History of Athol, (Worcester County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Ellen Cheney Johnson, reformer, was born in Athol, Mass., Dec. 20, 1819; daughter of Nathan and Rhoda (Holbrook) Cheney. She was an only child, and was brought up largely in the companionship of her father, a cotton manufacturer, who taught her to fish, swim and ride on horseback, as well as to attend to the lighter duties of the farm, especially the care of the young animals and of the plants and flowers. She was educated at schools in Ware and Francestown, N.H., and took a prominent place in temperance movements of the time. She removed with the family to Boston, and was married in 1838 to Jesse C. Johnson, a business man of Boston, who died in 1881. In 1861 her interest in the welfare of the soldiers was awakened, and she became associated with Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis in relief movements for the sick and wounded. She was connected with the U.S. Sanitary commission, and served on the finance and executive committees of the New England auxiliary branch, which she helped to organize. Her interest in the cause did not end with the war, but she continued in touch with the families of soldiers as long as she lived, and in many ways lightened the burdens thrown on them by the war. She was a pioneer in the movement for the reformation of women, especially in providing separate and better prison accommodations for women criminals. She was a member of the board of prison commissioners, 1879-84, and superintendent of the Reformatory Prison for Women at Sherborn, Mass., 1884-99, her predecessors in office having been Eudora C. Atkinson, the organizer of the work, Dr. Eliza M. Mosher and Clara Barton, 1882-84. Her administration of the affairs of the reformatory was eminently successful, and included not only the care of the unfortunates and of discharged convicts, but of the large farm and dairy attached to the institution, which was a model of neatness and profitable management. She attended by invitation the quinquennial meeting of the International Council of Women in London known as the "Women's Congress," where she read a paper on "Women in Prison," June 27, 1899, and while in London, England, as the guest of the Rt. Rev. Edward Stuart Talbot, D.D., bishop of Rochester, she died suddenly, June 28, 1899. A memorial tablet was placed in the chapel of the reformatory by Mr. and Mrs. James M. Barnard in July, 1900.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Athol, (Worcester County) Massachusetts

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