President Washington’s Centennial / The Owego Connection

[By Emma M. Sedore, Tioga County Historian]

When our country celebrated the centennial of President George Washington in 1889, it went on for three full days in New York City. It was the same year President Benjamin Harris took office. People were wild with enthusiasm, the kind of enthusiasm that keeps on going. It inspired them to find new ways to honor and respect the memory of the veterans and patriots who fought in the Revolutionary War and all of the battles that led up to it.

As a result, various patriotic societies were organized. One of the most well-known is the Daughters of the American Revolution, known as DAR, or the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, formed October 11, 1890. It consists of women who are direct lineal descendants of soldiers or patriots who have aided in the Revolution and the subsequent War.

The woman who had the honor of being the first President General of the DAR was First Lady Caroline Lavina Harrison, wife of President Benjamin Harrison, in 1890. She contributed many new ideas, but sadly, she died in office two years later.

The DAR began a practice of installing markers and flags on the graves of Revolutionary War veterans, including women patriots. They also installed monuments at the sites of various battles that took place and eventually expanded by purchasing historic houses and sites that were associated with the War Era. The membership continues to grow, and the latest count listed for 2025 was 190,000 members.

To this date, there have been a total of 47 National President Generals. But the woman who had the honor to serve as the 17th National President General (1938-1941) was none other than Sarah Corbin Robert, an Owego resident who graduated from the Owego Academy in 1905 while she lived at 250 Front Street.

Sarah was born on August 28, 1886 to William Wallace Corbin and Emma Hamilton Corbin. Emma was the daughter of a well-known Owego contractor and builder, Joel A. Hamilton. He was a colorful, feisty man who built 39 wooden churches and numerous private homes, along with operating a toy factory on the site where Draper Park is today.

Her 250 Front Street home was also a boarding house with several apartments; one of which was rented by one of the most famous people who ever lived in Owego. That person was General Henry Martyn Robert, the author of Robert’s Rules of Order. It was the first apartment he and his bride, Isabel Hoagland (also an Owego woman) chose to live in right after their marriage in 1901. By the time the General and his wife moved to a larger apartment, a strong bond of friendship had grown between the Roberts and the Corbins, especially for Sarah.

Sarah was still in high school in Owego, graduating in 1905, and then graduated from Syracuse University 1909. She went on to teach American History in New York City and New Jersey for ten years and became an authority on Parliamentary Procedure. In the meantime, she must have kept in touch with Gen. Robert’s son, Henry M. Robert Jr., because she married him! (He was the son of Gen. Robert and his deceased wife, Helen M. Thresher.) He was a math professor at the United States Naval Academy, which was also where Sarah taught Parliamentary Law.

Their small wedding took place on August 26, 1919 at the home of her sister, Mrs. Henry G. Foster, 404 Main Street in the village of Owego. Joyfully, on June 22, 1920, they became the parents of Henry M. Robert, III, and would often summer with General Robert and his wife in Owego.

Although Sarah was married and had a child, she eagerly continued to stay active by belonging to several women’s clubs, often advancing in rank, such as chairperson, treasurer, and advocate, until 1938, when she ran unopposed for the DAR’s highest rank of President General and won.

After her husband died in 1937, she went on to serve as a trustee for her father-in-law’s book, Robert’s Rules of Order, along with her son, and as head of the authorship committee for the 7th edition that was printed in 1970. The newly revised edition remains the foremost parliamentary authority in the United States. Since its publication in 1876, it has been revised twelve times.

Sarah Corbin Robert died on May 1, 1972 at the age of 85. Her son, Henry M. Robert III, graduated from St. John’s College in 1941 and during WWII, served in the U.S. Navy as a physicist for the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. He was awarded the WWII Victory Medal for his efforts. He passed away on January 6, 2019 at the age of 98.

There have been many DAR President Generals since First Lady Caroline Lavina Harrison, but there are many more thousands of dedicated members who keep the memory of the Revolutionary War Soldiers and the under-represented Patriots alive.  

The NYS Chapters are located from the end of Long Island to Niagara Falls. Here in Tioga County, New York, the Beulah Patterson Brown Chapter is located in Newark Valley and continues to hold meetings on a regular basis.