Elisha B. Worrell
No. 22594 Elisha B Worrell from Centreville Old Home Week
The Housekeepers’ Educator and Guide. A Treatise on Food and Its Relation to the Human Body. (Dorchester, 1897).
Elisha B. Worrell was a wholesale fruit merchant in Boston and lived on Trull Street in Dorchester until 1897, when he moved to 98 Melville Avenue. In 1910, he and his wife, Helen, moved to 16 Stockton Street, Dorchester.
Worrell’s entries in the Boston Directory state that he was working as a lecturer, but the entry in the 1900 U.S. Census provides his occupation as wholesale fruit. On January 28, 1901, a prospectus appeared in The Boston Globe for shares in a new company, the Sherman-Worrell Fruit Company. It read, in part, “A totally new product and with no competitor in the market. Years of experimenting ended. Ripe fruit concentrated into permanent form within two hours after taking from tree. Without expense of tin or glass, the product—solid blocks of pure fruit, made without preservatives, acids or adulterants of any kind—can be packed in pasteboard cartons and in boxes and shipped through the world. Ready to use by simply adding boiling water.” The company seems to have been a success.
Worrell’s lecturing career seems to have involved the topic of household management. In 1897, he published The Housekeepers’ Educator and Guide. He was also active in the activities of Second Church in Dorchester. In 1912, he participated as a chairman in an eight-day campaign, titled “Men and Religion Campaign,” which involved hundreds of churches in the Boston area.