Elizabeth Stuart

31 August 1844–28 January 1911

Born Mary Gray Phelps, 31 Aug. 1844, in Boston; changed her name to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps after her mother’s death in 1852.[1] Daughter of Austin Phelps and Elizabeth Stuart.[2] Moved to Andover, Essex Co., Massachusetts, 1848.[3] Published her first story, at the age of thirteen, in the Youth’s Companion, ca. 1857.[4] Left school to do mission work at Abbott Village and Factory Settlement in Andover, 1863.[5] Began writing for adults, 1863; wrote fifty-seven works of fiction, poetry, and essays during her lifetime.[6] Active in the women’s suffrage movement, from the 1870s until her death.[7] First woman to give a lecture series, “Representative Modern Fiction,” at Boston University, 1874.[8] Wrote extensively about social reform, temperance, and women’s rights.[9] Visited by EBW, Jan. 1886; refused EBW entrance into her home.[10] Married Herbert D. Ward, 20 Oct. 1888, in Gloucester, Essex Co.[11] Vice president of the New England Woman Suffrage Association, by 1910.[12] Died 28 Jan. 1911 in Newton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts; buried in Cambridge, Middlesex Co.[13]                    

 

[1] Elizabeth Stuart Phelps et al., Our Famous Women (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1884), 560–561. 1850 U.S. Census, Andover, Essex Co., MA, Mary G. Phelps. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 7 Aug. 2018), Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (KZVC-HGR). 

[2] “Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988: Andover, Marriages and Intentions, 1704–1850,” database online, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com, accessed 11 Oct. 2021), Rev. Austin Phelps and Elizabeth Stuart, 10 Aug. 1858. 1850 U.S. Census, Andover, Essex Co., MA, Mary G. Phelps. Oliver Seymour Phelps, The Phelps Family of America and Their English Ancestors (Pittsfield, MA: Eagle Publishing, 1899), 2:895. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps et al., Our Famous Women (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1884), 561.

[3] Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Chapters from a Life (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1896), 23.

[4] Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Chapters from a Life (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1896), 18–19.

[5] Elizabeth Stuart Phelps et al., Our Famous Women (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1884), 566. Orison Swett Marden, Wisdom & Empowerment: The Orison Swett Marden Edition (N.p.: Musaicum Books, 2017) (https://books.google.com, accessed 11 Oct. 2021).

[6] Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Chapters from a Life (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1896), 75. “Elizabeth Stuart Phelps-Ward, Famous Writer and Philanthropist,” Register and Leader (Des Moines, IA), 2 Apr. 1911, 21.

[7] “Woman Suffrage Associations,” Jamestown (NY) Journal, 31 Oct. 1873, 1. Notice, Duluth (MN) News Tribune, 31 May 1910, 10.

[8] The University Council, ed., Boston University Year Book (Boston: H. O. Houghton, 1874), 1:15.

[9]  Jennifer Cognard-Black and Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, Kindred Hands: Letters on Writing by British and American Women Authors, 1865–1935 (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2006), 122.

[10] EBW, Diary, 19 Jan. 1886.

[11] Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Births, Marriages (1841–1895), and Deaths (1841–1899), Marriages, vols. 381, 388, 1887–1888, p. 208, no. 47, Herbert D. Ward and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, 29 Oct. 1888, microfilm 1415224, DGS 4279531, image 708/1020, FHL.

[12] “Woman Suffrage Advocates,” Kansas Semi-Weekly Capital (Topeka), 3 July 1900, 4. Notice, Duluth (MN) News Tribune, 31 May 1910, 10.

[13] Massachusetts State Archives, Massachusetts Vital Records (Deaths, Births, Marriages), 1911–1915, Deaths, 1911, vol. 75, New Braintree to Newton, file 394, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, microfilm 2396048, DGS 4283247, image 408/2053, FHL.