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Sarah "Sallie" Lockwood Winchester (née Pardee; June 4, 1839 – September 5, 1922) was an American heiress, businesswoman, and philanthropist, who amassed great wealth after the death of her husband, William Wirt Winchester, and her mother-in-law, Jane Ellen Hope.

Winchester has become known for the construction of Llanada Villa, a mansion home in San Jose, California. Despite popular rumor claiming the house was built to trap spirits and ghosts that she thought were following her, there is no evidence for these rumors. Six months after her death, the home was turned into a tourist attraction, now known as the Winchester Mystery House. Testimonies and records from those who knew her describe her as intelligent, kind, a savvy financial manager, and not superstitious, remaining sharp-witted even into old age. However, in the years since her death, she has been depicted in popular culture as guilt-ridden, mad with grief, and delirious in her later life.

Sarah Lockwood Pardee was the fifth child and fourth daughter born to parents Leonard and Sarah Pardee (née Burns) in the summer of 1839 at 29 Orange Street in New Haven, Connecticut. Though she was formally called Sarah, she was named after her paternal grandmother, Sally Pardee Goodyear, and was called Sallie all her life, signing all her correspondence using this name.

During the American Civil War, Pardee, who was under five feet tall and then twenty-three, married William Wirt Winchester, then twenty-five, on Tuesday, September 30, 1862. Her mother died in May 1880; her father-in-law, Oliver Winchester, died in December that same year; and her husband died from tuberculosis in March 1881.

With the death of her mother-in-law, Jane Winchester, in 1898, Sallie inherited a further 2,000 shares of Winchester Repeating Arms Company stock, then worth about $400 per share.

Once in California, Winchester found Euthanasia Meade, who became her personal physician, until Meade died in 1895. Edward "Ned" Rambo, the San Francisco agent for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, showed Winchester properties in the Santa Clara Valley.

The house that would eventually be named the Winchester Mystery House was purchased for $12,570 from John Hamm by Winchester in 1886 and was situated on a 45-acre ranch in the Santa Clara Valley. The first person Winchester hired was Rambo to become foreman of the farm, though he did also continue his duties at the Winchester office in San Francisco. After Winchester died the road was renamed first Winchester Road and then Winchester Boulevard.

In 1904 Winchester purchased land in the San Francisco Bay area near Burlingame. In 1907, Winchester purchased a home at 44 Inglewood Lane that became her full-time home.

Roosevelt did not want to meet Winchester since he was worried that it would be seen as him promoting Winchester rifles.

In 1889 William Converse, the then president of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and Winchester's financial advisor, died.

After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Winchester donated $150 to the San Jose Relief Fund. Over a ten-year period, Winchester donated over a million dollars to the hospital, which opened on April 4, 1918, as the William Wirt Winchester Hospital.

September 1922, Winchester was driven from her home in Atherton to Llanada Villa to be closer to her doctor, who lived in San Jose. Any remaining money left in the trusts that she set up for family members was to be left to the William Wirt Winchester Hospital when they died.

Fred Larsen, Winchester's chauffeur after Carroll's death, Ted Hansen, an employee's son who grew up at Llanada Villa, Frank Leib, Winchester's lawyer, Miss Henrietta Severs, Winchester's companion of many years, were all people who openly stated that Winchester was not superstitious but was intelligent and kind.

Her staff, friends and family were unhappy with the rumors surrounding Winchester and her house and the Carrolls were distressed that Winchester's house was turned into a haunted tourist attraction.

Quick Facts

• Winchester has become known for the construction of Llanada Villa, a mansion home in San Jose, California.
• After Winchester died the road was renamed first Winchester Road and then Winchester Boulevard.
• Six months after her death, the home was turned into a tourist attraction, now known as the Winchester Mystery House.
• Edward "Ned" Rambo, the San Francisco agent for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, showed Winchester properties in the Santa Clara Valley.
• Sarah Lockwood Pardee was the fifth child and fourth daughter born to parents Leonard and Sarah Pardee (née Burns) in the summer of 1839 at 29 Orange Street in New Haven, Connecticut.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Sarah Winchester". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.