Belle Graham Osborn Sanborn


Wife of Jeremiah Wilson Sanborn, President of Agricultural College of Utah, 1890-1894

Belle Graham Osborn was born about 1851 in Gilmantin, Hew Hampshire, the daughter of John Simpson Osborn and Rachel Jane Brown. She married Jeremiah Wilson Sanborn on June 4, 1872, very likely in Gilmantin. They had three sons and one daughter.

Before becoming president, Jeremiah had been promised a five-room suite on the second floor of Old Main. He had also lobbied the Territorial Assembly for funds to build a model farm house on campus. When it was completed the Board of Trustees agreed that the Sanborns would move into the Farm House, which also housed the college dairy and ice house. There seems to be no direct evidence that Belle moved to Logan. Her fourth child was born 18 years after her first child in Missouri the same year that Jeremiah became president. At this time they also had a three year old son. Their oldest son, Harry, became a student in the Agricultural College of Utah. Evidence for this exists in the demerit books where Harry's name appears. Nothing further is known about Belle Graham Osborn Sanborn. In 1894, her husband left Utah and returned to his farm in Hew Hampshire "to carry out long deferred improvements on his large farm estate, accepting the editorship of the agricultural columns of the 'Mirror and Farmer.'"