Person:Ellen Knight (58)

BIOGRAPHY: !Ellen Jane Knight (1839-1899) was born in Ypsilanti,,Michigan, but left Michigan when her mother, Joan Sopia Bonnell, died. Ellen, known familiarly as "Nellie" was 21 years old at that time she went to Easthampton, Massachusetts, to live with her (Half) uncle, Horatio Gates Knight. Ellen was educated at the Williston Academy, where she met James Henry Bradford, whom she married in 1865. The Smithonian Institution has a collection of her clothes in its Museum of American History and Technology, donated by her daughter, the late Faith Bradford of Washington, D.C. Ellen Janes wedding dress, and her gymnasium outfit at the Williston Seminary are among the items preserved at the Smithsonian. She was a very small women, barely 5ft tall, wearing size 2 1/2 shoes. Her artistic talents in literature, poetry and song writing were demonstrated in a poem published in Century Magazine, and a profitable adaptation into a "series of tableaux with readings" of a then long forgotten book, Ben Hur, which was presented as entertainment in more than 100 cities. Ellen died of dysentery and was buried beside her daughter, Ruth in the Indian Hill Cemetery in Middletown,,Connecticut.

Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass. Alumni Records From 1842 to 1874 Compiled by Joseph H. Sawyer 1875 - Page 304 Rachel Knight, (Easthampton, Mass.,) 1843, e. ; Easthampton, Mass. Margaret L. Knight, (Easthampton, Mass.,) 1846, e. ; Mrs. George L. Seymour, West Meriden, Conn. Mary C. Knight, (Easthampton, Mass.,) 1847, e. ; Mrs. Edward Woodford, Hartford, Conn. Emily Ann Knight, (Holyoke, Mass.,) 1855, m. c. ; Chatfield, Minn. Nellie Jane Knight, (Detroit, Mich.,) 1857, j. c. ; Mrs. James H. Bradford, New Haven, Conn. Alice Knight, (Easthampton, Mass.,) 1862, j. c. ; Mrs. Henry Hopkins ; died April 17, 1869, at Easthampton. Lucy Knight, (Easthampton, Mass.,) 1864, e. ; Easthampton, Mass.

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