Sarah Eleanor Veeder, daughter of Dr. M.A. Veeder, was born in Lyons in 1873 and graduated from Lyons Union High School in 1891 with her sister Martha. Sarah attended Syracuse University, graduating with a four-year art degree and a one-year scholarship for study in Paris with two to four artists. In 1903, after teaching in both Chicago and Ohio, she returned to Lyons to care for her ailing parents and took a position as drawing teacher at the Lyons Union High School, where she continued for 38 years. In 1906 she became a charter member and secretary of the Lyons University Extension Circle. Sarah was also a charter member of the Lyons Civic Club and she was active in the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society at the Methodist Church and led a group of Campfire Girls. In 1922 she was a charter member in the American Legion Auxiliary, serving in several offices. On the eve of the Great War, Veeder enrolled in and was trained for the military census of 1917. In 1919, Sarah was appointed local historian for the town of Lyons, becoming the town's first local historian.