An American industrialist and philantropist. He was the husband of Charlotte Champe Stearns to whom he was married on October 27, 1868 at Lexington, Massachusetts and son of Abigail Adams (Cranch) and William Greenleaf Eliot. They were the parents of two sons and five daughters: Ada Sheffield; Margaret Dawes Eliot; Charlotte Smith; Marian Cushing Eliot; Henry Ware Eliot, Jr.; Theodora Sterling Eliot and T. S. Eliot. He was graduated from the Washington University, A.B. 1863. First employed by Reed and Green, in the wholesale grocery business, then a partner in the firm of Eliot and Larkin as manufacturing chemists. In 1874 he became Secretary of the Hydraulic-Press Brick Company in St. Louis, later serving in all offices including President until his retirement at age 70 when he was made Chairman to retain the benefit of his judgment and experience. He was on the Board of Directors of Washington University, 1877-1919; President of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, 1902; Trustee of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 1902-1903. He compiled a record of the descendants of William Greenleaf (1724-1803) in later life.