Ellen Maria Colfax

Who was Ellen Maria Colfax?

Ellen Maria Wade Colfax was the second wife of Schuyler Colfax, who became the first House Speaker to be elected Vice President when he ran on a ticket headed by Ulysses S. Grant in 1868. She was born at Andover, Ohio in 1836.

On November 18, 1868, just two weeks after the election, Ellen Maria Wade married the man who had defeated her uncle, Senator Benjamin Franklin Wade of Ohio, in the race for the vice presidential nomination. They had one son, Schuyler Colfax III, in April 1870. She died at her home in South Bend, Indiana in 1911 after a period of poor health, on the 42nd anniversary of her husband's assumption of the vice-presidency. She was survived by her son Schuyler Colfax III. Her funeral was held March 7, 1911 at the Colfax home, and she was buried next to her husband.