Sarah Platt-Decker

Sarah Platt-Decker
Born	Sarah Sophia Chase 1856 McIndoe Falls, Vermont
Died	July 7, 1912 (aged 56) San Francisco
Occupation	Suffragist
Organization	Federation of Associated Women's Clubs
Awards	Colorado Women's Hall of Fame

Sarah Sophia Chase Platt-Decker (1856 – July 7, 1912)^[1] was an American suffragist. Mostly active in Denver, Colorado, she also served as the national president of the Federation of Associated Women's Clubs from 1904 to 1908.

Career

Platt-Decker was born Sarah Sophia Chase in McIndoe Falls, Vermont, in 1856. Her father was a strong prohibitionist and her mother was a descendant of the Adams political family. Her first husband died after two years of marriage; the loss of her own possessions when her husband's estate was given to other members of his family inspired her to become an activist for women's rights.^[1]

In 1884, Platt-Decker moved to Queens, New York, where she worked in children and orphans' welfare. She married James H. Platt, a physician and director of the Mineola Children's Home, and moved with him to Denver, Colorado, in 1887. The couple were active in Denver politics, and Platt-Decker led a relief effort for unemployed silver miners and spoke at a political rally during the Denver Depression of 1893. After James Platt's death in 1894, Platt-Decker became the first woman appointed to the Colorado Board of Pardons and served on the Board of Charities and Corrections from 1898 onwards.^[1]

Platt-Decker married a third time in 1888, to Westbrook S. Decker, a Denver judge who died in 1902. Before his death, she helped to found the Denver Women's Club, served as its first president, and established the Denver Home for Dependent Children. In 1904, she was elected the national president of the Federation of Associated Women's Clubs; in her four years as president, she gave hundreds of speeches persuading members to take up the cause of women's suffrage.^[1]

Death and legacy

Platt-Decker died in San Francisco in 1912 after a bout of kidney disease while attending the General Federation of Women's Clubs convention.^[1] An obituary in a Denver newspaper described her as "Colorado's foremost woman citizen and the real leader of the suffrage movement in the United States".^[1] Another wrote that she deserved "a great share of the credit that Colorado became the first state in the Union to realize the political rights of women".^[1] Platt-Decker was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1990.^[2]

References

1. Varnell, Jeanne (1999). Women of Consequence: The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. Johnson Books. pp. 58–61. ISBN 9781555662141.
2. "Sarah Platt-Decker". Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. Retrieved February 23, 2016.