Samuel Atkins Eliot (politician)
Samuel Atkins Eliot (March 5, 1798 – January 29, 1862) was a member of the notable Eliot family of Boston, Massachusetts, who served in political positions at the local, state and national levels.[1]
Samuel Atkins Eliot
March 5, 1798
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
January 29, 1862 (aged 63)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
6, including Charles
Early life[edit]
Eliot was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1798. He was the son of banker Samuel Eliot and Catherine Atkins Eliot, and was related to Congressman Thomas Hopkinson Eliot. He attended the Boston Latin School, and graduated from Harvard University in 1817 and from Harvard Divinity School in 1820. His father had wanted to see him become a minister, but he died the year of his graduation and Samuel stopped short of the pulpit. Instead he traveled Europe for two years, gaining great knowledge in music and singing, and developing interests in parks and playgrounds.[2]
Personal life[edit]
On June 13, 1826, he married Mary Lyman the daughter of Theodore Lyman (1753-1839) born in York Maine, and his second wife Lydia Pickering Williams of Salem Massachusetts, the daughter of George Williams and niece of Colonel Timothy Pickering, the third United States Secretary of State under Presidents George Washington and John Adams.
Lyman became prosperous in the East India trade and an influential merchant in Boston, building a country estate known as the "Vale" (Lyman Estate) in Waltham, Massachusetts, where his daughter Mary and Samuel would be married. The East Side Ballroom was added to the house for their wedding. The marriage produced four daughters and two sons, including Charles William Eliot, a future president of Harvard University.[7][8][9][10]
Between 1829 and 1830 he built a lavish house at 31 Beacon Street, now the western edge of the Massachusetts Statehouse lawn.[2]
He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on January 29, 1862, and his body was interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery.[11]