Historic leaves, volume 8, April, 1909 - January, 1910

It would be impossible to give full credit to Mr. Elliot's devotion to this Society. From its formation to the end of his busy life, we who were present at his last meeting with us can truly say that he was the father of this organization. Not only was he a cheerful giver of his valuable time when called to serve upon committees and as a member of the Council, but every member went away from a literary meeting feeling that the evening had been enriched when Mr. Elliot, as was his invariable custom, illuminated the subject in hand from his storehouse of historical information. Often he would bring from his collections at home books, maps, autographs, or pictures, many of them of unique value, to illustrate the topic of the evening. Then, too, by his ready wit, his fondness for making a pun, or his skill at repartee, he sent us all home with a smile or a laugh at what in him seemed so innate, so purely spontaneous. He was a type of the true genial gentleman. At times he was called before other historical societies to read some of his papers, and I well remember the keen pleasure these visits afforded him, and the luminous report he would bring home from a sister organization. A case in point occurred two seasons ago, when he was entertained at the magnificent old mansion, ‘The Buttonwoods,’ the home of the Haverhill Historical Society.

Perhaps no truer estimate of the man whose memory we love to cherish could be given than was twice expressed by the Somerville Journal, once of the living, July 28, 1905, and again on the occasion of Mr. Elliot's death, in its issue of December 11, 1908.

‘To mention the name of Charles Darwin Elliot is to call attention to one of the most active and prominent residents of Somerville during the whole of its municipal career. For nearly sixty years he has known Somerville, and during almost all of that time he has been a resident of the town and city . . . . His life has been a busy one from his earliest youth. As a boy he could run a mile in five and one-quarter minutes. He did things then, and he can do them now, although he has completed ’