Celebrate Elizabeth Taber
The mission of Celebrate Elizabeth Taber is to inform the community about the life of Elizabeth Taber and her significant contributions to Marion.
Welcome back to Marion, Elizabeth Taber!
Marion would be a very different place if Elizabeth Taber had not blessed us with her generosity, vision, and passion for education. We can thank her for Tabor Academy, Elizabeth Taber Library, Taber Hall, Union Hall, the Congregational Chapel, the Music Hall, and many other gifts that continue to benefit the town to this day. Some have described her as “gruff,” but her actions paint a fuller picture of Marion’s extraordinary benefactor.
To honor this extraordinary woman and all of her achievements, an independent committee of townspeople led by Judith Rosbe of the Sippican Historical Society raised funds to commission noted New Bedford sculptor, Erik Durant, to create a life-size bronze statue of Elizabeth. Two years later, in October of 2020, the Elizabeth Taber statue was formally gifted to the town of Marion in a celebratory dedication ceremony. She now proudly sits on her granite bench at the edge of Bicentennial Park, looking toward two of the many buildings she gave to Marion, her beloved hometown.
1791: Elizabeth Sprague Pitcher was born.
Daughter of Theophilus Pitcher (1763 – 1838) and Sarah (Foster) Pitcher (1764 – 1854), she is the third of their seven children. She grew up in a modest house on a small lane connecting Main and South Streets in Marion, where reading was an important skill in order to read the Bible.
1805: Worked as a schoolmistress in Marion after finishing grammar school.
Lizzie Pitcher likely operated a dame school on Front Street as of 1810, teaching early education for girls and boys.
1824: Married Stephen Taber.
Married in Fairhaven, their wedding was officiated by Reverend Oliver Cobb of Rochester. The couple (he age 47, she age 33) make their first home in Acushnet Village near Stephen’s family. Elizabeth gave birth to their three children: Stephen Taber, Jr. (1825 – 1825), Mary S. Taber (1826 – 1831), Elizabeth Bourne Taber (1828 – 1830).
1831: Helped found the New Bedford Dorcas Society.
The inter-denominational charity dedicated to clothing the poor is one of many charity organizations in which Elizabeth was active. Trained as a clockmaker, Stephen successfully invested in whaling ships and railroads, and amassed considerable wealth.
1838: Moved to New Bedford.
Steven Taber purchases a home on County Road in New Bedford, near the Court House. Elizabeth’s father, Theophilus Pitcher dies in 1838. Her mother moves in with them.
1855: Donated to the newly founded Marion Library Association.
The first social library in Marion was founded shortly after the Massachusetts Legislature authorized towns and cities to levy taxes to support public libraries in 1852. Elizabeth’s brothers John and James are founding members.
1864: Stephen Taber died.
As executor of his estate, Elizabeth inherits real estate and investments valued at $200,000 at that tie. Shecontinued to invest in railroads and mills.
1870: Purchasesd 10 acres in Marion.
Determined to “put some snap” back into her hometown, Elizabeth began new initiatives. Wearing mourning black and occasionally smoking a pipe, Elizabeth began her plan “for the improvement and embellishment of my native place, lovely Marion, village by the sea.” Her cousin John Foster drove her every day from New Bedford to Marion on dusty roads as she designed and supervised her projects.
1872 Donated the Marion Public Library and Natural History Museum.
Giving the properties to the Town of Marion, she also provided a $15,000 endowment for the library and $6000 for the museum.
1875: Donated Union Hall to Marion Congregational Church.
During the rest of her life, she donated funds to pave roads, build stone walls, and plant trees, and was a major donor to the Congregational church organ. She also built and donated a stone chapel across the road for a children’s Sunday School, sidewalks to the Evergreen Cemetery and provided $20,000 for Lower Village improvements.
1876: Founded Taber Academy.
Providing post-grammar school education of young girls and boys, Mrs. Taber built an academic building and a home for the headmaster. Beginning in 1880, she lived in the two upstairs rooms. With Clark P. Howland as the first headmaster, they developed the curriculum and rules for conduct. The school opened in September 1877 with a class of 21 students. Elizabeth stipulated that Marion students should receive a free education, and specified in her will that “the character of the school itself should … be gradually elevated and its scope enlarged.” Certainly the decision in the 1930s to move the school to its present setting near the sea was in accord with her wishes for its continuing growth and improvement.
1888: Elizabeth dies in Marion.
On October 3, Elizabeth died at the age of 97. Buried in Acushnet alongside her husband and their three children it is estimated that her fortune was close to half a million dollars. Nearly all of it was gifted to the town of Marion in buildings and railroad stock. In her will, Elizabeth left funds to build the Music Hall for lectures and concerts, as well as endowments to maintain all of her creations.
Stop by the Museum to see the exhibit: In Her World: The Life and Legacy of Elizabeth Taber from October 2025 – May 2026.