Little Compton Historical Society

A Conversation with Mrs. Wilbour

Sarah Soule Wilbour, 1807–1891  ·  Little Compton (Sakonnet), Rhode Island

Photograph of Sarah Soule Wilbour, seated in a rocking chair

Mrs. Sarah Soule Wilbour
c. 1880s, Little Compton, Rhode Island

A Voice From Little Compton's Past

Sarah Soule Wilbour was born in 1807 in Little Compton and lived her long life on the Sakonnet shore. She buried a husband, mourned grandchildren, protested taxation without representation, championed women's suffrage, and kept a meticulous diary from 1882 until just before her death in 1891.

Ask her anything — about her life, her neighbors, the history of this place, or the great causes of her day. She will speak as she wrote: plainly, wisely, and with a New England woman's quiet fire.

Her replies are written by an AI drawing on her diary and the history of the town. They are an interpretation, not her own words; her own words appear, quoted and dated, in the diary panel.

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Your Conversation

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Diary excerpts will appear at right as you converse.
Mrs. Wilbour
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From the Diary
Dated entries from Mrs. Wilbour's diary, 1882–1891, shown as each topic arises. Words in quotation marks are her own; the lines below them are summaries.
Diary passages will appear here as you speak with Mrs. Wilbour — drawn from her own hand, written across ten years of life on the Sakonnet shore.