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Patent Date
1867-08-06
Patent Number
67,407
Location
Savannah, Chatham County
Biographical Data
Sarah (Frances?) Browne was the first woman in the State of Georgia to be issued a patent. Her assignor was likely her employer, Charles Brunner. According to various city directories from the 1870s, as well as the inhabitants listed in US Censuses of 1860 and 1870, Brunner operated a dry goods store in Savannah located at 172 Jones Street. It is likely that Browne worked for Brunner and was about 18 years old at the time of the patent being issued.1
According to the 1874 Savannah Business Directory, Sarah went on to work with Lathish & Co., a textile company, where she was in charge of sewing in their industrial machine division, where she had been working since 1870.2
Sarah died in 1938 and was buried in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery.3
1. Estill, J. H. Estill’s Savannah Directory, 1874-1875 https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/data/gsc/savcd/pdfs/gsc_savcd_lopl-scd-1874-75.pdf., Haddock, T. M. Haddock’s Savannah, GA., Directory, and General Advertiser, 1871. https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/data/gsc/savcd/pdfs/gsc_savcd_lopl-scd-1871.pdf.
2. "United States, Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NSTL-KLZ : Sun Mar 10 17:32:20 UTC 2024), Entry for Miss. Sarah F. Brown, 1870.
3. Sarah F. Brown, ; Burial, Savannah, Chatham, Georgia, United States of America, Bonaventure Cemetery; citing record ID 122241105, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
Recommended Citation
Browne, Sarah F. and Brunner, Charles W., "Improvement in marker for sewing machine" (1867). Georgiavation Collection. 53.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/georgiavation-collection/53
![Improvement in marker for sewing machine](https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/georgiavation-collection/1052/thumbnail.jpg)