Ellen Walworth

Ellen Hardin Walworth:

• at Wikipedia

Held DAR membership # 5

Info added per the DAR's "Lineage Book of the Charter Members" by Mary S Lockwood published in 1895 stating "Descendant of Col John Hardin, of Virginia."

Ellen Hardin Walworth (Oct. 20, 1832 – June 23, 1915) was an American author, lawyer, and activist who was a passionate advocate for the importance of studying history and historic preservation. Walworth was one of the founders of the Daughters of the American Revolution and was the organization's first secretary general. She was the first editor of the DAR's official magazine, American Monthly Magazine. In 1893, during a speech at the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago World Fair), Walworth was one of the first people to propose the establishment of the United States National Archives. Walworth was one of the first women in New York State to hold a position on a local board of education, a role that was frequently used to bolster the call for women's suffrage.

During the Spanish–American War, Walworth and other influential women established the Women's National War Relief Association to offer aid to the war effort. Walworth, the impetus behind the organization, was the Director-general of new association.

In her personal life, Walworth was a victim of domestic violence with tragic consequences when her son, Frank, killed his father after years of intervening to protect his mother. Walworth studied law to gain the knowledge to overturn the conviction of her son for killing her abusive former husband.

Ellen Walworth was born on October 20, 1832 in Jacksonville, Illinois. When she was about 12 years old her father, John Hardin, became a United States Congressman. In 1846, Mr. Hardin entered the army to fight against Mexico and was killed while leading his regiment at the battle of Buena Vista. The family continued to live in Jacksonville until 1851 when Mrs. Walworth’s mother married the Honorable Reuben Hyde Walworth and moved the family to Saratoga Springs, New York.

Mrs. Walworth earned her law degree at New York University and was entitled to practice before the Court of New York and the District of Columbia. In 1852 she married Mansfield Tracy Walworth, her stepfather’s youngest son. Mrs. Walworth opened her home as a boarding and day school after her husband’s death in 1873. The school’s success required her eventually to remodel and enlarge the facilities. Mrs. Walworth continued to live on the property year round until finally the cold New York winters affected her health and she began to make her home in Washington, DC in winter.

One of her earliest public efforts was her moving plea to the members of her local community to contribute to the fund to renovate George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, in Alexandria, Virginia. Mrs. Walworth wrote constantly on patriotic and historic subjects. She was an authority on the battlefields of Saratoga and also published an account of the Burgoyne campaign. She served as director-general of the Woman’s National War Relief Association of 1898. Mrs. Walworth was the first editor of the official publication of the NSDAR, the American Monthly Magazine, serving from the spring of 1892 until July 1894. Ellen Walworth died on June 23, 1915 and was laid to rest in the family lot at Green Ridge, near Saratoga, New York.