{{Short description|American politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | name =Eli Thayer |image= Eli Thayer - Brady-Handy.jpg | caption = | state=[[Massachusetts]] | district ={{ushr|MA|9|9th}} | term_start = March 4, 1857 | term_end = March 3, 1861 | preceded =[[Alexander De Witt]] | succeeded =[[Goldsmith Bailey]] | birth_date ={{Birth date|1819|06|11}} | birth_place =[[Mendon, Massachusetts|Mendon]], Massachusetts | death_date ={{death date and age|1899|4|15|1819|6|11}} | death_place =[[Worcester, Massachusetts|Worcester]], Massachusetts | resting_place = [[Hope Cemetery (Worcester, Massachusetts)|Hope Cemetery]] | party = [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/876/ | title=The New England Emigrant Aid Company and the response in Massachusetts to its goals and efforts to create a free Kansas, 1854-1856 | date=August 1973 | last1=Butler | first1=Randall }}</ref><br>[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] | children =[[John A. Thayer]], Clara Thayer (Mrs. Charles H. Perry M.D.), Ida M. Thayer.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> | alma_mater =[[Worcester Academy]], 1840;<br>[[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|Worcester]], Massachusetts. He is buried at [[Hope Cemetery (Worcester, Massachusetts)|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]].{{citation needed|date=June 2015}} 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."<ref>{{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}}</ref>
Local leagues were established whose members moved to Kansas and established towns. The Company provided hotels for temporary accommodation (such as the [[Eldridge Hotel|Free State Hotel]] in Lawrence) and provided sawmills and other improvements. Settlements were established at [[Manhattan, Kansas|Manhattan]], [[Lawrence, Kansas|Lawrence]], [[Topeka, Kansas|Topeka]], and [[Osawatomie, Kansas|Osawatomie]]. The clash of these settlers and other "[[Free-Stater (Kansas)|Free-Stater]]" Northerners with pro-slavery settlers spawned the violence of [[Bleeding Kansas]].{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}
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, West Virginia|Ceredo]] after the goddess [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]]. The town was founded in 1857.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
He enlisted fellow abolitionist [[Z. D. Ramsdell House|Zopher D. Ramsdell]] to settle there and establish a boot and shoe factory.<ref name="dhr">{{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}}</ref> Ramsdell's house is open (2022) as a [[historic house museum]].
Eli Thayer died at his home in Worcester on April 15, 1899.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102748555/eli-thayer-dead/ |title=Eli Thayer Dead |newspaper=[[Brooklyn Eagle]] |location=Worcester, Massachusetts |page=72 |date=1899-04-16 |access-date=2022-05-29 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> [[File:Portrait of Eli Thayer.jpg|thumb|left|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/>
==External links== * {{Cite web |url=https://ceredowv.gov/around-town/ramsdell-house/ |title=Ramsdell House Civil War Home & Museum |access-date=2022-02-25 |archive-date=2021-05-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525165724/https://ceredowv.gov/around-town/ramsdell-house/ |url-status=live }} * {{CongBio|T000145|ref=none}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Massachusetts | district=9 | before=[[Alexander De Witt]] | after=[[Goldsmith Bailey]] | years= 1857–1861}} {{s-end}}
{{US House Natural Resources chairs}} {{USRepMA}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thayer, Eli}} [[Category:1819 births]] [[Category:1899 deaths]] [[Category:Bleeding Kansas]] [[Category:Worcester Academy alumni]] [[Category:Politicians from Worcester, Massachusetts]] [[Category:People from Mendon, Massachusetts]] [[Category:American abolitionists]] [[Category:Brown University alumni]] [[Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Massachusetts]] [[Category:Burials at Hope Cemetery (Worcester, Massachusetts)]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]] [[Category:Ceredo, West Virginia]]