Oliver Ellsworth
Ellsworth was incorporated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1800 and was named in honor of a prominent statesman by the name of Oliver Ellsworth, who among many other accolades, was a delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention.
Although he was not born or raised in Ellsworth, and indeed never seems to have stepped foot in Ellsworth, Oliver Ellsworth proved an honorable namesake for our city. He was born in Windsor, Connecticut in 1745, graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) in 1766, was admitted to the bar in 1771 and practiced until 1773 when he became a member of the Connecticut General Assembly. In 1777 he was appointed State Attorney and was also chosen as one of Connecticut's representatives to the Continental Congress, serving until 1786. During the revolution he helped supervise Connecticut’s war expenditures and in 1779 became a member of the Council of Safety.
Ellsworth was named a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 where he made significant contributions to the Great Compromise, which established our national legislative branch of government. It was Oliver Ellsworth who proposed, as an amendment to a resolution, that the word "national" be changed to "United States" which was the phrase used from that point on during the convention to designate the government. He also served on the Committee of Five who prepared the first draft of the Constitution (although he did not sign the final document as he had returned to Connecticut to advocate its ratification).
He became one of Connecticut’s first two senators to the United States Congress, was chair of the committee that framed the bill organizing the federal judiciary system, was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1796 and in order to negotiate a treaty, was named commissioner to France in 1799. He then served once more as a member of the Governor’s Council from 1801 until his death in 1807.
From the City of Ellsworth