Todd was born on July 22, 1769 in New Haven, Connecticut. He was the son of Michael and Mary (Rowe) Todd.
He was a descendant of Christopher Todd who settled in New Haven in 1638. His father, who was in the West India trade, died in 1774, leaving a large estate, and thereafter, until he was eight years of age, Eli lived with his great-uncle, the Rev. Jonathan Todd of Guilford, Connecticut.
He prepared for college with the Rev. Elizur Goodrich of Durham, entered Yale College in 1783, and graduated with honor in 1787. After a voyage to Trinidad, where he suffered an almost fatal attack of yellow fever, he returned to New Haven and studied medicine for two years with Dr. Ebenezer Beardsley.
Before he was twenty-one he was practising medicine in Farmington, Connecticut There he achieved distinction and was commended by the governor of the state for his courage and devotion during the epidemic of "spotted" fever in 1808, when nearly all those unaffected fled from the town in panic.
He spent four years practising in New York, but was persuaded to return to Farmington in 1816. In 1820 he moved to Hartford, where he became the most distinguished consulting physician in the city.
In 1812, he was made a member of the society's official committee to investigate the condition of the mentally ill, who were misunderstood and abused. The interest thus aroused was renewed in 1821, and in 1822, largely through his initiative and leadership, a Society for the Relief of the Insane was incorporated.
Because his father and a sister had suffered from mental illness, Todd had a special interest in this field. When the movement for a public asylum was begun, he became the leader, and in 1824 was instrumental in raising money to build the Connecticut Retreat for the Insane at Hartford. He became its first superintendent when it opened, April 1, 1824.
The humane Quaker methods used by William Tuke in York, England, were known to Todd, and he instituted the same methods at the Retreat, giving to the institution "a character for the comfort and care of its members not surpassed in this or in any other country".
He was the first to realize the necessity of trained nurses and attendants in the mental hospital, and believing alcoholism to be a form of mental disease, recommended that it be treated as such, and suggested the organization of a home for inebriates. The influence of Todd and the Retreat which he organized was felt throughout America and many countries in Europe. He refused offers of the position of superintendent in Bloomingdale Asylum, New York, and in the Massachusetts State Lunatic Asylum, Worcester, but remained superintendent of the Retreat at Hartford until his death in 1833.
Dr. Eli Todd was a pioneer in the treatment of the mentally ill. His efforts in the medical field of mental care and smallpox treatment had a significant impact on not only the residents of his town, Farmington, Connecticut, but contributed to the establishment of high standards for the rest of the newly formed nation.
Todd was an early member of the Connecticut Medical Society, of which he was elected vice-president in 1823 and president in 1827 and 1828.
With his initiative and leadership, a Society for the Relief of the Insane was incorporated.
Todd was a man of charming personality--sympathetic, understanding, courageous, and of a friendliness which inspired unusual confidence
In 1796, shortly after starting his work in Farmington, he married Rachel Hills. In the same year, his half-brother Michael died at sea. In 1797, his sister Polly died of spotted fever. His mother died in 1806. In 1811, Rachel's brother Reuben died, and Todd and his wife adopted his two daughters Theresa and Jennet. Rachel died in 1825, and Todd subsequently married her younger sister, Catherine. She would outlive him by 33 years, dying herself in 1866.
