Died in Rochester, New York

Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford died on June 2, 1921, in Rochester, New York, having lived to the remarkable age of ninety-two. Her death marked the end of a life that spanned an era of enormous transformation for American women, from the antebellum period through the achievement of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote in 1920, a cause to which she had devoted decades of activism.

By the time of her death, Hanaford had witnessed the culmination of the suffrage movement she had long supported through her preaching, writing, and organizational involvement, including her presidency of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association. She left behind a substantial body of published work, including biographies, poetry, hymns, and her landmark book Daughters of America (1882), which chronicled the accomplishments of American women across many fields.

Her passing was noted in religious and reform circles as the loss of a pioneering figure who had broken barriers as one of the first ordained female ministers in the United States. Hanaford's legacy endured through the institutions she served, the women she inspired to enter ministry and public life, and the historical record she helped create by documenting women's achievements at a time when such accomplishments were routinely overlooked or minimized in mainstream historical narratives.