Charles Wyllys Elliot

This section is from "The American Cyclopaedia", by George Ripley And Charles A. Dana. Also available from Amazon: The New American Cyclopædia. 16 volumes complete.. Charles Wyllys Elliott

Charles Wyllys Elliott, an American author, born in Guilford, Conn., May 27, 1817. He is a lineal descendant in the fifth generation from Eliot the "Indian Apostle." After some years spent in mercantile life in the city of New York, he in 1838-'9 studied horticulture and landscape gardening with A. J. Downing at Newburgh, and from 1840 to 1848 practised those pursuits at Cincinnati. He then returned to New York and engaged in mercantile business, but devoted attention to literary pursuits. He was one of the founders and first trustees of the " Children's Aid Society " in 1853. In 1857 he was appointed one of the commissioners for laying out the Central park in the city of New York. He has published " Cottages and Cottage Life" (1848); "Mysteries, or Glimpses of the Supernatural" (1852); "St. Domingo, its Revolution and its Hero, Tous-saint l'Ouverture " (1855); " The New England History, from the Discovery of the Continent by the Northmen, A. D. 986, to 1776 " (2 vols., 1857); "Remarkable Characters and Places in the Holy Land " (1867); and " Wind and Whirlwind, by Thorn Whyte " (1868). He has also been a frequent contributor to periodicals, and is the author of several novels published anonymously.

He is now (1874) a resident of Cambridge, Mass., and manager of the " Household Art Company " of Boston.