Eli Thayer, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Eli Thayer

American politician

Date of Birth: 11-Jun-1819

Place of Birth: Mendon, Massachusetts, United States

Date of Death: 15-Apr-1899

Profession: politician

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Gemini


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About Eli Thayer

  • Eli Thayer (June 11, 1819 – April 15, 1899) was a 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"Local leagues were established whose members emigrated 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.
  • He enlisted fellow abolitionist Zopher D.
  • Ramsdell to settle there and establish a boot and shoe factory.
  • It is open as a historic house museum.

Read more at Wikipedia

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