David Greenough

Biography, Elisabeth "Betsey" Bender was born on September 10, 1776. She was the fifth of nine children born to Peter Bender (1745– 1832) and his first wife, Abigail Brigham (1745– 1805), of Marlborough, Massachusetts.1 Elisabeth's father was the son of German immigrants who settled in Boston in 1750. He was a merchant prior to his arrival in 1764 to Marlborough, where he became a carpenter.2

On October 21, 1799, in Marlborough, Elisabeth Bender married David Greenough (1774– 1836), of Boston.3 David Greenough was the fourth of seven children born in Welfleet, Massachusetts, to John Greenough (1742– 1781) and Mehitable Dillingham (1747– 1798).4 John Greenough, a Yale graduate, taught school and operated a store in Welfleet, where his political sympathies were questioned during the Revolution after he admitted to selling tea. In 1781 Greenough moved his family to Boston, where he died in July of that year, when David Greenough was only seven.5 David Stoddard Greenough (1752– 1826), his father's half brother became the guardian of David Greenough and his siblings, although their mother was still alive.6

David Greenough became a builder and a real estate developer in Boston.7 Between 1810 and 1814, he built two houses on Colonnade Row, designed by the architect Charles Bulfinch (1763– 1844), and in 1818 he was involved in the erection of a block of buildings with stone facades on Brattle Street.8 His transactions were noted frequently in the Boston records. For instance, in exchange for the purchase of part of a lot on West Street owned by the school house in 1814, Greenough was asked to build a new school house to replace the old one.9 On another occasion, Greenough was the leader of a petition to build a new market house near Dock Square. The petition was rejected in 1819 because "the rights and interests of the Town would be injuriously affected by the erection of any new Market in the vicinity of the old Market near Faneuil Hall by any individual citizens and for their private benefit.10 In addition to real estate, it appears that Greenough invested in ship building and in a cotton mill in Clinton.11

Elisabeth and David Greenough had eleven children. The eldest daughter, Mehitable, died in infancy in October 1801, and the third child, Laura Ann, died at thirteen.12 They were the parents of the renowned sculptors Horatio Greenough (1805– 1852), their fourth child, and Richard Saltonstall Greenough (1819– 1904), their youngest. Their fifth child, Henry Greenough (1807– 1883), was best known for his work as an architect, and their oldest son John Greenough (1801– 1852) was a portrait and landscape painter. Although Elisabeth's daughter-in-law Francis Boott Greenough stated that Elisabeth had "neither knowledge nor appreciation of art," her sons wrote to her about art, and she was proud of their accomplishments.13 For instance, after Horatio Greenough's commission for James Fenimore Cooper, Chanting Cherubs (1828, unlocated), arrived in Boston in May 1831, Elisabeth wrote to her son Henry in Florence, "Alfred no doubt has informed you how the Cherubs have been received; has he told you how much your mother admires them? Congratulate Horatio on his flattering prospects." Her letter also reported Washington Allston's comments to her in praise of the sculpture.14

The Greenoughs moved frequently. In 1805 they resided at Green Street, and from about 1810 to 1819 they lived in the houses that David Greenough had built at Colonnade Row. In 1819 they moved to Jamaica Plain, where David Stoddard Greenough, Jr. (1787– 1830), noted their social visits and business dealings in his diary.15 They moved back to Colonnade Row about 1824 and later moved to Chestnut Street and Beacon Street.16

Elisabeth's granddaughter Laura Huntington Wagnière (b. 1849) described her grandmother as "a great lover of Nature, flowers, birds, and books.17 Her daughter-in-law Frances, however, indicated that Elisabeth "always tended to look on the dark side" and was "with the best intentions . . . subject to jealousies and suspicions," which made her "a thorn to herself, and those about her.18

Elisabeth wrote poetry throughout her life, and near its close she had a small collection of her poems dating from 1798 until 1864 privately printed and published under the title Occasional Verses.19 She wrote "To Little Hetty" after the death of her first child in 1801 and "To Laura in Heaven" after her thirteen-year-old daughter died in 1816.20 In an untitled poem also lamenting the loss of her daughter, she announced that she would change the name of another daughter to Laura Ann so that, "when I hear her sisters call / That dear and well-known name / The sweet delusion I'll embrace / and think it is the same.21 Still mourning Laura's death two years later, she wrote "On Seeing Children on the Common" and "On Hearing my Bird Sing in Winter.22 Finding a measure of comfort in her spiritual beliefs, in 1838 she instructed the transcendentalists to "boast not of superior light, nor of some new-born sense" in her five-stanza poem "Transcendentalism."23 Some of her later poems reflect her thoughts on her own mortality and her faith in God. "On Seeing a Leaf Fall in Autumn" was dated two years before her death. In the final stanza she wrote, "Then hushed be every anxious thought, / Though we like vegetation die, / And this frail body turns to nought, / the Spirit soars to God on high.24

Elisabeth's husband, David, died in Boston on July 27, 1836.25 A probate inventory revealed his real estate holdings totaled $149,000 and his personal estate $10,017.50, but his estate was heavily mortgaged.26 By 1845 Elisabeth had moved to Cambridge, where she remained in her son Henry's house while he and his family spent five years in Europe.27

Elisabeth Bender Greenough died on January 11, 1866, at age ninety. Her obituary appeared the following week in the Boston Daily Evening Transcript."28 She was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, where here husband had been interred. A large marble monument contains the inscription "Elisabeth/wife of/David Greenough/Born Sept. 10th 1776/Died Jan. 11th 1866/Loved and Honoured.29 1. Brigham 1907, 124– 25, and Hudson 1862, 42.

2. Peter Bender was the son of Jacob and Abigail Bender, of Eschelbach, Baden, Germany. Jacob Bender's funeral was held at Trinity Church in Boston on June 29, 1783, and Abigail Bender's on March 2, 1800. See Oliver and Peabody 1982, 796, 815; Marsh and Parker 1902, 64; and Wright 1963, 21.

3. Marlborough Vital Records 1908, 22.

4. Marsh and Parker 1902, 63– 65.

5. Greenough 1969, 35– 36, and Lawrence VI, n.d., 121– 22.

6. Greenough 1969, 36.

7. David Greenough's son Alfred wrote to his brother Henry about his father's success as a builder and real estate dealer in August 1830. Quoted in Greenough 1887, 68.

8. See ibid., 14; Greenough 1969, 37; and Brown 1947, 67– 69.

9. Boston Town Records 1908, 114– 15.

10. Boston Town Records 1906, 95– 96, 127– 28.

11. The ship built by Caleb Turner in 1815 was jointly owned by Greenough, Samuel Parkman, Jr., and Alden Briggs, but it was called the Laura Ann in honor of David and Elisabeth Greenough's daughter. See Briggs 1975, 193, and Ford 1896, 151– 53.

12. Lawrence IV, n.d., 122– 23.

13. Greenough 1887, 14. Elizabeth's son Henry wrote to her from Europe in May 1848 to inform her that he had sent her two copies of an engraving and a portrait of himself. Henry Greenough to Elisabeth Bender Greenough, Cambridge, May 21, 1848, Greenough Family Letters, Archives of American Art, microfilm reel 1215.

14. Elizabeth Greenough to Henry Greenough, quoted in Greenough 1887, 70– 71.

15. See, for instance, diary of David Stoddard Greenough II, box 41, vol. 70, 213– 16, 222, 228– 30, 233– 34, 253, 272 in David Stoddard Greenough Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Mass.

16. Wright 1963, 21– 22. Elisabeth recorded her address as Beacon Street in her poems from 1838 and 1839 published in Occasional Verses. Greenough n.d., 12– 14.

17. Wagniere-Huntington [1929?], 13.

18. Frances B. Greenough to Harriet B. Loring, January 10, 1846, in the collection of David Richardson, Washington, D.C., quoted in Wright 1963, 21.

19. There are several copies of Occasional Verses at the Boston Public Library, in the Research Collection and in Rare Books.

20. Greenough n.d., 4– 5.

21. Ibid., 8– 9.

22. Ibid., 6– 7, 10– 11.

23. Ibid., 13.

24. Ibid., 17.

25. Columbian Centinel (Boston), August 3, 1836. His death date was recorded on his tomb in lot number 2525 on Mistletoe Path in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass. Horatio Greenough had received news of his father's illness in Florence in March 1836. See Greenough 1887, 110.

26. Inventory of the estate of David Greenough, Suffolk County no. 31307. According to David Greenough's daughter-in-law Frances, "At one time he owned the greater part of Brattle Street, the Province House estate, and parts of Chestnut, Summer, and other streets . . . encouraged by these flattering prospects, he extended his business too far, and on the eve of insuring wealth met with an untoward reverse. He died at the age of sixty-two years, leaving his estate, heavily mortgaged, to the care of his son Henry, who gradually redeemed it from and apparently hopeless condition." Greenough 1887, 14. See also Wright 1963, 111.

27. Henry Greenough to Elisabeth Bender Greenough, Cambridge, May 21, 1848, Greenough Family Letters, microfilm reel 1215. See also Lawrence VI, n.d., 124; Florence Boott Greenough to Elisabeth Bender Greenough, Cambridge, December 2, 1845, Greenough Family Letters, microfilm reel 1215; and Greenough 1887.

28. Boston Daily Evening Transcript, January 17, 1866. 29. Lot no. 2525 on Mistletoe Path was owned by Elisabeth Bender Greenough's son Henry Greenough. [1, 2]

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