Sarah A. Usher was in her mid- to late-twenties when she moved to Harford County to teach at the school in Havre de Grace. While not much is known about the Black teacher before her time in Harford, records indicate that she was born in Jamaica, likely to parents William and Sarah Usher, on June 15, 1843. According to the 1930 census, Usher first migrated to the United States in 1865. She took over leadership of the Anderson Institute from the school’s second teacher, Elizabeth V. Dixon, in October 1869, and remained at the school for only one academic year.
