Biography

Eliot – Charles William Eliot (1834-1926)

Father: Eliot - Samuel Atkins Eliot I (1798-1862) Mother: Mary Lyman (1802-1875) Birth Date: March 20, 1834 Born at: Boston, Massachusetts Cousin of poet T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) – Thomas Stearns Eliot

Significant Education: 1949: Graduated from Boston Latin School 1853: Graduated from Harvard University 1869: Williams College and Princeton LL. D. 1870: Yale University LL. D. 1902: Johns Hopkins LL. D. Later an honorary member of Hasty Pudding

Spouse Name: Ellen Derby Peabody (1836-1869) Spouse Parents: Ephraim Peabody (1776-1816) and Mary Jane Derby (1807-1892) Wedding Date: October 27, 1858 Wedding Place: Boston, Massachusetts

2nd Spouse Name: Grace Mellen Hopkinson (1846-1924) 2nd Spouse Parents: Thomas Hopkinson (1804-1856) and Corinna Aldrich Prentiss (1805-1883) 2nd Wedding Date: October 30, 1877 2nd Wedding Place: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Occupation: Educator Noted for changing Harvard into a research university and changing education in America. Taught school for several years after graduation and then spent two years studying educational systems in Europe. 1869-1909: President of Harvard University: longest term of any president of the university.

Author of several books.

See: “The Forgotten Millions II – John Gilley” by Charles W. Eliot, published in “The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine” Vol. LIX, New Series, Vol. XXXVII, November, 1899, to April, 1900. First published as “John Gilley: Maine Farmer and Fisherman,” Century Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1899.

See: John Gilley – Charles W. Eliot.pdf

See: “Charles William Eliot,” Harvard University site, 2015, Accessed online 04/05/2015; http://www.harvard.edu/history/presidents/eliot

See: Origin of Acadia National Park and Memorial to: “The Memorials of Acadia National Park” by Donald P. Lenahan, published by D.P. Lenahan, Bar Harbor, Maine, 2010, p. 20-21.

Home: 1858 to c. 1909: 59-61 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, two doors away from the Henry L. Rand family at 49 Kirkland Street.

Summer Home: The Ancestral Peabody Drive, Northeast Harbor, Maine Built: 1881 Architect: Peabody and Stearns See: "Fred Savage, The Cottage Builder" by Jaylene B. Roths, Chebacco Magazine, The History Journal of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society, Volume II, 1999, p. 39-56 - includes a section about Robert Swain Peabody and his work on Mount Desert.

Death Date: August 12, 1926 at the age of 92. Death Place: Mount Desert, Northeast Harbor, Maine Cemetery: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Owned: built for him: Sunshine - Sloop Yacht

In 1901, after his son’s death, his father published a biography of his son’s life, “Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect, A Lover Of Nature And Of His Kind, Who Trained Himself For A New Profession, Practised It Happily And Through It Wrought Much Good.” The book describes, among many other things, the origin of the Champlain Society and Charles’ active part in it. Charles William Eliot’s son by his first marriage to Ellen Derby Peabody: Eliot - Charles Eliot (1859- 1897)

See: “The Memorials of Acadia National Park” by Donald P. Lenahan, published by D.P. Lenahan, Bar Harbor, Maine, 2010, p. 20-21 to read about Charles William Eliot and Acadia National Park. Includes location and trail maps with GPS coordinates.

See: "Charles W. Eliot and John Gilley: Good Hope for our Island" by Jaylene B. Roths in “Chebacco: the Magazine of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society,” Volume I, 1998, p. 3-23, for the story of the Gilley and Eliot families, how they fit together and the Gilley story from William Gilley Jr. to John Gilley.

Notable people who are related or were close to Charles William Eliot and who appear in this database are: Father: Eliot - Samuel Atkins Eliot I (1798-1862) Son: Eliot - Charles Eliot (1859-1897) Son: Eliot II – Eliot – Samuel Atkins Eliot II (1862-1950) Brother-in-law and father of Samuel Atkins Eliot II’s wife: Hopkinson - John Prentiss Hopkinson (1840-1910) Boat Captain: Donnell – Orrin A. Donnell (1859-1947) Great grandson: Goriansky - Michael Eliot Goriansky (1929-) Great grandson: Goriansky - Alexander Yale Goriansky (1937-) Great-great granddaughter: Nan (Fremont-Smith) Lincoln (1946-) Great grand niece: Foote - Frances Eliot (Foote) Stehman (1937-) – Frances Eliot Foote II Great-great grand niece: Stehman - Pepper Stehman Cwik (1960-) Nephew: Foote - Henry Wilder Foote II (1871-1964)