At sixteen, she went to Boston for formal training in dramatics, performing all over the country.

On May 16, 1844, she married Benjamin Butler, then a rising lawyer, at Saint Anne's Episcopal Church in Lowell; she was 27, he 25.

Butler then turned his eyes to Congress and was elected in 1866 on a platform of civil rights and opposition to President Andrew Johnson's weak Reconstruction policies.

She also encourage, Butler's supported of a variety of social reform positions, including women's suffrage and the eight-hour workday for federal employees.

[1] Sarah Hildreth Butler died on April 8, 1876, at the age of 59, and is buried at her family's private cemetery in Lowell.