Elizabeth Marcy (1821-1911) was born in Connecticut in 1821 and came to Evanston in 1862 with her husband Oliver Marcy, a Northwestern University professor and later president. Already well known throughout the country for her involvement in Methodist missionary societies and as the writer of popular hymns, Marcy was especially active in national temperance reform and was involved with the founding of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in 1874. In 1883 Marcy founded the Marcy Home on the north side of Chicago to aid immigrant workers and their children.
Name: Elizabeth Eunice Marcy (Smith)
Birth Date: December 22, 1821
Birth Place: East Hampton Connecticut, USA
Death Date: January 26, 1911
Death Location: Evanston Illinois, USA
Father: Nathaniel Clark Smith
Mother: Charlotte Strong
Children: Four: Anna, Edwin Grosvenor, Frederic Malcolm, Maude Elizabeth Olivia
Education: Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, MA.
Years in Evanston: 1862-1911
Sources: Archives and Collections: "The David House" notes by Elizabeth Moseley. Evanston History Center. Northwestern University Archives: www.library.northwestern.edu/archives/findingaids/marcy-papers Other Primary Sources: Hurd, Harvey B., and Robert D. Sheppard, History of Evanston, Vol. II. Chicago: Munsell Publishing Company, 1906. Secondary Sources: www.books.google.com The Hymns and Hymn Writers of the Church by Charles Sumner Nutter, Wilbur Fisk Tillett, Methodist Episcopal Church. Brief Biographies of the Figurines on Display in the Illinois State Historical Library @ http://www.archive.org/stream/briefbiographies00osbo/briefbiographies00osbo_djvu.txt. MARCY-NEWBERRY ASSOCIATION @ http://www.umcnic.org/annual_conference/2009/Reports/400-91_MarcyNewberry.htm.