Mrs. Russell Sage was born at Syracuse, New York, in 1828. She was
the daughter of the Hon. Joseph Slocum. Educated at first in private
schools of Syracuse, it had been intended that she should go to college
later, but financial disaster altered the plans of the family. After
working at home to help her mother for some time, she started for
Mount Holyoke college, intending to do housework in that institution
in order to pay for her board. On her way thither she was taken sick
in Troy, and when she recovered she, at the request of her uncle,
entered the Troy female seminary. In 1869 she became the second wife
of Russell Sage, the financier. Mrs. Sage’s charities are large; she
has built a dormitory costing $120,000 in the Emma Willard seminary
and gives annually large sums of money to various hospitals and other
praiseworthy institutions.