1841 – Thomas Lamb Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of William Greenleaf Eliot Jr. Due to an eye injury he suffered as a student at Washington University, materials often had to be read to him. Nevertheless, Eliot graduated from Harvard Divinity School and headed to a frontier town of 6,000 inhabitants — Portland, Oregon — and entered the ministry of its new Unitarian church. He built up the congregation, founded Reed College, and was a civic leader with great impact on the cultural and political development of Portland. Read more about Thomas Lamb Eliot.