Ella Marian Farrington was born on November 17, 1876 in Portland, Maine to James Roger Farrington and Ella Frances Rowe Farrington. She attended Portland High School and then went to Mount Holyoke College between 1895-1899, majoring in Greek and minoring in Latin and German. She worked at Mount Holyoke College between 1899-1900 as a tutor in Greek and Latin and also from 1900-1901 as a reader in Latin. She taught at Potter Academy in Sebago, Maine from 1901-1903. On September 2, 1902 she married Howard E. Poor, a farmer, and they had four children. She died at the age of seventy-three in Gorham, Maine on May 30, 1950.
From the guide to the Poor papers MS 0793., 1897-ca.1899, 1911., (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)
