Eli Thayer

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title: "Eli Thayer" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1819-births", "1899-deaths", "bleeding-kansas", "worcester-academy-alumni", "politicians-from-worcester,-massachusetts", "people-from-mendon,-massachusetts", "american-abolitionists", "brown-university-alumni", "republican-party-united-states-representatives-from-massachusetts", "burials-at-hope-cemetery-(worcester,-massachusetts)", "19th-century-united-states-representatives", "ceredo,-west-virginia"] description: "American politician" topic_path: "people/1810s" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Thayer" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Eli Thayer
image	Eli Thayer - Brady-Handy.jpg
state	Massachusetts
district
term_start	March 4, 1857
term_end	March 3, 1861
preceded	Alexander De Witt
succeeded	Goldsmith Bailey
birth_date
birth_place	Mendon, Massachusetts
death_date
death_place	Worcester, Massachusetts
resting_place	Hope Cemetery
party	Whig
Republican Party
children	John A. Thayer, Clara Thayer (Mrs. Charles H. Perry M.D.), Ida M. Thayer.{{Cite news
title	Sisters Run Down by Auto. Mrs. Clara Thayer Perry Dead, Miss Ida M. Thayer Dying
page	5
newspaper	The New York Times
location	Worcester, Massachusetts
date	September 18, 1914
url	https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102748638/sisters-run-down-by-auto/
access-date	2022-05-29
via	Newspapers.com
alma_mater	Worcester Academy, 1840;
Brown University, 1845
signature	Signature of Eli Thayer (1819–1899).png
::

| name =Eli Thayer |image= Eli Thayer - Brady-Handy.jpg | imagesize = | smallimage = | caption = | state=Massachusetts | district = | term_start = March 4, 1857 | term_end = March 3, 1861 | preceded =Alexander De Witt | succeeded =Goldsmith Bailey | birth_date = | birth_place =Mendon, Massachusetts | death_date = | death_place =Worcester, Massachusetts | resting_place = Hope Cemetery | party = Whig Republican Party | children =John A. Thayer, Clara Thayer (Mrs. Charles H. Perry M.D.), Ida M. Thayer.{{Cite news |title=Sisters Run Down by Auto. Mrs. Clara Thayer Perry Dead, Miss Ida M. Thayer Dying |page=5 |newspaper=The New York Times |location=Worcester, Massachusetts |date=September 18, 1914 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102748638/sisters-run-down-by-auto/ |access-date=2022-05-29 |via=Newspapers.com | alma_mater =Worcester Academy, 1840; Brown University, 1845 | signature = Signature of Eli Thayer (1819–1899).png Eli Thayer (June 11, 1819 – April 15, 1899) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1857 to 1861. He was born in Mendon, Massachusetts. He graduated from Worcester Academy in 1840, from Brown University in 1845, and in 1848 founded Oread Institute, a school for young women in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is buried at Hope Cemetery, Worcester.

He is chiefly remembered for his crusade to ensure that the Kansas Territory would enter into the United States as a free state. With this aim in view, early in 1854 Thayer organized the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company to send anti-slavery settlers to the Kansas Territory. In 1855, this organization joined with the New York Emigrant Aid Company and the name was changed to the New England Emigrant Aid Company. The motives of Thayer in establishing the New England Emigrant Aid Company were questioned by historian David S. Reynolds, who wrote that Thayer "opposed slavery not on moral grounds but because [he] wanted to foster laissez-faire capitalism in the Territory."{{Cite book |title=John Brown, abolitionist : the man who killed slavery, sparked the Civil War, and seeded civil rights |last=Reynolds |first=David S. |authorlink=David S. Reynolds |date=2005 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=0375726152 |location=New York}}

Local leagues were established whose members moved to Kansas and established towns. The Company provided hotels for temporary accommodation (such as the Free State Hotel in Lawrence) and provided sawmills and other improvements. Settlements were established at Manhattan, Lawrence, Topeka, and Osawatomie. The clash of these settlers and other "Free-Stater" Northerners with pro-slavery settlers spawned the violence of Bleeding Kansas.

Thayer wanted to establish an antislavery colony in Virginia, but land was too expensive. He then looked to western Virginia. Thayer chose to build his colony at the mouth of Twelvepole Creek in Wayne County, Virginia (now West Virginia). He named his town Ceredo after the goddess Ceres. The town was founded in 1857.{{cite book |title=Ceredo : it's [sic] founders and families |first=Mose A. |last=Napier |location=Ceredo, West Virginia |publisher=Phoenix Systems |year=1989 |oclc=23890889}}

He enlisted fellow abolitionist Zopher D. Ramsdell to settle there and establish a boot and shoe factory.{{cite web |url=http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/wayne/83003254.pdf |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Z. D. Ramsdell House |access-date=2011-07-09 |publisher=State of West Virginia, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Historic Preservation |archive-date=2016-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304002518/http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/wayne/83003254.pdf |url-status=dead}} Ramsdell's house is open (2022) as a historic house museum.

Eli Thayer died at his home in Worcester on April 15, 1899. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Portrait_of_Eli_Thayer.jpg" caption="Thayer in his later years"] ::

Books by Thayer

• {{cite book |first=Eli |last=Thayer |authorlink=Eli Thayer |title=Six speeches, with a sketch of the life of Hon. Eli Thayer |date=1860 |location=Boston |publisher=Brown and Taggard |url=https://archive.org/details/sixspeecheswiths00thayiala/page/6/mode/2up}}
• {{cite book |first=Eli |last=Thayer |authorlink=Eli Thayer |title=The New England Emigrant Aid Company, and its influence, through the Kansas contest, upon national history |location=Worcester, Massachusetts |publisher=F. P. Rice |url=https://archive.org/details/newenglandemigra00thay |year=1887}}
• {{cite book |first=Eli |last=Thayer |authorlink=Eli Thayer |title=A history of the Kansas crusade, its friends and its foes |others=Introduction by Rev. Edward Everett Hale |date=1889 |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Brothers |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofkansasc00thayiala/page/n7/mode/2up}}

References

References

1. (August 1973). "The New England Emigrant Aid Company and the response in Massachusetts to its goals and efforts to create a free Kansas, 1854-1856".
2. (1899-04-16). "Eli Thayer Dead". [[Brooklyn Eagle]].

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