Dwight Family papers

Elihu Dwight was born on October 22, 1763. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1790 and married Lydia White (1777-1846) in 1801. He studied medicine with Dr. Ebenezer Hunt of Northampton (Mass.) and practiced medicine in Northampton and South Hadley (Mass.) until he retired at age 70. He died June 1, 1854. Elihu and Lydia Dwight had seven children, their youngest, John, born in 1819, married Nancy Shaw Everett. Nancy Shaw Everett was born June 17, 1817 in Foxboro, MA and was adopted at an early age by her uncle Melatiah Everett of Wrentham. Her father, Metcalf Everett was a cousin of Edward Everett, the prominent American politician. She was a member of the first senior class of Mt. Holyoke Seminary. Following her graduation she became preceptress of a school in Woodstock CT in 1839. She left that position to marry John Dwight in 1841 in Wrentham, MA. They had five children. She died on November 2, 1892, in New York City. John Dwight and his wife Nancy Shaw Everett Dwight moved to New York City in 1846 and he began the manufacture of bicarbonate of soda. He was head of the firm of John Dwight and Co. for 50 years and from 1896 was president of Church and Dwight Company. Melatiah Everett Dwight, the eldest son of Nancy Shaw Everett and John Dwight, was born October 15, 1841 in South Hadley. He was a Congregational minister, serving a church in Onarga, Illinois. He married musician Helen M. Kirby, of Jacksonville, ILL, in 1845. They had five children.