1 Rev. Rufus Ellis.
6 FREDERIC DAN HUNTINGTON

There is no doubt that from his mother Frederic
inherited a strain so opposite to the sanguine and the
optimistic, so austere and so reserved, that an effort
must be made to portray faithfully the remarkable
character which she possessed.
Elizabeth Whiting Phelps was an only daughter.
Her childhood was spent mostly at home under refined
and happy influences. Mrs. Phelps, the mother, was
an active, clear-minded, cheerful person, keeping an
open house, administering the affairs of a large estate
with justice and generosity, social, neighborly, and
unaffectedly religious. Her disposition shows itself
through the pages of her diary, kept from her six-
teenth year, and was in contrast with that of her hus-
band, who was more inclined to moods. In his family
some singularities have been traced back to an ances-
tress Grace Martin, who married Nathaniel Phelps of
Northampton in 1676, herself recently come from Eng-
land. Early annals speak of her as " of great resolution
and perseverance and a little romantic withal." In her
descendants one finds a tinge of melancholy, reticence,
and reserve, and that indifference to the opinion of
others which borders on eccentricity. There was also an
idealism, and a tenacity of opinion which showed itself
strongly in the life of the elder Charles Phelps, in his
vision of a great university on the Vermont hills, and the
dogged resolution with which he resisted the formation
of that state and its separation from New York.*

From such antecedents Elizabeth Phelps inherited

a strong character, high ideas, passionate self-devotion.
Like her mother she had a keen sense of humor and a

quick wit, but she did not share the same sprightly

* Under a Colonial Roof -tree.
