P00606 Samuel J. Elder (1850-1918) was born in Hope, Rhode Island, and died in
Boston, Massachusetts. He was a lawyer, politician, and diplomat. He was a graduate of
Yale University (1873) and after graduation briefly studied law at Columbia University.
Elder entered the law office of Morse and Hardy in Boston and was admitted to the
Massachusetts Bar Association in 1875. In 1884, he won a seat in the Massachusetts House
of Representatives and served one term beginning in 1885. Elder successfully represented
Mary Baker Eddy in the libel suit brought by Josephine Woodbury in 1899. In the years
after the lawsuit, Elder would continue to give legal advice to Eddy and The First
Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts.
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