Union, 1894, carried at Documenting the American South'', University of North Carolina 1825 births 1907 deaths Oberlin College alumni People from Greene County, Ohio