When Elijah Carlton Emerson was born on 28 August 1807, in Chester, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States, his father, Moses Emerson, was 61 and his mother, Sally Carlton, was 32. He married Mima Merrill on 6 September 1831, in Methuen, Essex, Massachusetts, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 daughter. He died on 2 July 1888, in Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States, at the age of 80.