The Eells were a family of prominent missionaries, reverends, and academics in the pacific northwest during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Cushing Eells was born at Blandford, Massachusetts, on February 16, 1810. He was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Warner) Eells. Cushing Eells was licensed to preach December 14, 1836, and was ordained a year late as a Congregational Missionary to the Zulus in Africa, but the planned voyage there was affected by a war between the Zulu tribes, so the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions instead sent him to the Oregon Territory. Eells married Myra Fairbanks on March 5, 1838, in Massachusetts. The Eells headed west the very next day to be missionaries to the Indians of old Oregon. They established their own mission among the Spokane Indians at Tshimakain with the Walkers. The Eells moved to Walla Walla after the Whitman massacre, where they founded Whitman College in memory of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman in 1859. Until his last days, Eells continued to do missionary work and was actively involved with Whitman College. He died in Tacoma, February 16, 1893, at age 83.

Myra Fairbanks Eells was born in May, 1805, and died in 1878. She was the daughter of Deacon Joshua and Mrs. Sally H. Fairbanks. She and Cushing had two children, Myron and Edwin Eells. Born in Spokane County in 1843, Reverend Myron Eells lived in the Willamette Valley, graduated from Pacific University and Hartford Theological Seminary and became ordained in the Congregational Church. He returned to the northwest and spent most of his years in the Puget Sound region as a missionary to the tribes and white settlers until his death in 1907.

Edwin Eells was born July 27, 1841 at Tshimakain Mission in Stevens County, Washington. As a young man, Edwin farmed in the Walla Walla area and did some clerking. In 1864 he served as a United States marshal responsible for enrolling all men in Walla Walla County subject to possible military service in the Union Army during the Civil War. In 1871 Edwin was admitted to practice law in the federal and territorial courts and married Abbie A. Foster. In 1895 he relocated to Tacoma, where he spent much of his time in supporting the construction of a Congregationalist Church. He was active in the formation of the Washington State Historical Society and the Pioneer Society of Pierce County. During the last few years of his life, he wrote an autobiography about his own life work as well as his father and acquaintances. Edwin Eells died in Tacoma on May 16, 1917.

Walter Crosby Eells was born near Union, Mason County, Washington on March 6, 1886. He was the grandson of Cushing Eells, and the son of Myron and Sarah Eells. He attended Whitman College, where he returned to Whitman College in 1916 as Professor in Applied Mathematics (1916-1926) and Education and Educational Statistics (1926-1927). He received a Ph.D. in Education from Stanford University in 1927 and served as Professor of Education at Stanford from 1927-1938. In 1947, he moved to the War Department to serve as Advisor on Higher Education in the Civil Information and Education Section at General Headquarters for the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. W. C. Eells was a prolific writer, frequently publishing on mathematics, education, higher education, women in education, and education in Japan and Communist countries in the wake of World War II. He died in Washington, D.C. on December 15, 1962. Richard Eells was born in 1917 in Washington. He was the son of Walter Crosby and Anna Eells. He attended Whitman College, class of 1940. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and was a political science and philosophy. He wrote several books, including “Bribery and Extortion in World Business,” “Corporation Giving in a Free Society,” and “The Meaning of Modern Business.” He was the Chief of the division of aeronautics at the Library of Congress, and served as the manager of public relations research at General Electric. He died in October, 1992 at age 75.