Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt
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Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt with her son Caldwell, 1865
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Born
| Elizabeth Hart Jarvis
(
1826-10-05
)
October 5, 1826
[1]
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Died
| August 23, 1905
(1905-08-23)
(aged 78)
[2]
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Occupation(s)
| Businesswoman, philanthropist
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Spouse
| Samuel Colt
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Children
| Caldwell Hart Colt
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Relatives
| John C. Colt
,
Richard Jarvis
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Elizabeth Jarvis Colt
(born
Elizabeth Hart Jarvis
, October 5, 1826 ? August 23, 1905) was the widow and heir of firearms manufacturer
Samuel Colt
, founder of
Colt's Manufacturing Company
.
Early life
[
edit
]
Elizabeth Hart Jarvis was born in
Saybrook, Connecticut
, to Reverend William Jarvis, an Episcopal Minister, and Elizabeth Jarvis. She was the eldest of five children in an affluent and socially prominent family.
[3]
[4]
[5]
She "grew up in a lovely 1830s Greek Temple Revival house in
Portland
,"
[6]
which fell into disrepair and was threatened with demolition, but (as of 2017) may be moved and rehabilitated as part of other area development.
[7]
Marriage to Samuel Colt
[
edit
]
She met Samuel Colt in 1851 in Newport, Rhode Island, and the two were married in 1856
[4]
The couple resided at
Armsmear
.
[3]
with Bishop
Thomas Church Brownell
presiding over the wedding.
[8]
The Colts had five children. Two died in infancy; a daughter, named Elizabeth, died at the age of three. In 1861, Samuel Colt died from complications associated with
gout
and left Elizabeth a pregnant widow. Seven months after his death, the baby was
stillborn
.
[4]
Only one child,
Caldwell
, survived to adulthood, but he drowned at sea at the age of 35.
[4]
[
verification needed
]
At the helm of Colt
[
edit
]
Following her husband's death in 1862, Mrs. Colt inherited a controlling interest in the manufacturing company (worth $3.5 million at the time, or $107 million, adjusted for inflation to 2023 dollars), and played a key role in rebuilding the main armory following arson in 1864.
[9]
Her brother,
Richard Jarvis
took over as president of the company in 1865, following the death of
Elisha K. Root
, and the two transitioned the company from the end of the
American Civil War
through the early 20th century, seeing the evolution from
percussion
revolvers
to cartridge
revolvers
to
semiautomatic pistols
and
machineguns
.
[10]
Colt served for 22 years as the president of the Union for Home Work, an organization that provided daycare for the children of working mothers. She became the first President of the Hartford Soldiers Aid Society and, in 1869, organized the first
Suffragette
convention in Connecticut. For these actions, she was dubbed "The First Lady of Hartford".
[4]
In 1867, she had an Episcopal church designed by
Edward Tuckerman Potter
built as a memorial to her husband and the three children they lost. The church's architecture contains guns and gun-smithing tools sculpted in marble to commemorate her husband's life as an arms maker. In 1896, a parish house was built on the site as a memorial to their son, Caldwell, who died in 1894. In 1975, the
Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House
was listed in the
National Register of Historic Places
.
[11]
Retirement and death
[
edit
]
She sold her interest in Colt's Manufacturing Company in 1901. She was involved in society life in
Hartford, CT
and President of the Hartford Women's Auxiliary.
[2]
[12]
Colt died of paralysis in
Newport, Rhode Island
, on August 23, 1905. The
Hartford Courant
ran a full-page obituary of Colt on the front page of the newspaper the following day, calling her the "First Lady of Connecticut". It was the first time that the newspaper recognized the death of a woman in this manner.
[4]
In her will, Elizabeth Colt left a collection of nearly 1,000 objects, artworks, firearms and documents to the
Wadsworth Atheneum
as well as a fund to build the Colt Memorial. The Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt Memorial Wing was the first American museum wing bearing the name of a woman patron.
[13]
[14]
She is buried along with her husband and children in Hartford's historic
Cedar Hill Cemetery
.
[15]
External links
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Phelps, M. William (3 September 2013).
The Devil's Right Hand: The Tragic Story of the Colt Family Curse
. Lyons Press. p. 236.
ISBN
978-0-7627-8846-0
.
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
a
b
Convention, Episcopal Church. Diocese of Connecticut. (1905).
Journal of the Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Connecticut
. The Diocese. p. 320.
- ^
a
b
Coller, Jeremy (12 November 2009).
Splendidly Unreasonable Inventors: The Lives, Loves, and Deaths of 30 Pioneers Who Changed the World
. Overlook. pp. 63?65.
ISBN
978-1-4683-0615-6
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Boynton, Cynthia Wolfe (4 March 2014).
"Elizabeth Colt, First Lady of Hartford"
.
Remarkable Women of Hartford
. The History Press. pp. 43?52.
ISBN
978-1-62619-320-8
.
- ^
Bendici, Ray (18 September 2012).
Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Connecticut History
. Globe Pequot. pp. 157?162.
ISBN
978-0-7627-8954-2
.
- ^
"Portland's Elmcrest Redevelopment Should Keep Historic Homes"
.
www.courant.com
.
The Hartford Courant
. September 25, 2015
. Retrieved
23 December
2017
.
- ^
"Portland, developer hammer out new mixed-use plan for Elmcrest site"
.
www.middletownpress.com
.
The Middletown Press
. January 12, 2017
. Retrieved
23 December
2017
.
- ^
"Thomas Church Brownell (1779 ? 1865)"
.
Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation
. Retrieved
30 August
2016
.
- ^
Smith, Anthony (2002).
Machine Gun: The Story of the Men and the Weapon That Changed the Face of War
. St. Martin's Press. pp. 52?53.
ISBN
978-0-312-93477-4
.
, although the book claims the 2002 value was $200 million
- ^
Grant, Ellsworth S. (1982).
The Colt legacy: the Colt Armory in Hartford, 1855-1980
. Mowbray Co. pp. 22, 58.
ISBN
978-0-917218-17-0
.
- ^
"Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House"
(pdf)
. US Department of the Interior. p. 2
. Retrieved
December 20,
2011
.
- ^
"Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt"
Archived
2016-01-12 at the
Wayback Machine
, Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame. Accessed April 30, 2014.
- ^
"Program to Highlight Legacy of Elizabeth Colt"
. 23 February 2010.
- ^
Wertkin, Gerard C. (15 January 2004).
Encyclopedia of American Folk Art
. Routledge. p.
539
.
ISBN
978-1-135-95614-1
.
- ^
"Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame: Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt"
.
www.cwhf.org
. Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame
. Retrieved
23 December
2017
.
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