Reverend Thomas Lamb Eliot was an Oregon pioneer, minister of one of the first churches on the west coast of the United States., president of the Portland Children"s Home, president of the Oregon Humane Society, a director of the Art Association, director of the Library Association, and founder of Reed College.
Background
Thomas Lamb Eliot was born in Saint Louis, Missouri as the first son of Review William Greenleaf Eliot, Doctor of Divinity, of the Church of the Messiah in Saint Louis. An injury to his eyes interrupted his education at Washington University in Saint Louis, which his father helped start and run.
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Washington University, 1862, Master of Arts, 1866, Doctor of Laws, 1912. Graduated from Harvard Division School, 1865, South.T.D., 1889. Doctor of Letters, Reed College, 1915.
Career
Hoping to improve his eyes, he sailed around Cape Horn to California in 1860 where Thomas Starr King said to him, "The Pacific Coast claims everyone who has ever seen it—there’s Oregon!" His sight was not remedied by the trip, and upon his return, for several months of Divinity school he had to have his books read aloud to him. Eliot was in the first class to graduate from Washington University in 1862. Eliot enlisted in the Union Army, but never engaged in battle.
He fired his musket once under orders to shoot a deserter, but he missed.
After graduation he enlisted in the Home Guard of Missouri, but served only within the state. Foreign two years he ran a mission house for the poor of Saint Louis connected to his father"s church while studying with his father for the ministry.
He graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1865, doing two years of study in one, despite eyesight so poor his books were often read to him. In 1866 he earned a Master of Arts from Washington University.
Eliot ministered in Louisville, Kentucky and, for several weeks at a spell, assisted the Church of the Messiah in New Orleans.
Eliot was recruited in 1867 by churches in Portland, Maine. New Orleans, Louisiana. And Portland, Oregon.
He accepted the offer from Oregon, from the newly built First Unitarian Church, having wanted to relocate to the Pacific Northwest since his first trip to the west coast.
By 1869 when Dorothea Dix visited Portland, Eliot also began holding one outreach service per month at institutions in town including the Insane Asylum of East Portland, the County Jail, and the County Farm. He also occasionally hosted services at the Oro Fino saloon.
East. Kimbark MacColl stated "Within a decade of his arrival in Portland.. he became the city"s most influential religious figure."
Eliot was the only minister to greet women"s rights advocate Abigail Scott Duniway to Portland. One historian noted Eliot"s pervasive role in the civic and cultural life of the city, observing that he "played a central role in creating and shaping the educational, cultural, and civic landscape of Portland.
In 1935, the arts and sciences building on campus was named for Eliot to "honor his dedication and service to the college.".
Achievements
Membership
Member Park Commission, 1900-1906. Trustee Reed Institute, Portland, 1904-1925 (president 1904-1920). Member provisional committee American Red Cross work, 1917-1918.
Vice president, director Art Association Portland, 1892-1917, library association Portland, 1896-1916.
Connections
Married Henrietta R. Mack, November 28, 1865. Children: William G., Mistress Dorothea Wilbur, Mistress Ellen Weil, Mistress Grace Scott, Henrietta M., Samuel East., Thomas Doctorate. Entered Unitarian ministry, 1865.