Daughters of the American Revolution regents and members gathered at Smith Cemetery in Windham on Sunday to remember the life and accomplishments of Edith Pride Elliot, a lifelong resident who was valedictorian of the first graduating class at Windham High School in 1897.
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| Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution gather at Smith Cemetery to honor the life and legacy of Windham's Edith Pride Elliot on Sunday, Aug. 18. She was the valedictorian of the first graduating class of Windham High School and went on to found the DAR's Joshua Stevens Chapter in St. Cloud, Florida, PHOTO BY ED PIERCE |
Regent Julia Smythe of the DAR’s Elizabeth Wadsworth Chapter in Portland introduced members from the other states and said that Elliot deserves the attention because her legacy is far reaching and relevant years after her death.
“We who continue the work of the National Society and carry the responsibilities have been inspired by the lives of those whose tasks are completed, especially Edith Pride Elliot,” Smythe said.
She also recognized DAR Maine State Regent Elizabeth Calhoun who attended the event and is originally from Windham.
“This is a very special day because it brings together two special things,” Calhoun said. “First, it honors a fellow DAR member and second, the person we are honoring today is from the same town where I grew up.”
Calhoun attended Windham High School and graduated in 1990 before leaving Windham. While doing genealogical research about her family in 2003, she connected with the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania DAR chapter and has been a member ever since.
She said that she didn’t know Elliot when she lived here but was impressed to learn her story. Joining her at the event honoring Elliot was Calhoun's aunt, Patricia Jillson, a 1963 WHS graduate, who now lives in South Paris.
Edith Gertrude Pride was born June 24, 1876, and as a child helped at Windham’s first library which was founded by her mother and grandmother. She attended WHS when it opened in the red brick building that is now the Windham Historical Society Museum on Windham Center Road. She completed her high school studies ranked first overall academically in her class and was among the first group of students to graduate from the school.
In 1899, she married Orin Elliot, yet he tragically died seven months later from tuberculosis and she never remarried. Six years later she earned a teaching certificate and taught for four years at a one-room schoolhouse near her home at Windham Center.
She was a longtime member of the Crossroads Garden Club, the Helping Hand Club, The Windham Library Association, The Windham Republican Club, the Evangeline Chapter-Order of the Eastern Star and was a founding member of the Windham Historical Society. She attended every graduation ceremony and alumni banquet for WHS students through the 1970s.
Every winter Elliot would accompany her father to Saint Cloud, Florida until he passed away at the age of 95. She would continue to travel to St. Cloud each winter until she was 88. While in St. Cloud, she helped to organize a DAR chapter there.
That chapter’s regent, Kim Tennison, flew to Maine to attend the special recognition ceremony for Elliot, and was the guest speaker for the occasion.
Tennison said that when she became regent of the DAR’s St. Cloud chapter last summer, she looked at the first scrapbook of the St. Cloud Joshua Stevens Chapter and found notes, telegrams, letters and journals describing the beginnings of the chapter. In fact, Joshua Stevens was the patriot ancestor of Edith Elliot, born in Falmouth County, Massachusetts and he served as a lieutenant during the Revolutionary War.
“I sat down and poured over them a few hours at a time for days,” Tennison said. “I was especially fascinated by Edith’s handwritten journal she made. I saw a dedicated Daughter of the American Revolution and as I read, she let me accompany her into a time capsule as a DAR member in the 1950s, into a time when women wore hats and gloves anytime when in public and listened to their Sunday church service on the radio. I got a feeling for her servant’s heart, and had we existed at the same time, I would have loved to have been her friend.”
Reading that information and learning about Elliot’s life through a newspaper article in The Windham Eagle posted online prompted Tennison to research where Elliot was buried and she discovered that she did not have a DAR insignia on her grave marker.
According to Tennison, she was also moved by the fact that back in 1976, on Edith Pride Elliott’s 100th birthday, June 24 was proclaimed “Edith Elliot Day” by then Windham Town Manager David Miller and the Windham Town Council. In 1977, a special dedication sponsored by then State Rep. Bill Diamond and the 108th Maine Legislature paid tribute to Elliot for a century of contributions to the educational, cultural, political and charitable life of Windham. And only a week before her death in May 1977, the town and several local garden clubs designated a plot of ground next to the Windham Public Library on Windham Center Road as Elliot Park.
“I found that made me want to place a marker at Mrs. Elliot’s grave,” Tennison said. “It touched my heart that Edith Pride Elliot would have been involved with placing these markers as she continued her visits to St. Cloud until she was 88 in 1964.”
She said Elliot valued the members of the Joshua Stevens Chapter and she worked alongside them on projects focusing on patriotism, historic preservation and education such as presenting Good Citizen Awards and National Defense Awards to students and residents of the St. Cloud area.
“Now we have come full circle as we have the privilege to honor her in this same way,” Tennison said. “I will be forever grateful for all her contributions and endeavor that Joshua Stevens Chapter will carry on her legacy now and in the future.” <
