Sarah Louise Ensign Cady was born on September 13, 1829; the daughter of Salmon and Melinda (Cobb) Ensign. Her father was a coachmaker of Northampton, Massachussets Family tradition told of a coach built by him for President Pierce, which, beautifully ornamented, lined with tufted gold brocade, was drawn by horses to Philadelphia, rousing great admiration along the way.
Sarah's family moved to Westfield, where at seventeen Sarah was graduated from the Normal School.
After graduating from school followed the practical training of teaching in district schools, under customary conditions of pupils older than the teacher, belief in using the rod when necessary, and adventures of "boarding round"--all excellent means of developing personality.
Left on her husband's death (1863) with only a small life insurance to support three little children, she naturally returned to teaching, and opened a school in Westfield. After two years she was invited to teach in Maplewood Hall (Pittsfield), a large boarding-school for young women, and later became associate principal. In 1870 she established her own school, West End Institute, in New Haven, Connecticut, attended during twenty-nine years of existence by several hundred pupils. Mrs. Cady's sincere interest and enthusiasm for her profession, and belief in the serious education of girls, made this more than the usual finishing school of the day. It earned a standing which enabled its pupils to enter colleges without examination. The first pupil to enter Vassar from Connecticut was fitted here in the early seventies; no other school in the state gave the necessary instruction. They were college graduates, native teachers in foreign languages, special lecturers and instructors. The school also had one of the earliest kindergartens. About 1891 the school moved to a building on the famous Hillhouse Ave. belonging to Yale University, which (1899) refused to renew the lease. The difficulty, at her age, of finding another suitable location, and of moving the establishment, caused Mrs. Cady reluctantly to close the school after graduating the largest class in its history. She spent the rest of her life in New York City with a daughter.
She became a member of various clubs--Sorosis, Clio, and others--was prominent in the Broadway Tabernacle, and served on executive boards and committees of the Y. W. C. A. , W. C. T. U. , and so forth.
Mrs. Cady was a born teacher and disciplinarian, thorough in her methods, generous in the number and quality of her teachers. Naturally she was active and a leader. In appearance stately and handsome, with beautiful coloring, she had unusual talent in reading and elocution.
On October 10, 1850, Sarah was married to Henry Stearns Cady, a merchant in Springfield, a second cousin, descended like herself from Samuel Cobb, physician, who came from England in 1630.
