Family

Of her genealogy, the following was contained in a son's memoir: —

Thomas Waite of Ipswich is first mentioned in 1658. He was appointed sergeant in 1664. His wife was complained of before the court for wearing a silk dress, but it was decided that she was entitled to do so. From various circumstances, it is supposed that Thomas Waite was of the same family with the Maiden Waites, and with'them descended from Samuel Waite of Wethersfield, Essex County, England; but the evidence of such descent seems unattainable. Of his five children, the second son, John, was born in 1658, died May 21, 1736. He married for his first wife, Kathren Carroll, August 14, 1685; for second wife, Hannah Dorr, November 16, 1712. Their children numbered eight. Jonadab, the third son, was born February 20, 1690, married Hannah Adams, September 11, 1725, and died July 6, 1761. They had one child, John, baptized August 17, 1729. He was married to Sarah Kimball, November 30, 1749; died in February 1752, leaving his widow, Sarah Waite (who in 1773 married John Hodgkins), and two children, of whom John, the youngest, was born April 24, 1752. In the year 1773 he married Eunice Hale of Newbury. March 1782, she died; and December 29, 1785, he took for his second wife, Judith Hale. John Waite died August 6, 1789. Of the three children by his first marriage, Hale was the second, born April 30, 1779; died 1807. He married Elizabeth Stanwood, and had two daughters, the youngest of whom was Eunice Hale, who married Sylvanus Cobb. In March 1684, Sergeant Thomas Waite was granted land on which to build a house for his son John; and it was in that house that Hale Waite, the father of Mrs. Cobb, was born.^[4]

Philip and Jane Stanwood were living in Gloucester in 1653, and from them Elizabeth was directly descended. Isaac Stanwood, born May 2, 1755, married Eunice Hodgkins of Ipswich, February 26, 1778. Their second child, and first daughter, was Elizabeth, born September 29, 1781; baptized October 14, 1781.^[4]

Writer

Cobb followed her stepfather's advice, and the result was an article written by her, "The First Article", for the Universalist Magazine of April 21, 1821, a paper published by Henry Bowen, in Boston, and edited by Rev. Hosea Ballou. The article occupied one-fourth of the paper. Ballou decided to have this first article printed in sheets and distributed for the purpose of strengthening others who stood doubtful between the old and the new theologies. Two copies were printed on white satin and sent to the author.^[2]

In May 1821, at the age of 18, Cobb commenced a diary, which she kept until she died. In that same month, she heard a sermon by Rev. Sylvanus Cobb, a Universalist preacher. They were married in Hallowell, at her stepfather's house, on September 10, 1822. As a minister's wife, Cobb was first settled in Waterville, Maine. Her second settlement was in Malden, Massachusetts. Her next change was to their home of 22 years, in East Boston, with which church she was connected for 40 years. This home was so pleasant, they named it the "Castle of Peace".^[2]

Cobb was a frequent contributor to the religious press. She wrote a good deal for Universalist papers, writing in prose and verse. The most and best of her writings were of personal and local interest.^[2] Cobb's name as a writer appears in the work devoted to the poets of Maine, published at the end of the nineteenth-century, her poetry devoted to the good of humanity.^[3] Immediately after the death of her youngest son, James Arthur, at nine years of age, Cobb wrote his memoir.^[2]

Activist

Cobb's life was spent in work for the public welfare, including Sunday schools. She had interests in all the great reforms of her day. In the cause of temperance, she was an effective worker and speaker.^[2] She was a champion for the rights of woman in the broadest sense. While she was not identified with the public advocates of woman's rights, she counted among her warmest and most devoted friends eminent leaders of this reform, and sympathetically interchanged views on this topic. She attended, by invitation, the first Woman's Rights Convention held in Massachusetts – at Worcester.^[3]

Cobb and her husband joined with Professor Charles P. Bronson in founding the Ladies' Physiological Institute of Boston, the leader of all similar institutions in this country, Rev. Cobb obtaining the charter for it. Professor Bronson acted as president, by courtesy, the first year. Cobb then became the first elected president, and served until old age compelled her to resign the leadership. She continued her official connection with the organization by serving as corresponding secretary until a short time before her death.^[3]

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Cobb, Ella Waite (1891). A Memoir of Sylvanus Cobb, Jr (Public domain ed.). C. L. Peters & son, printers. p. 13.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Griffith, George Bancroft (1888). "Eunice Hale Waite Cobb". The Poets of Maine: A Collection of Specimen Poems from Over Four Hundred Verse-makers of the Pine-tree State (Public domain ed.). Portland, Maine: Elwell, Pickard & Co.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Hanson, E. R. (1884). "Eunice Hale Waite Cobb". Our Woman Workers: Biographical Sketches of Women Eminent in the Universalist Church for Literary, Philanthropic and Christian Work (Public domain ed.). Star and Covenant Office.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Howe, Julia Ward; Graves, Mary Hannah (1904). "Eunice Hale Waite Cobb". Representative Women of New England (Public domain ed.). New England Historical Publishing Company. p. 136.