Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/414

Rh She is a charter member of the New Hampshire Exchange Club, of Boston, and a member of the Order of the Eastern Star.

She is also a member of the Forestry Association and of the Association of Charities and Corrections in New Hampshire. She has held membership in the Castilian Club, the Horticultural Society of Wakefield, the Granite State Club, and many other organizations. Decidedly an altruist by natute and believing in the power of organizations to accomplish much good in the world, Mrs. Miller is always helpful and encouraging in word and work.

ARY ELVIRA ELLIOT, Secretary of the Department of Massachusetts, Woman's Relief Corps, for the past nineteen years, was born February 2, 1851, in Somerville, Mass., and is a daughter of the late Joseph and Zenora (Tucker) Elliot. She was educated at the public schools of Somerville and Cambridge and at a private school in Foxboro, Mass.

She is a descendant of Thomas Eliot, an immigrant of the seventeenth century, the ancestral line being: Thomas,1 Joseph,2 Nehemiah,3 Joseph,4 Joel,5 Joseph6 (her father).

Thomas Eliot was admitted a freeman of Swansea, Mass., February 22, 1669, and became a member of the Baptist church under the Rev. John Myles. He was one of the proprietors of the Taunton North Purchase. He died in Rehoboth, Masa., May 23, 1700. His wife, Jane, whom he married about the year 1676, died in Taunton, Mass., November 9, 1689. They had five children—namely, Abigail, Thomas, Jr., Joseph, Elizabeth, and Benjamin. Thomas Eliot served as a Corporal in Captain William Turner’s company in King Philip's War in 1675 and 1676. His sword, gun, and ammunition arc mentioned in the inventory of his estate.

Joseph, son of Thomas, was born in Taunton, March 2, 1684, and died April 21, 1752. He married July 22, 1710, Hannah White, daughter of John White, another soldier of King Philip's War. She died March 5, 1775, aged ninety-two years. In 1731 Joseph Eliot was chosen Treasurer of the North Precinct of Norton (now Mansfield). Afterward he was a Selectman. Nehemiah Eliot, his son, who was born March 8, 1719, and died December 8, 1802, was at one time Treasurer of Norton, North Precinct. He married September 23, 1747, Mercy White, daughter of Nicholas White. She was born July 7, 1723, and died May 8, 1780.

Joseph, son of Nehemiah, was born June 25, 1749. He married May 7, 1773, Joanna Morse, daughter of Elisha Morse. She was born September 17, 1751, and died December 6, 1837. This second Joseph Eliot was a minute-man of the Revolution, marching at the time of the Lexington alarm, April 20, 1775. He served through the siege of Boston and, re-enlisting, through campaigns in New York and New Jersey under General Washington, and as Corporal in the Saratoga campaign Under General Gates. He died of disease contracted in the service on December 15, 1777.

Joel, son of Joseph and Joanna, was born August 30, 1775, and died at Foxboro, Mass., July 23, 1864. His wife, Mary Murray Flagg, died January 23, 1865, aged eighty-three years. She was a daughter of Timothy and Sarah (Hicks) Flagg and grand-daughter of John Hicks, a member of the Boston Tea Party and one of the Cambridge minute-men killed in the battle of Lexington. Joel Elliot lived in Cambridge several years, having a store near Harvard. Square. He was at one time a member of the Cambridge fire department. In 1816 he moved to Foxboro, where he became a prosperous farmer. It was he who changed the spelling of the family name from "Eliot" to its present form.

Joseph, eldest, son of Joel and Mary and father of the subject of this sketch, was born January 1, 1807, in Cambridge, near the college grounds. He died in Somerville, Mass., July 7, 1874, aged sixty-seven years. He married at Mount Holly, Vt., December 24, 1835, Zenora Tucker, who was born in that town, February 10, 1809. In his early days Joseph Elliot was much interested in politics, and was offered offices which he declined. He was identified with the old Democratic party in its contest with the Whigs,