Named after Emerson’s first wife, Ellen was born as their February Flower. She was a life-long resident of Concord and an active member of the community.  She was the first woman on the school committee and taught Sunday school for forty-seven years.

Ellen devoted her life to helping her parents and family and was her father’s dedicated travel companion and organizer of his papers. She wrote a biography of her mother, The Life of Lidian Jackson Emerson, and also was a prolific letter writer. Her letters, which have been compiled in a two-volume work published in 1982, vividly record life in the Emerson household and the Concord community.