Thayer, Eli, educator, inventor, Congressman and one of the organizers of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid society, was born at Mendon, Mass., June 11, 1819, and was descended from Thomas Thayer, who settled at Braintree, Mass., in 1640. He was educated at Bellingham and Amherst Academies, and at Brown University, where he graduated in 1845. He then began teaching in Worcester Academy, became its principal, and in 1848 founded the Oread Institute, a woman's college at Worcester. In 1853 he was elected to the Massachusetts legislature, where he was the leader in organizing the Bank of Mutual Redemption, and the Union Emigrant society. In 1856 he was elected to Congress and was reëlected, serving as a member of the committee on militia and as chairman of the committee on public lands. He was active in promoting emigration from New England to Kansas in order to have it admitted to the Union as a free state, and in the spring of 1854 was instrumental in organizing the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid company, with a capital of $5,000,000. Subsequently this company was merged with the Emigrant Aid company of New York and Connecticut under the name of the New England Emigrant Aid company. Charles Sumner said that he would "rather have the credit due Eli Thayer for his work in Kansas than be the hero of the battle of New Orleans." During the early part of the war Mr. Thayer was United States treasury agent, and later was connected with the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad company. After the war he devoted most of his time to inventions, which covered a wide field. He was a man of strong character and convictions, a scholar of marked ability and a prominent member of the Baptist church. Mr. Thayer was the author of a volume of Congressional speeches and the "Kansas Crusade"; was a member of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, and an honorary member of the Kansas Historical society. He died at Worcester, Mass., April 15, 1899. A beautiful marble bust of Mr. Thayer has been placed in the rooms of the Kansas Historical society at Topeka, Kan.