RELICT SENATOR SARGENT DEAD
Mrs. Ellen C. Sergeant [sic] Passed to Great Beyond at San Francisco.

Mayor C. W. Chapman received word yesterday of the death of Mrs. Ellen Sargent, relict of the late Senator A. A. Sargent, who passed away at her home in San Francisco. Her son, George C. Sargent, who with his family was spending their vacation at their country place at Quaker Hill, came down from that place and left on the 5 o'clock train for San Francisco.

Her death was rather sudden and unexpected, as she was in good health and able to be around. Two days before her death she was automobiling with her son-in-law, Dr. D. W. Montgomery, and the next day was visiting with some friends in the city. No further particulars have been received as yet.

Deceased was a native of Newburyport, Mass., aged 85 years and 11 days. She was one of the oldest pioneers of California, coming to Nevada City in 1852 as a bride. Her husband, Senator A. A. Sargent, died in 1887, and since that time she took a deep interest in woman suffrage, probably being the oldest woman suffragist in the United States. She was a warm and close friend of Susan B. Anthony, the noted woman suffragist of America, having met her in 1870, and since that time they had been the firmest of friends. Deceased was a very quiet woman and although deeply interested in public affairs, she never made herself conspicuous. Mrs. Sargent was the mother of three children, one son George C. Sargent, living, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Ellen Sargent Montgomery, both deceased. She also leaves five grandchildren to mourn her death. Arrangements for the funeral are not known at this time.
The Morning Union - Fri. July 14, 1911 pg 6 col 2


SARGENT - In this city, July 13, 1911, Ellen Clark Sargent, mother of George C. Sargent and the late Mrs. D. W. Montgomery and Dr. E. R. C. Sargent, a native of Massachusetts, aged 85 years and 12 days.
The funeral of the late Mrs. Ellen C. Sargent will be held at the residence of her son, Mr. George C. Sargent, 251 Broadway, San Francisco on July 15, at 1:30 p.m. Friends are invited to the house. Interment will be private.
San Francisco Call - July 15, 1911


WOMAN'S MEMORY WILL BE HONORED

Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent's Admirers to Hold Mass Meeting in Union Square

To honor the memory of the late Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent an open air mass meeting will be held in Union square at noon under the auspices of the California Equal Suffrage association, of which Mrs. Sargent was seven times president. The meeting will be presided over by Mrs. Rose B. French.
Governer Johnson has been invited to speak, and the benediction will be given by Bishop Moreland of the Episcopal diocese of Sacramento. Addresses will be made by Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe Watson, Albert H. Elliott, E. P. E. Troy and Mrs. Oswald Black.
A chorus will sing "America" and a suffrage version of "California" written to the tune of "John Brown.:
Clergymen of all faiths will be present, including Rev. F. W. Clampett, Rabbi Martin Meyer, Rev. E. R. Dille, Rev. J. K. McLean of Oakland and Rev. D. S. Williams of Saratoga.
Representatives will be present from all the suffrage organizations.
San Francisco Call - July 25, 1911


TRIBUTES PAID TO SUFFRAGE LEADER

Men and Women Unite in Public Gathering at Dewey Monument, Union Square

The noonday calm of Union square was broken yesterday by the advocates of political equality, who assembled with words of tribute and songs of patriotism to do honor to the memory of Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent. More than half of the 1,000 persons who crowded about the Dewey monument, where the services were held, were of the sterner sex, many of whom had been warm personal friends of Mrs. Sargent.
On the platform from which the addresses were delivered were seated Mrs. Mary McHenry Keith, Mrs. Frances Pierce, Mrs. Rose French, Mrs. Mary T. Gamage, Mrs. Martha Strickland Clark, Mrs. A. L. Hayward, Mrs. Elizabeth Gerberdlng, Mrs. Lillian Harris Coffin, Mrs. Agnes Ray, Mrs. Austin Sperry, Mrs. A. G. Boggs, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift and Thomas Hayden. All had known Mrs. Sargent and many of them had worked for years with her In the cause for which she stood.

LIFE DEVOTED TO WOMEN

Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe Watson, president of the California Equal Suffrage association, who presided, read the regrets of Governor Hiram Johnson, Mayor. P. H. McCarthy and President David Starr Jordan at their inability to fill the places assigned to them on the program. Thomas E. Hayden, who was the first speaker, paid a high tribute to Mrs. Sargent, whose life, he said, was given in quiet and in honor for the civic betterment of her sisters in California. Mrs. Watson made a spirited address. She said:
"Mrs. Sargent was the stanch friend of the oppressed in all nations and in all walks of life. She was a firm believer in the principles of pure democracy, in a government of, by and for the people, men and women alike. She was one of the first and foremost to demand and work for the enfranchisement of her sex, but her eloquence lay more in deeds than in words.
'"It was her strong conviction that the ballot, in the hands of the women, would help to redeem the world, and, to this end, therefore, she gave freely of her substance and herself."

PRAISE FOR HOME LIFE

E. P. E. Troy, who succeeded Mrs. Watson on the rostrum, praised the home life of Mrs. Sargent. Her early training, he said, "prepared her for the place she was to occupy in the life of her city. She felt that the best work of her life was accomplished in those years when her children were grown and no longer needed her care. It was then that she was most actively engaged in advancing the political equality of women. The integrity of the home and the integrity of government were her chief interests, but she maintained that the mothers who formed the principles of the crowning race of men were the best fitted to guide the political forces that govern the state, and, as a consequence, that the ballot belonged to them as a right.

AVERAGE WOMEN NEEDED

Mrs. Orlow Black spoke in behalf of the young women of California, whose indebtedness to Mrs. Sargent, she said, never could be repaid.
"The world today has no need of exceptional women," said Mrs. 'Black. "These it has had in Mrs. Sargent and those who worked with her in the suffrage cause. What it needs today is average women to awake and take up the average work which these heroic women have begun, and when that work is ended to take up new work for the betterment of municipal life."
An essay by Mrs. Mary McHenry Keith in tribute to the character and work of Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent was read by Mrs. Watson.
At intervals during the meeting Miss Ruth May McKenzie sang some ballads and patriotic songs, among them being "Annie Laurie," "The Star Spangled Banner" and "America." At the close of the services she led the chorus in the song "California," which the adherents to the suffrage cause purpose to use October 10 as a song of victory.
San Francisco Call - July 26, 1911



NOTE: Although interment was not disclosed it is very likely that Ellen was originally interred near her husband at Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco. When land in San Francisco became too valuable, Laurel Hill Cemetery lost it's place in history and all of the individuals buried there were disinterred. Most were relocated to Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, but whether this is true in Ellen's case is not yet known. Her husband, Aaron Augustus Sargent, was brought to Nevada County, where the family had formerly resided. His tombstone is now present in Nevada City's, Pioneer Cemetery, but his ashes were said to be spread at his mining claim on Quaker Hill.