History & local legend
Sarah Wilson was a major benefactor of Wilson College in Chambersburg, which bears her family's name. A portrait of her became the focus of campus stories about weddings held while the painting hung in the dining hall.
Writing in 2016, Christina Sturgeon recounted two supposed incidents. At one reception, a table holding the wedding cake stood beneath Sarah's portrait and collapsed. At another, the couple covered the painting because it did not suit their decorations. The power then failed and, according to the story, returned only after the last guest had left.
Sturgeon placed the portrait in the college library by the time she wrote, while locating the wedding tales in its earlier dining-hall setting. Students interpret the mishaps as Sarah expressing displeasure at how people treat her portrait.
