Alvah Sabin

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Alvah Sabin (October 23, 1793 – January 22, 1885) was an American minister and politician from Vermont. He was born in Georgia, Vermont, and grew up in local schools. Sabin served in the Vermont militia during the War of 1812 and later studied theology in Philadelphia, graduating from Columbian College (now George Washington University) in 1821. He attended the University of Vermont and received an honorary Master of Arts degree in 1826.

Sabin became a minister and preached in Cambridge, Westfield, and Underhill before returning to Georgia, Vermont, where he served as the pastor of the Georgia Baptist Church for 53 years. He also pursued public service in Vermont, serving many years in the Vermont House of Representatives (1826–1835, 1838–1840, 1847–1849, 1851, 1861–1862) and in the Vermont Senate (1841, 1843, 1845). He was Secretary of State of Vermont from 1841 to 1842 and served as Probate Judge. Sabin participated in the Constitutional Conventions of 1843 and 1850 and was Assistant Judge of the Franklin County Court from 1846 to 1852.

In national politics, Sabin was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Whig to the 33rd Congress and was reelected as an Opposition Party candidate to the 34th Congress, serving March 4, 1853, to March 3, 1857. He was the chairman of the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business in the 34th Congress and did not run for renomination in 1856. He also served as a delegate to the first Anti-Slavery National Convention and was Franklin County, Vermont, commissioner in 1861–1862 to curb alcohol sales.

Sabin moved to Sycamore, Illinois, in 1867 and continued his ministerial work. He married Anna Mears in 1819, and they had five children: Benjamin F., Julia A., Harriet Amelia, Parthenia A., and Diantha Marie. After Anna’s death, he married Susan Marsh. Alvah Sabin died on January 22, 1885, in Sycamore, Illinois, and is buried at Georgia Plains Cemetery in Georgia Plains, Vermont.