William Greenleaf Eliot (1811-1887) was born August 5, 1811 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was a white man. His father, a merchant and ship-owner, suffered financial reverses as a result of the embargo that accompanied the War of 1812, and soon moved his family to Baltimore and then Washington, D.C. where he received an appointment as chief examiner in the auditing office of the Postal Department. William, however, returned to New Bedford as a young boy in order to attend the Friends Academy, and later continued his education at Colombian College in Washington, D.C. from which he graduated in 1830. For one year after graduation, he was employed in the Postal Department, but in 1831 he entered the Cambridge Divinity School, and on August 17, 1834 he was ordained a Unitarian minister in Boston. In 1834, he went to St. Louis, Missouri, as a missionary, and became the first Unitarian minister west of the Mississippi. Eliot spent the remainder of his life in St. Louis. He established many Unitarian Churches throughout the Mississippi Valley. Eliot quickly became interested in education.

Throughout the 1840's he led in the efforts to establish and strengthen the St. Louis Public School System, and in 1848 was elected president of the school board. In 1853, Wayman Crow, a friend of Eliot's, secured a charter for a proposed college to be named Eliot Seminary. In 1854, Eliot became president of the board of directors, and the name of the fledging University was changed to Washington Institute. From that time, Eliot was heavily involved with the development of the University. In 1870, Eliot assumed the Chancellorship on an interim basis and in 1872 was officially installed in that position, which he held until his death. When Eliot took over the position of Chancellor, he resigned his pastorate in order to devote full-time to the University. Prior to the Civil War, Eliot had been a moderate abolitionist and when the war broke out, he came out strongly in favor of union and emancipation. During the war, Eliot and his friend, James B. Yeatman helped create the Western Sanitary Commission that mitigated to both the medical and spiritual needs of union and confederate soldiers throughout the Mississippi Valley. After the war, Eliot became increasingly active in reform and benevolent movements such as temperance and women's rights and mounted a strong campaign against efforts to license prostitution in Missouri. Eliot died in 1887, a figure of influence in the cultural and education development of St. Louis, and of national prominence in social reform and a man respected by his fellow Unitarians.

Biographical Note as of 2005, updated 2022.

Reference: “The Story of Archer Alexander.” William G. Eliot. Boston: Cupples, Upham and Company, 1885.

Reference: “William Greenleaf Eliot: minister, educator, philanthropist.” Charlotte C. Eliot. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1904.

Reference: “William Greenleaf Eliot, conservative radical.” Earl K. Holt III. St. Louis: First Unitarian Church of St. Louis, 1985.