Dr. Gustavus Eliot, whose proficiency in the field of medical practice is indicated in the fact that his colleagues and contemporaries in the profession have honored him with election to the presidency of both the City and County Medical Associations, has been a lifelong resident of New Haven county. He was born at North Haven, March 22, 1857, and is of English descent, the family having been founded in America at a very early period in the colonization of the new world. The founder, Rev. John Eliot, a Puritan divine, landed at Boston, November 4, 1631. His son, Rev. Joseph Eliot, was a minister at Guilford, Connecticut, for many years, the family having been established in this state in 1664. The family name was spelled in England according to the orthography which Dr. Eliot uses, but various generations in America use the double "l" and the double "t," the Doctor, however, changing back to the original spelling.

Whitney Elliott, father of Dr. Eliot, was born in Guilford, Connecticut, and took up the occupation of farming as a life work. He exerted marked influence over public thought and action and was elected to the state senate on the republican ticket in 1869, serving for one term. His religious faith was that of the Congregational church and in that belief he passed away at the age of eighty-six years. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Emma E. Benton, was also born in Guilford and was a representative of an old Connecticut family of English lineage. She, too, has passed away. She became the mother of four children: Virginia Augusta, who was born June 22, 1847, and died at Guilford, November 3, 1854; Guatavus; Henry Whitney, who was born February 27, 1866, in North Haven; and Mary Wyllys, born November 23, 1868. The younger son was graduated from the University of Vermont with the M. D. degree in 1898 and through the following year was on duty in the government post at Willetts Point. He had served at Montauk Point when the soldiers of the Spanish-American war were there during the summer of 1898 and he was afterward trans-ferred to Madison Barracks, whence he was ordered to Manila, remaining in the Philippines until January, 1905. He is now practicing in Massachusetts.

Dr. Eliot was educated in the Hopkins grammar school of New Haven and in the academic department of Yale College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1877. Having determined to make the practice of medicine his life work, he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the medical department of Columbia University of New York city, in which he completed his course in 1880. He received the Master of Arts degree upon examination at Yale University in 1882 and on the 13th of February of that year he began practice in New Haven. For more than a third of a century he has been an active representative of the profession in this city and in 1893 he was honored with the presidency of the New Haven Medical Association and in 1896 with the presidency of the New Haven County Medical Association. His high professional standing is still further indicated in the fact that in 1904 he was chosen to represent the Connecticut Medical Society in the house of delegates of the American Medical Association. He belongs also to the American Medical Association and thus keeps in close touch with the trend of modern professional thought and scientific investigation.

On the 21st of April, 1887, Dr. Eliot was married to Miss Mary Anne Forbes, a daughter of Samuel and Mary C. (Potter) Forbes, of New Haven. There were four children of that marriage: Ruth Forbes, Margaret, Mary Forbes and Esther Harrison. The third daughter died February 7, 1893, an infant, and the mother passed away November 30, 1896.

Dr. Eliot gives his political allegiance to the republican party but has never sought nor desired political office. He is a member of the Graduates Club and of the Trinity Protestant Episcopal church. High and honorable principles have governed him in every relation of life and made him a man of genuine worth, his course at all times commending him to the confidence and regard of his fellow townsmen, while his professional skill has established him high in medical circles.