Elida R. Fowle (1842-1919) was born in New York, New York, and died in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She was a singer, philanthropist, and Union nurse during the American Civil War. She married John A. Fowle in 1863 on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., in front of 4,000 soldiers and friends; a special act was authorized by the House for the unique celebration (both were members of the House choir and popular with the troops because of their philanthropic work). It was in Washington, D.C., where they founded the Soldiers' Free Library to supply Union troops with reading material, crutches, stationery, and clothing during the Civil War. Fowle sang patriotic songs at benefit concerts to raise funds for the library and is credited with being the first person to sing "Battle Hymn of the Republic" in a public venue, in Washington, D.C. She served in numerous hospitals in the D.C. area for a total of three years and took supplies and over four hundred loaves of bread to the Second Battle of Bull Run. The couple moved to Brooklyn, New York, after the war, where they were active in the Congregational church. They moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1877, where Fowle started a free library and sent books to soldiers in the Spanish-American War and to Native American schools in Alaska. In her later years, Fowle was active in veterans' organizations in New England, and founded the Grandchildren of Veterans of the Civil War. She was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and an honorary member of the Army Nurses' Association.

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