A distinguished pastor of the A.M.E. Zion Church, Rev. Biddle spent several stints at Worcester. From 1886 to 1889, Rev. E. George Biddle, who settled in Worcester in1886, was the Zion pastor. Rev. Biddle lived at 322 Park Ave. Born at Black Rock, Pennsylvania, 7 January 1846, son of James E. and Sarah Biddle. James E. Biddle was born in Philadelphia and some time before 1844 married Sarah J. [last name not established], who had been born in Alexandria, Virginia. The couple had at least four children–Harmon S., Eli G., Sarah A., and Anna Biddle, who were all born at Black Rock, Pennsylvania in the 1840s. After the death of their father in 1858, Eli Biddle, mother and three sisters, moved to Providence, Rhode Island. He attended school in Providence and moved along with his mother to Boston around 1860. At Boston, he learned sign and decorative painting. In Boston, he also joined the A.M.E. Zion Church. Biddle enlisted on 14 February 1863 in Company A of the 54th Regiment. On July 18, 1863, he was wounded in the right should and neck at the assault on Fort Wagner. He spent three months in the regimental hospital before returning to duty and was mustered out with the rest of the unit on August 20, 1865. He applied for and received a pension in 1871. When he returned to Boston after the war, Biddle soon became the superintendent of the Sunday school at the North Russell A. M. E. Zion Church. He married in Newburgh, New York, on 1 September 1873 to Sarah E. Decker, daughter of Rev. William H. Decker.
In 1881 he was licensed to preach. In 1884 he joined the New England Conference an ordained elder at New Haven in 1885. In 1887, Eli Biddle of Worcester served on the Executive Committee that organized a reunion in Boston of men who had served in the Massachusetts regiments and U.S. Navy. During his career, he served as minister at Worcester, Attleboro, New Haven, and Jersey City, New Jersey. While at Worcester he studied at Yale Divinity School and received a bachelor’s degree in Divinity. He also founded and served as the first editor of the AME Zion Trumpet, the denominational journal. Later he was pastor of the Columbus Avenue AME Zion Church in Boston. He died 8 April 1940, and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, Boston, called the next to last surviving member of the 54th Regiment.