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MILLWOOD 
 
 A FAMILY TREE 
 
 A Partial History of the Descendants of 
 
 John Ellis, of Rehoboth, Mass. 
 
 Mainly comprising that of his Grandson, 
 
 Benjamin Ellis Jr., of Millwood, O., 
 
 and his Descendants 
 ALLIED NAMES: ELLIS, INGALLS, BALLOU 
 
 -.^ 
 
 BY F. O. Ellis (72) 
 
 SwAMPScoTT, Mass. 
 
 1909 
 

 DeMcation. 
 
 To ALBERT ELLIS, Esq., my beloved uncle, the last 
 
 surviving of the children of benjamin and lois 
 
 Ellis of Millwood; and to my own mother, 
 
 Mrs. Margaret Ellis, who became a 
 
 WORTHY MEMBEH OF THE FAMILY IN 
 1844, AND YET lingers ON THE 
 SHORES OF TIME ; IS THIS MEMO- 
 RIAL AFFECTIONATELY 
 INSCRIBED. 
 
 
 
PREFATORY. 
 
 Everybody who writes a book, presents an excuse 
 for doing so. This little volume is the result of the 
 writer's interest in the subject. It is nothing to be 
 ashamed of, to believe that "blood is thicker than 
 water." We confess to a reverence for those who 
 have gone before ; an honoring of the fathers. 
 
 The matter of collecting and publishing what could 
 be learned of the within Ellis family was discussed 
 and even begun more than twenty years ago, but sus- 
 pended because of other duties. Most of those 
 then interested are now fallen asleep. Many things 
 are lost, but perhaps some are gained, by this delay. 
 Much of the work of tracing family lines is now 
 done by expert genealogists; but as this involves 
 money outlay, we were obliged to forego such assist- 
 ance. Fortunately, however, the increased interest in 
 early New England history has put a large collection 
 of information in many libraries and historical rooms ; 
 so that what would once have been exceedingly diffi- 
 cult is now comparatively easy. 
 
 All who for any reason undertake a work like this, 
 find It difficult to secure information by correspond- 
 ence, and we have been no exception. It would have 
 been a pleasure to make the range of facts much 
 more comprehensive; but instead of regretting, we 
 are rather disposed to be thankful for the measure of 
 favor that has been accorded us ; the humble results 
 of which are now given to the present generation and 
 their posterity. g 
 
 SwAMPscoTT, Mass., 1909. 
 
The Ellis Name in America. 
 
 This is one of the most common names of the 
 present day in many parts of the United States. It is 
 frequent in England and Wales ; and the largest 
 published genealogy of the name in New England, 
 is that of a Welsh boy, Richard Ellis, who landed in 
 Massachusetts about 171 7. It reveals no connection 
 with the Ellis line in this book. In France, the 
 name is developed from fleur-de-lis (flower of the 
 lily), and Huguenot Ellises are now found in this 
 country. 
 
 The large preponderance of ancestry of the name 
 in America is doubtless English, and is found among 
 the first settlers. At an early date there were many 
 Ellises in several Massachusetts towns, and probably 
 in other colonies. 
 
 The spelling of the name was formerly greatly 
 varied, especially by others than the Ellises them- 
 selves. A few of these variations yet survive, as 
 Allis and Eeles ; but with the diffusion of books and 
 schooling, these have mostly disappeared. 
 
 There has evidently been no comprehensive and 
 thorough genealogical work yet done for the Ellis 
 name in the United States. Probably it never will 
 be ; and yet it is manifest from the few researches 
 we have been able to make, that therein is an exceed- 
 ingly interesting field for one who has talent and 
 means with which to do the subject justice. A sizable 
 genealogical work, such as many we have examined, 
 often requires years of painstaking labor, travel and 
 research ; and the expenditure of many thousands of 
 dollars. 
 
Ellis Family History. 
 
 The Ingali.s Family, 
 
 An essential feature of the earlier history of the 
 Ellis family herein recorded, is the connection there- 
 with of the Ingalls name in New Ensjland. A brief 
 sketch is herewith given, bringing it up to the time 
 when it was joined to that of Ellis. Since it ante- 
 dates the Ellis name, it is here first given. 
 
 (i) Edmund Ingalls, born in .Skirbeck, England, 
 with his brother Francis, came in Governor Endicott's 
 colony which settled Salem, Mass., in 1628; two 
 years before the founding of Boston. A year later, 
 the two brothers, with two other families, left the 
 Salem community and located about four miles west- 
 ward, within the confines of what was by the Indians 
 called Saugus or Saugust, but which was later named 
 Lynn by the new comers, in honor of King's Lynn in 
 England. A part of the territory retains the name 
 Saugus, being a separate town ; while Lynn is now 
 a city of about eighty thousand population. The 
 eastern part of Lynn was a district known by the 
 Indian name of Musqui-omsk-ut ; which in later 
 years became Swampscott, and in 1S52 was separated 
 from Lynn, and became a town of itself. 
 
 In this eastern or Swampscott district of Lynn 
 the Ingalls brothers established themselves. By trade 
 they were tanners, and evidently they not long after- 
 ward began business, by the side of a brook not far 
 from the sea shore, on a spot about fifty rods from 
 
6 Ingalls Family in Lynn. 
 
 where the writer of this sketch has lived since 1873. 
 The location and history of the tannery is said to 
 have been forgotten for a century, but at some time 
 later than 1800, the old vats were found by some 
 plowing or digging ; and eventually the whole history 
 was recovered and written up in the annals of Lynn. 
 The remains of the tan-vats were visible as late as 
 1840. 
 
 Edmund Ingalls was evidently a man of good re- 
 pute and influence in the new community, and left an 
 estate of several hundred pounds; which was a 
 relatively large amount for those days. He was 
 drowned in the Saugus river in 1648, by the break- 
 ing of a bridge, while on his way to Boston ; and his 
 heirs afterward recovered damages from the town. 
 He is supposed to have been not far from fifty years 
 of age. 
 
 Edmund's son, John Ingalls (2), born in England 
 in 1625, lived in Lynn until about 1685. He married 
 Elizabeth Barrett of Salem, and removed to 
 Rehoboth, Mass., and lived to the age of ninety- 
 seven. 
 
 The Rehoboth settlement was not many miles from 
 the Providence colony of Roger Williams ; and bear- 
 ing in mind the occasion of the Providence settlement, 
 and the meaning of Rehoboth— " room " — (Gen. 
 26 :22), it is easy to believe that a desire for religious 
 freedom was the occasion for the founding of Reho- 
 both. We do not know that any history or tradition 
 tells us of the religious convictions of John Ingalls, 
 but that he left behind him that part of the country 
 wherein a little later the witchcraft delusion flourished, 
 and where Qiaakers and Baptists were persecuted, 
 
Ingalls Family in Rehoboth. 7 
 
 and went to a place so significant in name, and so 
 near to Williams' settlement, is at least suggestive. 
 
 It is said that at the time of the Revolutionary War 
 there was nearly a hundred descendants of John 
 Ingalls in and about Rehoboth, about ninety years 
 after he went there with his family. Many of these 
 served in the arm}^, and after the war there was a 
 great exodus to " the west " (then New York) so that 
 today hardly one of the name remains. 
 
 Edmund Ingalls (3), son of John, was born in 
 Lynn, 1682 ; died in Rehoboth about 1750. 
 
 Ebenezer Ingalls (4) , son of Edmund, born in 
 Rehoboth, 1711; died there 1771. 
 
 Henry Ingalls (5), son of Ebenezer, b. Rehoboth 
 1738 ; in 1 761 married Sibyl Carpenter ; and about 
 1764 removed northward across the state to Rich- 
 mond, in the edge of New Hampshire, and near the 
 Vermont line as finally established. 
 
 The children of this family were : 
 
 (6) Elizabeth Ingalls, b. 1762; m. James 
 
 Cook, Richmond. 
 
 (7) Mehitabel Ingalls, b. 1764; m. James 
 
 Ballou, Richmond, 1784. 
 
 (8) Ruth Ingalls, b. 1767; m. Benjamin 
 
 Ellis, Richmond, 1785. 
 
 (9) RuFus Ingalls, b. 1769. 
 
 (10) Ebenezer Ingalls, b. 1771 ; m. Mary 
 
 Man, Richmond. 
 
 (11) Sibyl Ingalls, b. 1774. 
 
 (12) Lucy Ingalls, b. 1777. 
 
 (13) Alpha (Alva?) Ingalls, b. 1780. 
 
 (14) Henry Ingalls, b. 17S3; died young. 
 
 (15) Sebra Ingalls, b. 1785. 
 
8 The John Ellis Family 
 
 Henry, Edmund and Benjamin Ingalls appear 
 early in the affairs of Richmond ; and Henry had 
 recorded a purchase of land there in 1763. As his 
 second child was born in Rehoboth in 1764, he had 
 evidently been in Richmond previous to removal of 
 his family thither, which seems to have occurred 
 about the fall of 1 764 ; for he participated in Rich- 
 mond's first town meeting, March, 1765. 
 
 The John Ellis Family. 
 
 In the Rehoboth settlement we have first mention of 
 John Ellis (16), who was married in that town to 
 Eunice Millard in 1738. To them were born : 
 (17) Anna Ellis, 1739; m. Jere Fisher, Reho- 
 both, 1 76 1. 
 (iS) Jonathan Ellis, 1744; m. Susan Morse, 
 Rehoboth, 1768. One son recorded, Wil- 
 liam ; Rehoboth, 1769. 
 John's wife Eunice died suddenly, July 3, 1749. 
 The following year, 1750, he married Mary Horton -♦- 
 of Rehoboth (a widow with two daughters) , and to 
 them were born : 
 
 (19) Martin Ellis, 1753; m. Mary Kingsley, 
 
 Richmond, N. H., 1777. 
 
 (20) John Ellis, 1755; m. Rachel Marsh, 
 
 Richmond, 1774. 
 
 (21) Martha Ellis, 1756. 
 
 (22) Rebecca Ellis, 1758; m. Hugh Bullock, 
 
 Royalston. 
 
 (23) Lois Ellis, 1760. 
 
( ^ 
 
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 'hi^ ^ ^y <>^c^ / B2.<r^-^.<«^ ^ /^^C^y-^hPc^, '^r^y.M.^i^^, 
 
 of Rehoboth^ Mass. 9 
 
 (24) Benjamin Ellis, 1762; m. Ruth Ingalls, 
 
 Richmond, 1785. 
 
 (25) Olive Ellis, 1765. 
 
 (26) Sabra Ellis, 1767. 
 
 All but the last one were born in Rehoboth ; she was 
 born in Richmond, showing that the family removed 
 about 1766. John Ellis was all of twenty years older 
 than Henry Ingalls, and the Ingalls children were all 
 born in Richmond, except the first two. 
 
 The ancestry of John Ellis of Rehoboth is at pres- 
 ent not determined. There was a John Ellis in the 
 Plymouth colony, who evidently came from Leyden 
 on the second voyage of the Mayflower, and a John 
 Ellis Jr., is also mentioned in the early records, and 
 was evidently his son. The descendants on this line 
 have not as yet been clearly traced, but as there w^as 
 a large increase of the name in and near Plymouth, it 
 seems to have sprung from this stock, and John of 
 Rehoboth, a few miles away, would appear most 
 naturally to belong to that family. He seems to have 
 been the first Ellis in Rehoboth, where he married 
 Eunice Millard in 1738; the probable date of his 
 birth being about 171^-17. In the same town in 
 1 746, Hester Ellis was married to Joseph Lake, and 
 in 1 75 1 Mary Ellis was married to Peter Millard. 
 These may have been John's sisters, and none of them 
 were born there, nor were any other of the name 
 Ellis vintil John's children. 
 
 Little can be gathered concerning the Ellis and 
 Ingalls families after coming to Richmond. John Ellis 
 had land, and the original dwelling was yet standing 
 in 1882; which was successively owned by his son, 
 Deacon Martin Ellis, and then by Martin's son Hosea, 
 
lo Ingalls and Ellis ^ 
 
 and then by Henry Bullock, who was probably grand- 
 son of Martin. On this land is the Ellis burying 
 place, having about twenty graves, supposed to 
 include those of John and Mary Ellis. 
 
 We do not learn of an Ingalls burying place in the 
 town, and it is apparent that most if not all bearing 
 the name emigrated. Henry Ingalls was town clerk 
 from 1766 to 1793, indicating unusual fitness. He 
 was also a Justice of the Peace for a long period. In 
 1785, a neighborhood in another part of the town 
 sought the appointment for one of their number, but 
 after a heated contest, Ingalls was again appointed. 
 He removed to Worcester, N. Y., about 1808, and 
 died there, i8n. 
 
 Immediately after the conflict at Lexington and 
 Concord, on April 19, 1775, troops were enlisted in 
 New Hampshire under Col. Ephraim Doolittle, of 
 which regiment a company was raised in Richmond 
 by Capt. Oliver Capron. *lBoth Henry Ingalls and 
 John Ellis joined Capron's company on May 5th, and 
 Ingalls appears as sergeant and Ellis as private on the 
 muster roll. The regiment was commissioned on 
 June 1 2th, mustering seven companies. On June 17th, 
 at Bunker Hill, both the colonel and lieutenant colonel 
 were absent, and command of the regiment devolved 
 upon Maj. Willard Moore, who was killed, together 
 with three captains and three privates of the regi- 
 ment ; but none were of Capron's company. The 
 enlistment for this service seems to have been for 
 three months, according to the pay roll. 
 
 An appeal to sustain the resistance to Great Britain, 
 by the New Hampshire Committee of Safety, was 
 responded to by the signatures of a large number of 
 
Revolutionary Enlistment. 1 1 
 
 the men of Richmond, among whom were John Ellis 
 and Henry and Edmund Ingalls. 
 
 This response is understood to have been equivalent 
 to a pledge to bear arms if necessary ; but several 
 citizens, owing to conscientious convictions, could 
 not thus respond ; and signed a paper protesting 
 against the principle of armed resistance. Among 
 these was Martin Ellis (19), eldest son of John by his 
 second wife, and who was then about twenty-two. 
 Most of these protestants are believed to have been 
 Quakers, of whom there was a society in the town; 
 but Martin was a Baptist, and a deacon in that church 
 for many years until his death in 1832. He became 
 a man of marked influence, but evidently rendered no 
 military service, nor do the records show that he ever 
 held public office. Deacon Ellis, as he was always 
 called, had a large family, of whose descendants we 
 have at present little account, only that two of the 
 sons removed to Vermont. The names are, Sylvanus, 
 Benjamin, Lucy, Sabra, James, Daniel, Polly, Mar- 
 tin, Sarah, Hosea and Candace. Jaines was killed 
 by being thrown from a wagon at the age of twenty- 
 eight. 
 
 *'' In response to the call for troops for the relief of 
 Ticonderoga in 1777, we find Capron's company with 
 Henry Ingalls as lieutenant, and John Ellis as corporal, 
 with James Cook as a private, probably the same Cook 
 who afterward married Ingalls' eldest daughter. In 
 the battle at Bennington and at Stillwater, Ingalls 
 was lieutenant and Ellis was sergeant, but we do not 
 learn how long was this term of enlistment. In the 
 action at Bennington, August 16, 1777, Ingalls was 
 wovmded, though probably not severely. It is stated 
 
12 Richmond Ellises. 
 
 that the sound of the guns was heard distinctly in Rich- 
 mond, a distance of nearly forty miles. 
 
 It is apparent that John Ellis's eldest son Jonathan 
 ( i8) , who was about thirty-one at the breaking out of 
 the war, did not enlist in Massachusetts ; but as there 
 is no further account of him in Rehoboth, and the 
 name appears among the New Hampshire volunteers, 
 it is fairly certain that he had followed his father 
 thither. 
 
 The names also of Benjamin and Henry Ellis 
 appear among the enlistments from Richmond in a 
 Winchester company, the town adjoining Richmond, 
 and the names make it seem possible they were 
 brothers or cousins of John of Rehoboth, but they 
 were pretty certainly sons of one Samuel Ellis of 
 Medway, Mass. In Winchester also, in 1779, one 
 " John Ellis of Richmond" enlisted, and "deserted 
 on February i, 1780." This seems almost certainly 
 to have been young John Ellis (20), who married in 
 1774, and has four children recorded: Eunice, 
 Edward Martin and John. He is not spoken of as 
 " John Ellis, Jr." as would seem natural to do, but 
 his father may have died before that date. No 
 further trace of him appears, as we have of his elder 
 brother. Deacon Martin Ellis. The Benjamin Ellis 
 above inentioned was a corporal soon after his enlist- 
 ment at the age of twenty, and was successively pro- 
 moted to be lieutenant, captain and colonel. Deser- 
 tions from the service were quite frequent, but many 
 afterward rejoined their regiments, and we have no 
 intimation of any being punished. The continental 
 currency in which bounties and wages were paid, 
 became so depreciated in two or three years as to 
 
The Ballou Family. 13 
 
 be almost worthless, and no doubt many deserted to 
 go to relief of their families. A petition to the 
 provincial legislature of New Hampshire by the 
 officers and enlisted men, reciting the distress of their 
 families and imploring relief, is a pathetic memorial 
 of that time. 
 
 The Ballou Family. 
 
 Since the Ellis, Ingalls and Ballou families became 
 connected in Richmond, it seems fitting that we 
 should here give what information we have that relates 
 to the Ballou name. 
 
 At a date not at hand, a minister's son, of the name 
 Ballou, went from Cumberland, R. I., and settled in 
 or near Richmond. He was the father of Hosea 
 Ballou, the eminent Universalist clergyman. A 
 cousin to Hosea, James Ballou (28), a young man, 
 followed his uncle to New Hampshire and settled in 
 Richmond about 17S2 . Here he married Mehitabel 
 Ingalls (7) in 1784; and here he died in 1808. 
 The children of whom we have account are : 
 
 (28) James Ballou Jr., b. 1794; m. Rebecca 
 
 Ellis, Zanesville, O. 
 
 (29) Henry Ballou, b. 1796; 
 
 (30) Mehitable Ballou, b. 1792; m. Abram 
 
 Ingalls, Hebron, O. 
 
 (31) Rufus Ballou, b. 1797; died young. 
 
 (32) Elizabeth Ballou, b. 1801 ; m. Abram 
 
 Garfield, Newburg, O. 
 This family removed to Worcester, N. Y., in 1809. 
 
^4 Ballon and Garfield. 
 
 It is known that Henry Ingalls went there about 1808, 
 and died 181 1. Others of his family had probably 
 preceded him, and his daughter, widow Mehitabel 
 Ballou, followed with her children. The disappear- 
 ance of the name Ingalls from Richmond would 
 indicate a general emigration. 
 
 In Worcester there lived at this time a farmer 
 named Thomas Garfield, to whom a son, Abram, had 
 been born in 1799. The Ballous and Garfields were 
 neighbors for about five years; and then widow 
 Ballou removed to Zanesville, Ohio, in 181 4. In 
 1819 young Abram Garfield went to Ohio, and doubt- 
 less visited the Ballous at Zanesville ; he being twenty 
 and Elizabeth eighteen at the time. He located and 
 opened up a farm at Newburg, near Cleveland, and 
 in 1 82 1 went to Zanesville and married Eliza (as she 
 was evidently then called), and their fourth child was 
 James A. Garfield, b. 1831. 
 
 When the future President was a Congressman, in 
 1874, lie visited with his mother at her birthplace in 
 Richmond, and found several of the Ballou name, 
 which yet remains at last accounts, together with 
 others with which the Ballou, Ingalls and Ellis 
 families intermarried in the early days of the town. 
 
 The First Benjamin Ellis Family. 
 
 We come now to the second generation on the 
 Ellis line, " to whom come these presents, greeting." 
 
 Benjamin Ellis (24), son of John (16), born^in 
 Rehoboth 1762, was about four years old on the 
 removal to Richmond, and about thirteen at the 
 
JPirst Benjamin Ellis Family, 15 
 
 beginning of the Revolution. At the age of twenty- 
 three, he married, 1785, Ruth Ingalls (8), b. 
 1767; third daughter of Henry Ingalls, town clerk, 
 who recorded the first and second children, born in 
 Richmond. And as we know that at some time they 
 removed from Richmond, we are able to fix the date 
 at about 1788, for their grandfather Ingalls, the town 
 clerk, certainly recorded all the children born in 
 Richmond. 
 
 Children : 
 
 (33) Henry Ellis, 1786; evidently died young. 
 
 (34) RuFus Ingalls Ellis, 1787. 
 (35 j Martin Ellis, 1789. 
 
 (36) Benjamin Ellis Jr., 1791 ; m. Lois 
 
 Palmer, Watertown, 18 15. 
 
 (37) Silas Ellis, about 1794; m, Elinor Dick- 
 
 ERSON, Grand View, Ohio, 1817. 
 
 (38) Rebecca Ellis, about 1797; m. James 
 
 Ballou Jr., Zanesville. 
 
 (39) Sibyl Ellis, b. 1799; m. Henry Babcock. 
 
 (40) Diana Ellis, about 1802 ; m. Stinson 
 
 BuRRis, Matamoras. 
 
 (41) Sabra Ellis, about 1805; m. Andrew 
 
 Welker. 
 
 (42) Henry Ellis (2nd), b. 1809; not married. 
 Four of the dates "about" are conjectural; also 
 
 the order of those four names. They are here 
 arranged according to probability. 
 
 This family may have first gone to Vermont, and 
 thence at a later date to Watertown, N. Y. ; from 
 which the family tradition says they came to New- 
 port, O. Of this we can find no trace in the Jefferson 
 
1 6 Richmond to Water town. 
 
 County, N. Y., history. There came into that 
 county about 1798, two brothers, Lyman and Marvel 
 Ellis, who were enterprising men, and gave name to 
 the town of EUisburg, some miles from Watertown. 
 Both were fifers in the Revolutionary^ army in Massa- 
 chusetts, but no connection with the John Ellis family 
 is known. They were joined later by Caleb Ellis 
 of Massachusetts, a descendant of Richard Ellis of 
 Ashfield, Mass. We once heard Martin (35) and 
 Benjamin Jr. (36) speak of EUisburg, in 1853; but 
 nothing was mentioned of any relationship there. 
 But the latter had named a son Lyman, in 1837, 
 and it is evident that the name came from EUisburg, 
 for it is not found in any of the preceding Ellis or 
 Ingalls families. 
 
 Of the family life and fortune of Benjamin and 
 Ruth Ellis in Watertown we have at hand no infor- 
 mation. They may have lived there several years, and 
 on their removal to Ohio, the elder sons, Rufus and 
 Martin remained, so far as ascertained. The Palmer 
 family came there from Vermont during that time, 
 and at a later date the marriage there of Benjamin 
 Ellis Jr., and Lois Palmer, gave to the world the 
 posterity with which these pages have most to do. 
 
 It is not apparent that the first Benjamin Ellis 
 accumulated any property in Watertown, but it is 
 evident that the children had at least a tolerable 
 schooling for those days, as is manifest in hand writ- 
 ing and spelling of some of them ; and that two or 
 more of the daughters became teachers in Ohio. The 
 same may be said concerning the writing of Lois 
 Palmer, and indicates merit in the schools of Water- 
 town. 
 

 
 
 
 
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Watertown to Newport. 17 
 
 Concerning the migration from Watertown to New- 
 port, there are no details as to manner or route of the 
 first part of the journey. It seems probable that they 
 embarked on a sailing vessel at Sacket's Harbor and 
 landed in what was then Genessee county, and crossed 
 the state southward perhaps to Salamanca, on the 
 Allegheny river. Our first definite information is, 
 that they came down the river to Pittsburg on a flat- 
 boat. While stopping there for supplies, they were 
 in some manner exposed to small-pox, and soon after 
 their arrival at Newport they all broke out with it.* 
 Through the kindness of their neighbors, they were 
 quarantined in a secluded house, and eventually all 
 recovered. The date of this migration was either 
 1808 or 1S09. 
 
 The family settled on a small tract of land in New^- 
 port, evidently a rented place. We are not able to 
 gather information as to whether farming or some 
 other occupation was depended upon. It seems prob- 
 able that their circumstances were not encouraging, 
 for not long afterward young Benjamin (36) , who 
 was about eighteen on their arrival, shouldered his axe 
 and walked and worked his way back to New York ; 
 evidently to Watertown, to be with or near his elder 
 brothers, who had remained. There is a remembrance 
 that he was accustomed to make maple sugar in New- 
 port with the early arrival of the season, and then go 
 north with the advancing sun ; earning wages with 
 whom he could, in the same vs^ork, as far as Lake 
 
 *A tradition of this voyage is to the effect that " their intended destina- 
 tion was Kentucky, but the father's illness was so severe that when they 
 came to where is now Newport, they were compelled to land, and took 
 possession of an abandoned cabin." 
 
1 8 Benjamin Ellis Jr.^ 
 
 Erie. He may have done this for a year or two, 
 before he went back to New York ; but he seems to 
 have been there at work by the month, within perhaps 
 two years of the time of the family migration. 
 
 There is a tradition that the elder Benjamin Ellis 
 (24) was not as robust as some of his descendants ; and 
 had a tendency to weak lungs. He was by nature and 
 habit a great hunter, and it is thought that on one of 
 his frequent expeditions after game, his exposure 
 developed consumption ; from which he died, about 
 181 1 -12 ; and was buried in the cemetery at Newport. 
 
 News of the father's death and the mother's destitute 
 circumstances soon reached young Benjamin, and 
 with his earnings in his pocket, reinforced perhaps by 
 help from Rufus and Martin, he walked again from 
 Watertown to Newport, not less than 400 miles. 
 The widowed mother, Ruth Ingalls Ellis, was soon 
 relieved of her distresses and her debts paid. 
 
 It may well be imagined that young Benjamin's 
 retvirn to her relief was a most providential event to 
 his mother ; and the filial devotion shown by him is 
 in full accord with his character in all his after life .; 
 and an example commended to all who inherit the 
 name or bear any kinship thereto. 
 
 Benjamin leased a tract of land for his mother, 
 and built on it a cabin home for her and the children 
 remaining. Silas (37) may have helped him, but there 
 is no mention made of him at the time. He was 
 probably from eighteen to twenty, and was likely 
 away from the family, at his trade as mason. Sibyl, 
 Diana, Rebecca, Sabra and Henry, were probably 
 yet with the mother. If the house was built in 181 2, 
 as seems probable, the age of Sibyl would at the time 
 
in New York and Ohio. 19 
 
 be thirteen, and that of Henry, three. The dates and 
 order of the others, it will be remembered, are not 
 definitely known. 
 
 But it was not the intention of Benjamin to remain 
 in Ohio, for he shortly turned again to New York, as 
 before, it is said, on foot. He was now about twenty- 
 one, and it is suspected that there was at this time 
 an attraction for him there among the Palmer daugh- 
 ters, or elsewhere in Watertown ; and Lois being 
 then but fourteen, it hardly seems likely she was the 
 one. As now appears certain, at some time after the 
 battle at Sacket's Harbor in 1813, Benjamin enlisted 
 in the Federal army, for frontier defense ; and served 
 until the close of the war. He is said to have re- 
 ceived two patents for land, or " land-warrants," as a 
 bovmty for military service ; but to the writer this is 
 not certain. No recollections of his army life are 
 recorded, but he received and sold one patent about 
 1856 ; which doubtless represented the 18 13 enlistment. 
 
 It is known that on being mustered out at Sandusky, 
 Ohio, early in 181 5, he again walked back to New 
 York ; and it is not recorded whether or no he went 
 down to Newport to see his mother and others of her 
 family yet remaining. And if it be that some " girl 
 he left behind him " had been married in his absence, 
 he found another as good or better, for in December 
 of that year is recorded his marriage at Watertown to 
 Lois Palmer ; she being at the time seventeen and a 
 half years old, and he just twenty -four. 
 
20 Elijah Palmer Family^ 
 
 The Palmer Family. 
 
 Not much detail of the family from which came 
 Lois Palmer Ellis is now obtainable. A transcript 
 of the family record is herewith given, as found in 
 the Benjamin Ellis Bible, where it was written by 
 Andrew, presumably at some time before his mother 
 Lois's death, while he was living with her, 1862-64. 
 All recollections agree that the Palmers were a Ver- 
 mont family, who removed from thence probably 
 soon after 1800, to Watertown, N. Y., where the 
 first Benjamin Ellis family is thought to have lived 
 for some years. Since Lois has been spoken of by 
 her children as "a Vermont girl," it is tolerably 
 evident that she and all the other children were born 
 there. Some of these older ones were married and 
 gone before her recollection ; all which was no doubt 
 in Vermont. Hence the number of the family com- 
 ing to Watertown can only be conjectured. 
 
 The date of birth of the parents is not given, but it 
 
 is fair to place that of the father about 1752, and the 
 
 mother's about 1754, as they both died "in their 
 
 nineties," and the date of death of each is given : 
 
 (4-^) Elijah Palmer ) . , . ^^^ 
 
 }^^{ TV 4^ TT r married m 1776. 
 
 (44) MOLLIE HORTON j ' ' 
 
 Children: Esther Palmer, born 1776 
 Mary, 1779; Aaron, 1781 ; Lucy, 1784 
 John, 1786; Eunice, 1788; Sarah, 1791 
 Betsy, 1793; Roxana, 1796; Lois, 1798 
 Ira, 1804. 
 Of the above it is known that 
 Ira Palmer died at Watertown, 1823. 
 
of Watertoivn^ N. Y. 21 
 
 (43) Elijah Palmer died 1844. 
 
 (44) Mary (Mollie) Palmer died 1847. 
 Aaron Palmer died 1849. 
 
 (45) Lois (Ellis) died 1864. 
 
 There seems no reason to doubt that the parents 
 ended their lives at Watertown, but the location of 
 the children is unknown, xVaron was somewhere in 
 New York, as remembered. He was a prominent 
 Mason, and Lois was so prejudiced against Masonry, 
 that it was with difficulty she could speak kindly of 
 him. This was probably an outcome of the excite- 
 ment attendant upon the Morgan episode of seventy 
 or more years ago. One of the daughters was married 
 to Asa Cassidy, in New York, and she and a son 
 visited at the Millwood farm some time later than 
 1840. Another, whose married name was Daniels, 
 came from the same state at a later date, accompanied 
 by a son, Francis Daniels, and the latter was so popular 
 with the writer's father, that he afterward named his 
 Small Boy for him. 
 
 An incident in the early life of Lois has been told, 
 showing the power of association, in matters of the 
 mind. She had been away from home on horseback, 
 and returning through the woods, became lost, though 
 there was good moonlight. After uncertain riding 
 for some time, she came to a clearing and farm build- 
 ings entirely strange to her. While she was wonder- 
 ing where she could be, one of the cattle or sheep in 
 the barnyard moved, and a familiar bell tinkled. 
 Instantly everything changed and came into place ; 
 it was her father's farm and her own home ! 
 
 Lois was fifteen years of age at the time of the 
 battle at Sacket's Harbor in 1S13. We do not knov/ 
 
22 Widow Ruth Ellis; 
 
 just the number of miles it was from her home, but 
 she used to tell of hearing the booming of the guns in 
 that conflict ; and it must have been a time of great 
 fear and excitement. It was evidently her one vivid 
 recollection of that war. And we can imagine how 
 the people must have gathered from the country for 
 miles around, to see what they could of the battle. 
 It seems more than likely that young Benjamin Ellis 
 was not far away, as we have noted, and that he en- 
 listed for service in the army at about this time. 
 
 Leaving for the present the narrative concerning 
 Benjamin and Lois Ellis, we return to the widowed 
 mother at Newport, but find few details of her life 
 at that place. She is said to have become quite skilled 
 and successful as a neighborhood doctor, and must 
 have been held in considerable esteem, for she was 
 spoken of as very useful in that capacity. But the 
 children were growing up, and were soon married, 
 or found homes and a living elsewhere ; Silas being 
 married in 1817, and probably Sibyl also not much 
 later. Diana and Sabra may have been also taking 
 care of themselves ere long, as we learn that the 
 mother finally removed to, or near to Zanesville, " to 
 be near her brother," and that " she had with her 
 only her son Henry, who was about nine years old at 
 that time." This fixes the date as 1818; Henry (42) 
 being nine in November of that year. 
 
 It is tolerably certain that widow Ruth Ellis had 
 no brother at or near Zanesville, but that her sister, 
 widow Mehitabel Ballou, is meant. She had come 
 to that place from New York in 18 14. The sisters 
 Mehitable and Ruth had a brother Ebenezer Ingalls 
 (10), who came to Ohio and settled at Hebron, Lick- 
 
Newport and Za?iesville. 23 
 
 ing county, and died there. He may have lived first 
 at Zanesville, and that may have been the reason why 
 the Ballous came there, but inquiries have failed to 
 discover any memory or tradition of Ingalls relatives 
 at Zanesville ; whereas the Ballou cousins were known 
 to the Benjamin Ellis family of Millwood. But 
 there was intimacy between the families of Ebenezer 
 and Mehitable, for Abram Ingalls, son of Ebenezer, 
 married young Mehitable Ballou, his cousin, at Zanes- 
 ville ; and their descendants are scattered through the 
 middle and farther west. And James Ballou at 
 Zanesville, probably as early as 1815, married his 
 cousin Rebecca Ellis of Newport, Ruth's daughter. 
 
 We are unable to determine any particulars of 
 widow Ruth's residence at Zanesville ; except that 
 " she did not live there long," being soon after killed 
 by lightning; one account says " at the house of a 
 relative," while others have always understood that it 
 was " in her own home." It seems likely she was 
 keeping house to herself in a dwelling owned by one 
 of the Ballous; this would satisfy both statements. 
 She is said to have been sewing near the open door 
 or fireplace, perhaps between the tw^o, and was just 
 rising from her chair, rolling up her work, with her 
 long scissors in her hand, when a flash came and she 
 fell dead. It must have been a bolt of great power, 
 as it was told that ' ' it seemed as if every bone in her 
 body was broken." She was somewhere near fifty- 
 two years of age at her death. 
 
 This was the end of the home life of the first 
 Benjamin Ellis family, as such ; probably about ten 
 years after coming to the state. Since Henry was 
 then the only child with the mother, he is supposed 
 
24 Henry Ellis^ 
 
 to have been cared for by Rebecca his married sister, 
 and others of the family as they established homes of 
 their own. There are circvxmstances that indicate his 
 having lived with Rebecca Ballou (38), Silas Ellis 
 (37), and Diana Burris (40) ; but more particularly 
 with the latter. 
 
 The sisters, Diana, Sibyl and Sabra Ellis are 
 traditionally remembered as unusually handsome 
 women. Diana was almost remarkable, on account 
 of the length and abundance of her hair, which easily 
 reached the floor when she sat in a chair and let it 
 down. If we are rightly informed, her husband, 
 Stinson Burris, was a farmer in Matamoras ; and the 
 house which he must have built some seventy or 
 more years ago is yet standing, and occupied by a 
 family which has become wealthy from the petroleum 
 now produced in that region. 
 
 Henry Ellis (42) was never married, but became 
 a teacher and continued in that work until his death. 
 He was also a poet of no mean ability, so it was said 
 by his old aquaintances ; but none of his writing is 
 now obtainable. A verse inscribed on his headstone, 
 doubtless prepared by himself, indicates his intel- 
 ligence as to Bible teaching, whatever may have been 
 his particular understanding of a future state. The 
 
 entire inscription is as follows : 
 
 " Henry Ellis, died July i, 1852; aged 42 years, 
 
 7 mos. 17 days. 
 
 Here to thy bosom, Mother Earth, 
 
 Take back in peace what thou hast given ; 
 
 And all that is of Heavenly birth, 
 O God, recall in peace to Heaven." 
 
 Henry became a painter of portraits and scenery, 
 
Teacher and Artist. 25 
 
 and must have shown considerable talent in that line, 
 as he seems to have been best remembered by his 
 paintings. We have not learned whether he ever 
 profited financially by his art ; probably, however, 
 not to any great extent. The lack of wealth and 
 culture in his day and neighborhood could hardly 
 have furnished him with a remunerative patronage ; 
 so it seems likely he painted mostly from his heart, 
 because he loved to do so. 
 
 As intimated previously, Henry's home seems to 
 have been more particularly with his sister, Diana 
 Burris. As a consequence, it is remembered that 
 "her house was full of pictures," something that 
 could not have been common in those days. One of 
 these is especially remembered, having been seen by 
 several of the present generation. It was painted 
 upon the plastered wall of Diana's house ; over the 
 fire-place mantel in the main living room, or parlor, 
 as it might now be called. It depicted a hunting 
 scene, in which a deer was a central figure, just fired 
 upon or fallen, and an Indian hunter springing from 
 behind a tree to secure his game ; the whole said to 
 be very spirited and realistic. It may have been a 
 memory of some experience told by his own father, 
 and repeated to him by his mother, or possibly he had 
 himself witnessed it in early days. And the picture 
 is yet in existence, we are told, but covered with 
 wall-paper by the present occupants of the house. 
 
 A portrait of Diana and little daughter, painted by 
 Henry, is in possession of a grand-daughter of Sibyl 
 Ellis Babcock, sister of Diana. It would seem likely 
 that other of his pictures are extant, among the Burris 
 descendants, but of these we ha^e no knowledge. 
 
26 Henry Ellis^ Later 7ears. 
 
 Henry probably taught school most of the time for 
 about twenty years ; and we may suppose that one of 
 his poetic and artistic temperament would be likely 
 an idealist in the conduct of his school. Of that there 
 has reached us no tradition ; but in making inquiries 
 in the vicinity where he taught sixty years before, a 
 man told us he used to go to his school when a very 
 small boy, and too young to be a pupil. He remem- 
 bered going " because he liked to;" and the master 
 would put him to sleep on a bench with his overcoat 
 for the boy's bed. This memory would indicate a 
 kind heart toward children, and a reason why he chose 
 teaching as his calling. He probably might easily 
 have been a sculptor, for we saw on a sandstone 
 boulder near where his brother Silas lived, the figure 
 of a willow tree in relief, and a lamb at the side of it, 
 which he made with the point of a common pickaxe. 
 Its history is well authenticated, and the quality of the 
 carving as good as would be done by a professional 
 stone-cutter with standard tools. Its date is unknown ; 
 probably earlier than 1840. 
 
 In the neighborhood of his school on the high lands 
 overlooking the Ohio in Grand View township, Henry 
 Ellis purchased a plot of land, about 1850, which he 
 gave to the people as a burying ground. He selected 
 his own place, in the center of the plot, between two 
 great oaks ; and was himself the first person to rest 
 in the dedicated ground. The oaks and other trees 
 have long since disappeared ; and one may now look 
 far over the hills of his native county and state, and 
 away across the yellow Ohio into what was in his day 
 Old Virginia. A house of worship was in later years 
 erected on adjoining land, and is now regularly 
 
Sabra and Sibyl Ellis. 27 
 
 occupied; a landmark resulting from the benefaction 
 of Henry Ellis. 
 
 Henry manifestly inherited a tendency to pulmonary 
 ailment, and probably anticipated early death. We 
 have no particulars, except that he died of hem- 
 orrhage, at the home of James Dailey, where he had 
 lived for some years possibly, in the neighborhood of 
 his school. 
 
 Of Sabra Ellis (40), we have imperfect account, 
 not knowing date of birth or death. She came into 
 Knox county and taught school in the neighborhood 
 of her brother Benjamin, and eventually was married 
 there to Andrew Welker. Her life thenceforth was 
 said to have been one of poverty and trial, owing to 
 the drinking habits of her husband, and she died com- 
 paratively young. Her two sons, Oliver and Emmett 
 Welker, went to Missouri when young, and have not 
 since been known in Ohio. 
 
 We have been shown a tract of land where the 
 Welkers once lived, now one of the most fertile in 
 the county, which Andrew traded off for a shot-gun. 
 It was probably at that time, however, little better 
 than a swamp, and may have cost him but a trifle. 
 
 Sibyl Ellis (39), was nine or ten years old when 
 the family came to Newport. It was said that she also 
 taught school in Knox county, but of this we are not 
 certain. It is rather apparent that she was married 
 at Newport, and not long after settled in Knox county 
 on land adjoining Benjamin Ellis, as is thought, as 
 early as 1823. Her husband was Henry Babcock, 
 who had been a whaler, voyaging from New Bedford, 
 Mass. ; on trips of one to three years. For some 
 reason he abandoned the sea, and followed the cooper- 
 ing business thenceforth. 
 
28 The Babcock Family. 
 
 At one time in Babcock's whaling life, he was one 
 of a boat's crew that rowed alongside of a mighty 
 whale, and at the same moment a harpoon was struck 
 into his vitals. Instantly the monster sprang clear of 
 the water, bellowing in agony ; and Babcock put his 
 hand up against his mountain-like side to push away 
 the boat, and his arm was paralyzed for a time by the 
 jar of the bellow. Either this whale or another of 
 the catch had a mouth so great that the captain had 
 his jaws propped open, and upon his enormous tongue 
 was placed a platform or table, around which twelve 
 men sat and ate their dinner ! And this is not a 
 " fish story," for Babcock was a man of veracity, as 
 remembered by the Ellis family. How he came to 
 be a pioneer in Ohio is not known, but the State got 
 a good citizen and Sibyl a good husband by it. 
 There seems to have been a strong attachment between 
 Babcock and his brother-in-law Benjamin Ellis, for 
 they lived in close touch as neighbors for nearly thirty 
 years ; first in Harrison township, and later in How- 
 ard, near Millwood, from 1835. 
 
 Henry and Sibyl Babcock are said to have lived to 
 good age, and are buried in Licking county ; proba- 
 bly near Fallsburg, where their son Charles lived for 
 many years, and died in his eighties. Like his father, 
 he was a cooper ; and he had a considerable family, 
 of which we have located but one, Mr. H. E. Bab- 
 cock, Tunnel Hill, Ohio. 
 
 The children of Henry and Sibyl Babcock were 
 Charles, as mentioned above ; Phebe, who married 
 John Campbell near Millwood, and they both died 
 there; Electa, who married Moses Humbert and 
 had one daughter Marietta, who is married to Rev. 
 
The Burris Family. 29 
 
 J. L. Snyder of Howard, Ohio ; and Diana, who 
 married DeVolt, near Millwood. 
 
 Diana Ellis (41), was married in Matamoras to 
 Stinson Burris. Their children, so far as ascer- 
 tained, were : 
 
 1. William Burris, who was in the Union army. 
 
 2. Stinson Burris, Jr., also in the Union army. 
 
 One of the brothers was yet living quite recently ; 
 whereabouts of their children not ascertained. 
 
 3. Elizabeth Burris, (m. Sheets) ; had two 
 daughters, Helen and Anna. 
 
 4. Gabrilla Burris, (m. Ankrom) ; had one 
 dau. (m. Cochran). 
 
 5. Ellen Burris, (m. Holland). 
 
 Some of these latter reside in or near Matamoras. 
 
 RuFus Ingalls Ellis (34) seems to have married 
 and remained in New York ; probably near Water- 
 town. No account of his family has been obtained ; 
 but one De Los Ellis came to Grandview and mar- 
 ried his cousin Ruth Ingalls Ellis, daughter of Silas 
 Ellis (37) ; and he is presumed to have been a son 
 of Rufus. He may however, have been a son of 
 Martin (35), in addition to those next mentioned. 
 
 Martin Ellis (35) married in New York, and is 
 known to have had three children ; Henry Ingalls 
 Ellis, Eliza Ellis and Benjamin Ellis : the latter 
 being lame or crippled. These all came to Ohio, 
 and the first two children remained as noted later. 
 
JO Silas Ellis Family. 
 
 Silas Ellis (37) settled in Grandview, on the 
 Ohio River, between Matamoras and Newport, and 
 became a mason and contractor. In that place he m., 
 1 81 7, Elinor Dickerson, and nine children were 
 born. 
 
 1. Charles D. Ellis, m. Paulina Morgan, left 
 I son, I dau., name and location not ascertained. 
 
 Charles D. died of small pox in Cincinnati. 
 
 2. William McGee Ellis, m. Clarissa Ankrom. 
 He was like his father, a mason and builder. Chil- 
 dren : William P. Ellis, lives in Marietta, O. ; 
 Margaret Ellis, (m. Green) ; Rebecca Ellis, 
 (m. Williamson) ; and Sibyl Ellis, (m. Rich- 
 ardson). 
 
 3. Ruth Ingalls Ellis, m. first her cousin, 
 De Los Ellis, and he left one son, Charles M. 
 Ellis of Sedan, Kan. Ruth afterward m. Elmer 
 Naylor. In her young days she visited her uncle 
 Benjamin's family at Millwood, and is remembered 
 as a very amiable young lady. 
 
 4. Minerva I. Ellis, m. J. N. Cline ; living in 
 Garnett, Kan. Plas three daughters in same state. 
 
 5. 6. AuRELius M. and Aurelia Ellis, twins. 
 (The latter died young). Aurelius m. Evaline 
 Morgan, descendant of a famous Indian fighter, 
 David Morgan, of the i8th century. Ch. : Leander 
 A. Ellis, further mentioned elsewhere ; Lafayette 
 D. Ellis, Grandview ; Evan W. Ellis, Frankfort, 
 Ky., who has four sons, names not known. The 
 daughters of Aurelius M. Ellis are Mrs. Sarah E. 
 Hutchinson, Grandview, O. ; Mrs. Mary Webber, 
 
Silas Ellis Family. 31 
 
 East Liverpool, O. ; Mrs. Paulina J. Barnes, Pat- 
 erson, N. J. ; Mrs. Bertha P. Kidd, Wellsville, O. 
 
 7. Solon Ellis, died of cholera, Paducah, Ky., 
 
 1853- 
 
 8. Henry M. Ellis, lives at Garnett, Kan. No 
 account of family. He and Mrs. Cline are at this 
 date the only living children of Silas Ellis (37). 
 
 9. A. M. Ellis, a son, of whom we have no 
 account. 
 
 Silas Ellis was a substantial citizen of Grand- 
 view , and a man of decided probity and integrity. 
 Like his elder brother Benjamin in Knox County, he 
 was a Justice of the Peace, and also supervisor of 
 highways, and the docket or record books of the two 
 brothers are exceedingly alike, and both yellow with 
 age. Silas was a good deal of a temperance lecturer 
 in school-houses in the time of the Washingrtonian 
 movement, and was doubtless influential. His monu- 
 ments in the construction of foundations, wells and 
 buildings of marked solidity, are yet standing all 
 along his vicinity on both sides of the Ohio. It was 
 with deep feeling that we visited the hewn log house 
 on the bank of the river, where was his home for 
 many years, now crumbling to earth, all except the 
 big block stone fire-place and chimney. If we under- 
 stood rightly, he became interested in river traffic, 
 and seems to have been with some of his family in 
 Cincinnati in 1849 ; at which time his wife Elinor 
 died there of cholera. He himself went further west, 
 and died in Syracuse, Mo., in 1861. 
 
 Aurelius M. Ellis and wife lived to good age in 
 Grand view township, on the original Dickerson farm, 
 and are buried beside his uncle Henry Ellis (43), the 
 
32 L. A. Ellis Family^ 
 
 teacher and painter. Two of their children remain 
 there ; a daughter, Mrs. Hutchinson, on the old Dick- 
 erson-Ellis homestead, and a son, Lafayette D. Ellis, 
 near by on another farm ; both the homes a little way 
 down the river from the old farm of their grandfather 
 Silas. " Lafe " is now the " Squire ElHs " of all that 
 region, as was Silas eighty years ago. All the 
 vicinity, up and down the river is piped and pumped 
 for oil, a wealth undreamed of in the early EUis 
 
 days. 
 
 Leander a. Ellis, son of Aurelius, b. 1846, early 
 began teaching school over in West Virginia, opposite 
 his birth-place in Grandview. A misfortune lamed 
 him for life, and he became an educator, teaching for 
 more than twenty years, and serving as Superintend- 
 ent of Schools for Pleasants County. Was married, 
 1875, to Harriett E. Fleming ; engaged in business 
 in Crisp, and later at French Creek, now called Pleas- 
 ants ; being postmaster in both towns, in Pleasants 
 County. He yet resides in the town of Pleasants, 
 and continues business, and also his connection with 
 the educational interests of the county. 
 
 Children of above : 
 
 1. Archie G. Ellis, 1876; taught schools in West 
 Virginia and in Arkansas; was then in mercantile 
 life, and later with the Pennsylvania Railroad as 
 accountant; and is now in that capacity with the 
 Baltimore & Ohio at Sistersville, W. Va. Married, 
 1909, to Maude Mallery of Ashtabula Co., O. 
 
 2. Henry G. Ellis, 1879; began teaching at 
 eighteen, continuing several years. Then acquired a 
 commercial education and is head accountant for a 
 firm in Sistersville. Married, 1904, to Mary Smith, 
 
of West Virginia. 33 
 
 of St. Mary's, W. Va. Two daughters ; Evaline 
 and Gladys Ellis. 
 
 3. Barna C. Ellis, 1882; was plasterer in East 
 Liverpool, Ohio. Also learned architecture, and 
 designed a number of the buildings of that city. 
 Removed, 1909, to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 
 Married Irene Christy of East Liverpool, 1903; 
 three sons; Clifford L., William and Harrold 
 Ellis. 
 
 4. Charles M. Ellis, 1885; steam engineer at 
 Eagleville, Ohio ; formerly in dairying, and sustained 
 an injury that nearly cost him his life. Married 
 Fannie Pratt of Pleasants county, 1904; three 
 children ; Earl, Charley (deceased) , and Effie 
 Ellis. 
 
 5. Benjamin L. Ellis, 1888; machinist and 
 engineer with Pennsylvania Railroad at Cleveland, 
 Ohio; married 1909 to Isadore Pangbaum of 
 Geneva, Ohio. 
 
 6. Brook F. Ellis, 1S97 ; student, with parents. 
 
 This is the banner Ellis family of the present 
 generation. Hats off, everybody, to Mrs. L. A., and 
 all the young Ellis mothers following ! 
 
 The foregoing pages cover substantially all informa- 
 tion we have concerning other branches of the family 
 than that of Benjamin and Lois Ellis of Millwood. 
 To them and their descendants what follows is mainly 
 devoted. 
 
2/1 Benjamin and Lois El/ is, 
 
 The Second Benjamin Ellis Family. 
 
 (36) Benjamin Ellis (Jr.) as previously noted, 
 married Lois Palmer at Watertown, N. Y., Dec, 
 1 8 15. Their children were : 
 
 (46) Melissa Ellis, 1816; m. Aauon Edgell. 
 
 (47) Cherrill Ellis, 1818 ; m. John Burtnett. 
 
 (48) Alva Palmer Ellis, 182 1 ; m. Margaret 
 
 Sanders, 1844. 
 
 (49) Silas Ellis, 1822; m. Sophia Stenger. 
 
 (50) Albert Ellis, 1S26 ; m. Sarah H. Encell. 
 
 (51) Henry Ellis, 1S28; died 1850. 
 
 (52) Benjamin Ellis, 1830; died 1838. 
 
 (53) Andrew Ellis, 1835; married three times. 
 
 (54) Lyman Ellis, 1S37 ; m. Eliza J. Graham. 
 
 (55) Luther Augustus Ellis, 1840; died 1861. 
 Soon after the marriage of Benjamin and Lois, they 
 
 " went West ;" but not at this time to Ohio. Leaving 
 Watertown, they came probably by a lake vessel to a 
 point in what is now Orleans County, N. Y. ; although 
 at that time it was included in Genessee County. 
 Thence a few miles inland they came to Ridgeway, 
 and located upon forty acres of dense forest land. 
 
 It seems almost certain that on his several journeys 
 on foot between Ohio and New York, Benjamin had 
 been impressed by the quality of the land in this 
 "beech country " or "Genessee country " as they usu- 
 ally called it. 
 
 Here began the home-building of these hardy pio- 
 neers. Their married life lasted something more 
 than forty-two years, and was characterized by peace, 
 industry, and in their latter days, by well-deserved 
 comfort. Here in the woods the conditions were 
 
at Ridgeway^ N. T. 35 
 
 exceedingly primitive. The new-comers evidently had 
 few personal possessions ; probably but little money 
 after buying the land, the cost of which is not known. 
 Their first house was built of poles, covered with great 
 sections of bark, peeled from the big trees that were 
 felled to make a clearing ; an humble home indeed, 
 but it was their house, their land, their ho^ne I And 
 we are privileged to believe that in all the world there 
 was not a more honest, happy home than this. 
 
 A substantial log house soon followed, and the 
 incessant labor of the young settler soon cleared 
 ground for crops. One winter was often mentioned 
 by them in later years, because their food was almost 
 wholly limited to potatoes ; all the mills in the country 
 about being frozen up, except their own coffee-mill. 
 
 Two daughters were born here ; Melissa and Cher- 
 rill or Charilla. (The latter name is said to be taken 
 from a book which they had read or possessed. ) 
 Whether his growing family was the reason, we 
 know not; but Benjamin Ellis now began to look 
 further west; and a year following, on July 6, 1819, 
 he sold or rather exchanged his forty-acre farm with 
 one Allen Neilson, a Revolutionary soldier, for a 
 tract of one hundred acres in Harrison township, 
 Knox Co., Ohio. The transfer price was named as 
 three hundred dollars, which may be regarded as the 
 main portion of the accumulation of the three and a 
 half years' residence in Ridgeway. Years afterward 
 some friend or relative from New York visited Benja- 
 min and Lois when they had their third and yet larger 
 farm, and said to him : " Ben, that forty acres in 
 Ridgeway is worth more today than all your three 
 hundred odd acres here !" 
 
^5 Removal to Ohio. 
 
 It is manifest that the young family was soon on 
 the way to their new possession amid the sturdy oaks 
 of Ohio. Their effects were conveyed in a small 
 cart or wagon, most likely the former ; and their team 
 was a pair of young oxen, hardly more than calves.^ 
 It is told of these that "they were white as angels," 
 a descriptive phrase that must have been from the 
 young mother Lois, who was now just twenty-one 
 years of age. These white oxen were highly trained 
 on the new farm, and when one of them died— a 
 great loss to the young couple— the survivor was 
 taught to work single, in harness like a horse ; and 
 years later, when horses had been grown, the white 
 ox would be seen hitched in the lead of them. 
 
 Nearly the whole journey to Ohio was through 
 country as yet but sparsely settled, and the roads were 
 often but a mere track through the woods. It was, 
 however, in the late summer, and the travel was not 
 unpleasant. 
 
 On the way, after entering Ohio, a stop was made 
 at Zanesville with the Ballou families. It is known 
 that the mother, Mehitabel Ballou, was there, and 
 with her Eliza, then eighteen, who married Abram 
 Garfield two years later. A letter written by her at 
 the age of seventy-nine, to Andrew Ellis, refers to 
 this visit of her cousin Benjamin at this time, men- 
 tioning the young family. She visited also in return, 
 at the Millwood farm, some twenty or thirty years later. 
 Whether or no Ruth, the mother of Benjamin, was 
 yet living at this time is doubtful. Nothing to settle 
 the query is now at hand. It must have been just about 
 a year after her coming from Newport to Zanesville, 
 and she may have been killed during the summer of 
 
On the Neilson Land. 37 
 
 1819. The question has arisen as to whether the 
 two sisters may not have been living together, Mehit- 
 abel Ballou and Ruth Ellis ; as Mehitabel had with 
 her the one daughter Eliza, and Ruth had but the 
 boy Henry. But no mention of this is preserved, so 
 far as is now known. 
 
 The young Ellis family was soon on their own 
 land in Knox county, and as expressed by one of the 
 sons in later years, " they soon chopped out a home." 
 All the land — one hundred acres — except a small 
 area called " the bear-wallow," was covered with 
 heavy upland hardwood; white, black and red oak, 
 hickory, walnut, ash and the like. The same amount 
 and quality of standing timber would today bring 
 many thousands of dollars ; but at that time one of 
 the principal objects of the settlers was to get rid of 
 most of it. 
 
 This tract of land was " located " or " entered " by 
 Allen Neilson on the warrant issued to him, on 
 February 22, 1812 ; and by exchange for the Ridge- 
 way farm, as we have seen, became the property of 
 Benjamin Ellis, July 6, 18 19. 
 
 Experience had by this time made the new owner 
 an expert axeman and house-builder ; and a cabin 
 soon sheltered the family. It is said that he built 
 three more log houses on this land, each in a more 
 advantageous location and of larger size, than the one 
 preceding. As these were successively vacated by 
 the family, they were appropriated to other farm use, 
 which were an increasing need each year. The first 
 cabin became a sheepfold, and remained in use until 
 1850, and perhaps considerably later. Another was 
 doubtless made to be a "loom-house," where the 
 
^8 Pioneer Experiences. 
 
 later stages of warping, dyeing and weaving the flax 
 and woolen fabrics for family wear were carried on. 
 At a later date, about 1833 or 1834, a comfortable 
 frame house was buih, containing six rooms, but a 
 few feet removed from the last preceding house, which 
 was itself a good dwelling of logs hewed flat and 
 smooth inside, perhaps also on the outside. As the 
 family included at this time about seven children, 
 the older dwelling may have continued in use in part 
 for that purpose. 
 
 It is to be remembered that all this house building 
 of logs cost little except for the labor. The logs 
 for walls, and puncheons or planks for floors and 
 doors, and clapboards for roofs, were all furnished 
 from the abundant forest ; while stone for foundations, 
 fire-place and chimney was on every hand. 
 
 Farm buildings were added as land was cleared 
 and crops and stock increased ; heavy rail fences were 
 built to enclose all the land, and farm implements 
 were made by the aid of the blacksmith, until in time 
 the outfit was equal to any in the vicinity. The era 
 of improved farm machinery was yet in the future ; 
 even the " cradle " for cutting grain was not yet 
 invented; the common scythe for grass, and the 
 ancient sickle for the grain, did all the harvesting. 
 A primitive wooden beam stirring plow did all the 
 '•' breaking up," while a single shovel-plow was about 
 the only horse implement for cultivating the crops. 
 Harrows, hoes, rakes and pitchforks furnished the 
 further means of tillage and harvesting ; while the 
 threshing out of flax, oats, rye, wheat and buckwheat, 
 was with flails or by the "tramping out" of horses and 
 oxen. 
 
Church and School. 39 
 
 At first, the neighl)ors were few and remote ; only 
 two were anywhere near, perhaps within a mile or 
 so. One of these was named Dudgin, and the other — 
 wasn't. But the settlement increased until a school 
 was established, and the young generation was 
 instructed in " the three R's." Sabra or Sibyl Ellis 
 may have taught here, but not likely ; both being 
 probably married before that time. 
 
 Nor were the religious needs of the community 
 neglected; for at some time between 1825 and 
 
 J 2, a place of worship was established at the east 
 jnd of the farm. Benjamin Ellis and his next neigh- 
 bor eastward each gave one-half acre of land for a 
 burying ground and a place for a meeting house ; 
 which latter was built (of logs), somewhere about 
 1830. A Sunday school, and more or less regular 
 worship was maintained there for about twenty years. 
 The writer remembers being in the old log church, 
 called " Mt. Tabor," somewhere about 1852, and the 
 impression remains that it was little used at that time ; 
 though not then fallen into decay. But the house 
 and boundaries of the lot have now long since disap- 
 peared ; and a few fallen headstones, mostly unde- 
 cipherable, are all remaining to mark the place. 
 Three Ellis children are buried here ; two who died 
 at birth, and " little Benja," who lived eight years, 
 dying on the Millwood farm. 
 
 The time of farmer Ellis during these busy years 
 was not wholly given to his own affairs. He was 
 prevailed upon to serve as Justice of the Peace for 
 some years, much against his own will, as we have 
 heard said. But his hard-headed good sense, his 
 unquestioned fairness, added to by a better schooling 
 
40 
 
 Farm Sold to Burtnett. 
 
 in his boyhood than most of his neighbors had en- 
 joyed, seemed to make him desirable as a Justice, in 
 estimation of the community. His duties in that 
 capacity were quite varied, as seen by his docket or 
 record; trespass, assault, contract, collections, and 
 many other actions requiring the official adjudication 
 and signature of " Benj. Ellis, J. P." Some cases 
 are amusing because of their triviality, and all bear 
 witness that human frailties eighty years ago were 
 much the same as now. The fees recorded are sur- 
 prisingly small, and the office could hardly have been 
 sought for financial reasons. 
 
 Having now brought this farm into good condi- 
 tion, Benjamin Ellis thought it needful to enlarge his 
 domain, to find room for his numerous boys. Meeting 
 a fair opportunity, after having lived here for sixteen 
 years, on July i, 1835, Benjamin and Lois conveyed 
 their second farm to John Burtnett of Coshocton, O., 
 for the sum of fourteen hundred dollars, and removed 
 some three miles north-eastward. 
 
 The new land constituted what we have called the 
 "Millwood farm," and contained three hundred thirty- 
 four acres ; of which one of the sons wrote in later 
 years, " We cleared every acre of it." The price 
 paid was twelve hundred dollars ; a little more per 
 acre than the Neilson land had cost sixteen years 
 before, and probably of about the same average 
 quality. A number of acres was alluvial or "bottom 
 land," much more fertile than the uplands, and a fine 
 growth of sugar maples covered a part of this river 
 land. The new owner being an expert in sugar- 
 making, this may have been quite an attraction. 
 Besides, there was near by the town of Millwood, 
 
Removal to Milhvood. 41 
 
 where stores were kept, and where grain was ground 
 and lumber sawed ; which conveniences were much 
 farther from the former place. 
 
 We have not been told, but we presume that Squire 
 Ellis proceeded at once to erect a log dwelling on his 
 new land. The elder sons, Alva and Silas, now 
 fourteen and thirteen respectively, may have rendered 
 some assistance ; but more likely his brother-in-law 
 and nearest neighbor, Henry Babcock, joined to help 
 him. Babcock shortly followed the Ellis family from 
 the neighborhood of the previous farm, taking four 
 acres of the land, and building on it a "double" hewn 
 log house, about fifty rods from the Ellis house. One- 
 half the Babcock house was used for the cooper shop 
 by Henry Babcock and his son Charles, who grew 
 into the business later. The house is yet standing 
 and occupied, nearly seventy-five years after. 
 
 Doubtless the Ellis removal was promptly accom- 
 plished, and stables and other necessary accommoda- 
 tions provided, that the great work of "clearing" the 
 new farm might begin. The fall and winter of 1835-6 
 and years succeeding were filled with prodigies of 
 labor by the farmer and his sons ; all of whom, with 
 a single exception, have now gone to rest. In the 
 housekeeping department, the two daughters, now 
 nineteen and seventeen, likewise bore their full part, 
 as the mother was for a considerable period a great 
 sufferer from asthma, and largely incapacitated. In 
 order that they might not lose their schooling, Melissa 
 and Cherrill for some time did all the heavier work at 
 night ; washing and ironing, baking, churning and the 
 like ; and we know not what beside of spinning and 
 weaving. Melissa afterward became a teacher, but 
 
42 Millwood Farm; 
 
 Cherrill remained as housekeeper for her mother until 
 she was married to John Burtnett Jr., and went to 
 her own home on the farm where she had grown up, 
 about four years after first leaving it. 
 
 The Millwood farm had more neighbors than the 
 preceding one in its first settlement. If we are not 
 mistaken, both school and church were already acces- 
 sible, but farm life yet contained mostly primitive 
 conditions. 
 
 The public road from east to west ran through the 
 farm from Millwood to Kinderhook, Gambler and 
 Mt. Vernon, over which a horse-rider carried mail 
 once or twice a week. Postage stamps and envelopes 
 were unknown, and rates on letters were from per- 
 haps five to twenty-five cents each, according to dis- 
 tance ; and even a weekly newspaper was a luxury. 
 The family cooking and heating was by the great fire- 
 place, and the light for home and church and out- 
 door tin lantern, was mainly the "tallow dip " candle, 
 varied by a grease-lamp ; when the fire-light was 
 not sufficient. The food was generally abundant and 
 good in quality, almost wholly the product of the 
 farm. The fields, garden, farmyard and forest, 
 fvirnished in the aggregate a variety and quality suf- 
 ficient even for an epicure ; and into the midst of 
 which the writer hereof was born, ten years after this 
 Ellis farm was begun ; and it may safely be said he 
 inherited and retained an appetite for good things ! 
 
 Millwood was in those days a lively and aspiring 
 place ; "the trading point for a considerable territory 
 round about. For a number of years it was accessible 
 to the residents on the Ellis side of Owl Creek by a 
 ford below the dam. In time of spring freshets and 
 
Clear i tig the Land. 43 
 
 other high water, the Ellis boys had a great " dug- 
 out" canoe with which to visit Millwood. This 
 was often an exciting and hazardous experience, as 
 the craft would roll and pitch in an alarming manner 
 in the swollen waters. It is supposable that the 
 parents felt anxious at such seasons, and doubtless 
 there were more trips deemed necessary at such 
 times than at others, just from the love of adventure. 
 Years later, when the writer was the small boy of 
 the farm, the old canoe was far up the hillside, used 
 as a trough for "salting" cattle and sheep. And 
 the other day he stood, nearly sixty years after, upon 
 the same spot, and looked down upon the former 
 scene of those voyages, and thought of the long ago, 
 and those who were then " the Ellis boys." 
 
 After some years, a long wooden bridge was built ; 
 and as remembered by the Small Boy, it was the eighth 
 wonder of the world. And it was " a good deal of a 
 bridge," as somebody said; very long, double tracked 
 and shingle-roofed ; made wholly of the best white 
 oak, in beams and planks of massive thickness, 
 securely pinned together. It cost three thousand dol- 
 lars, and it is computed that the oak in it would 
 today be worth fifty thousand dollars ! 
 
 As on all such land at that time, a prodigious 
 amount of labor was bestowed upon the Ellis farm to 
 make it productive. Felling trees, cutting them up, 
 grubbing out " stools" and removing stones involved 
 a toil fully equal to any that could be named. Much of 
 the forest was first gone over and " girdled" with an 
 axe, and left a year or so to die out. Such a tract 
 was called a " deadening;" and when the trees were 
 later cut down, the less valuable, and often many 
 
44 Millwood Farm; 
 
 of the best, were cut into lengths, rolled together and 
 burned. Such a job was called a "log-rolling," and 
 neighbors often joined their forces to help each other, 
 hence the use of the term in politics. In recent years 
 we have seen a first-class oak, such as many of those 
 thus burned, valued for its lumber at one hundred 
 dollars ; and likely as not a thousand such were thus 
 disposed of on this Millwood farm. And yet we 
 have heard that the father said to the sons at some 
 time later, " Take care of the timber; in a few years 
 it will be valuable;" which they then refused to 
 believe. But time has shown his statement correct. 
 
 A part of the land first cleared was devoted to the 
 growth of fruit trees, and one of the early and most 
 lasting memories of the Small Boy is of that orchard. 
 It had more kinds of apples, more apples to the tree, 
 and more good apples, than any and all other orchards 
 he ever saw. At least it seemed so then. There 
 were Early somethings to begin on ; then Harvests 
 to continue with ; and Pippins, Bellflowers, Ram- 
 boes, Gloria Mundi, Vandever, Spice, Russet, Green- 
 ing, Nigger, Red Sweet, Bitter Sweet, Penic ; and 
 many we may have forgotten ! And then, the 
 peaches ! They did not come every year like the 
 apples ; but nearly all fence corners had peach trees 
 in them; and at least two seasons, 1853-4, brought 
 tremendous crops of great luscious clings and free- 
 stones, of which the memory yet remains. 
 
 And there were cherries every year ; and such 
 cherries! Black Hearts, Oxhearts, Qiieens — just 
 bushels of them ; for the several Ellis families that 
 were there by that time ; and for friends and neigh- 
 bors who came to pick and eat and carry away. 
 
Maple Stigar Making. 45 
 
 Likewise for the birds ; robins, woodpeckers, sap- 
 suckers, blackbirds, jays and yellow-hammers ; but 
 how many of them fell by rifle-shot of the Ellis boys ! 
 
 And as to orchards, not the least was that of 
 Nature's own plantin<^, the sugar maples on the river 
 bottom toward Millwood ; comprising a large number 
 of fine trees. It was called "the sugar camp;" a 
 term applied in present time to the shack or building 
 in the grove where the workers boil the sap. If there 
 was such a building in this orchard, there was no 
 trace of it left in the day of the Small Boy ; but instead 
 there was a " sugar house" near the dwelling, where 
 all the "boiling down" and "sugaring off" was 
 done. This was a substantial hewn log structure of 
 one enclosed room, outside of w hich was an extended 
 roof supported by posts, covering the stone furnace 
 upon which was placed the evaporating pan. This 
 was a rectangular wooden box of eight or ten inches 
 depth, with a sheet iron bottom, giving a large sur- 
 face exposure to the fire ; and was a great improve- 
 ment over the big cast-iron kettles or cauldrons for- 
 merly used. The same device was later used when 
 "sorghum" was introduced into the United States, 
 about 1857-8. 
 
 The maple trees were tapped as early as the sap 
 would flow. Two small cuts were made in the form 
 of a V, and at the point below, a wide carpenter's 
 gouge was driven into the wood, and into this cut a 
 " spile " was driven, which conveyed the sap off into 
 " sugar troughs," or sap troughs. These were made 
 of half a small log of perhaps two feet length, with 
 the middle hollow^ed out to hold two or three gallons. 
 Many a time has the Small Boy gone down on " all 
 
^6 Millwood Farm; 
 
 fours " at one of these troughs, and had a fill of that 
 cold, sweet " sugar water." And many a time in 
 mid-winter has he coasted down an icy hill in one of 
 those same sugar-troughs like a land canoe, from 
 want of a sled. O you steel-shod, fancy painted wind 
 splitters of later days, you can never beat that boy m 
 cap and mittens and red comforter, in a polished bot- 
 tom sugar-trough, coming down those Ohio hills ! 
 
 The "water" was gathered into large barrels, on 
 a drag or sled, and drawn by horses to the sugar- 
 house. It was fortunate if snow remained to make 
 the going easy ; but regardless of that in his day, the 
 Small Boy had many a ride, listening to the sap 
 " plunking" in the barrels. At the sugar-house these 
 were rolled off on skids, over a big tank ; when the 
 square bung was taken out and the sweet sap went 
 thundering down into the depths. 
 
 The " boihng down" and "sugaring off" were 
 dulcet times for young folks; sometimes extending 
 into the night. Maple taffy -pullings were favorite 
 occasions, and not many farms had the accessories, as 
 did the ElHs place. The amount of syrup and sugar 
 made year by year must have been considerable ; 
 some at least being sold or traded to non-producers 
 round about. 
 
 One " sugaring off" — and the last of which the 
 Small Boy has a remembrance — was in the daytime, 
 when he and his young uncle, Luther, then about 
 thirteen, were left for a time in charge to keep it boil- 
 ing. It was good fun for a time, to run through 
 the steam as it rolled off to one side ; but presently it 
 became whiter and denser, and choked and blinded 
 them, for it was smoke ! And before they realized 
 
Fences and Buildings. 47 
 
 what was the matter, the whole contents of the pan 
 burst into flame, and in response to their cries the 
 men came running and lifted off the burning mass. 
 It is remembered further only, that the old farmer 
 said, "We have lost about thirty pounds of sugar." 
 
 The fences and buildings on the Millwood farm 
 were substantial and ample. The fences were nearly 
 all of the zig-zag or " Virginia" sort ; white oak rails 
 mostly, six or seven rails high, and "staked and 
 ridered " atop ; so that hardly any domestic animal 
 but a cat, could get over or through them. It was 
 probably this sort of fence of which a witness testi- 
 fied, somewhere in the fifties; " It was a Buncombe 
 fence, sir." And the court inquired, "What does 
 the witness mean by a Buncombe fence?" "A Bun- 
 combe fence, your Honor, is one that is bull strong, 
 horse high and pig tight ! " 
 
 The work of constructing such a fence was large, 
 but it was durable ; and though none such are now 
 built, many are yet standing in which are rails full 
 fifty years old. 
 
 The dwelling and other buildings were at first all 
 of the log cabin or hewn log variety. But ere long 
 others were added, made from lumber sawn at Mill- 
 wood. The largest of these was a barn of very con- 
 siderable dimensions, erected somewhere about 1840, 
 the main part of which is yet standing. It is of 
 almost remarkable solidity ; the sills, posts and beams 
 are large, hand-hewn of the best white oak ; double- 
 braced, mortised and pinned together as if to with- 
 stand a tornado. It was one of the chief resorts of 
 the Small Boy ; climbing the great stringer beams and 
 turning summersaults off them into the sweet hay, or 
 
^8 Millwood Farm; 
 
 helping to pack away the sheaves of grain to await 
 threshing time. 
 
 The first house on the Millwood farm was super- 
 seded ere long by a larger one, and to which an addi- 
 tion was made some years later. For the first time 
 the family now had a cellar, by no means a common 
 convenience in those days. But that cellar ! Why, 
 it was where the apples were kept in the winter ! The 
 smell of those apples, 'm-'m-'m ! Talk to a Small 
 Boy if you must, about Ceylon's isle, and Araby the 
 
 blest. But, ! 
 
 This house had a yet larger fire-place and chimney 
 than the preceding one. Big backlogs, that seem on 
 memory's tablet to have been not less than two feet 
 through, were " walked in" early at night, and nested 
 in the ashes against the fireplace back wall; then 
 there was a smaller top log put on, v/ith a forestick on 
 the great andirons. Then with the smaller wood 
 added, what a great fire there was, filling the big 
 room with comfort ; and before which sat at tiines, 
 the parents, two daughters and seven sons ; and there 
 was not a black sheep among them ! 
 
 All the accessories of a thrifty home were gathered 
 on this Ellis farm. The older dwelling became the 
 "loom house," where the family cloth was made; 
 and here afterward, with the coming of a new gene- 
 ration, the ubiquitous Small Boy helped his own 
 mother in the various minor processes of winding, 
 reeling and quilling yarns for weaving into flannels, 
 linens and linsey-woolseys. There too was the spring- 
 house, where the milk was set in a wide, stone-bot- 
 tomed bed, with the cold water flowing an inch or 
 two deep among the crocks, so that no ice was ever 
 
Boyhood Memories . 49 
 
 needed ; here was the churning done and the cheese 
 ripened. 
 
 The brick "out-oven" under a roof of its own 
 was used once a week or oftener, for the much bread 
 and many pies and cakes needed. The quantity of 
 such consumed by a half-dozen lusty boys would 
 astonish an inexperienced housekeeper. 
 
 Then there was the house used both for smoking 
 meat and drying fruit; generally called the "dry 
 house." When smoking of hams was to be done, 
 fire was outside several feet away, and the smoke 
 passed under ground into the house, with very little 
 heat. But when fruit was to be dried, a hot fire was 
 kept in a "ten-plate" box stove; and as we remem- 
 ber the way it felt in there, the temperature must 
 have been anywhere up to 500 degrees. The fruit 
 was spread on wide trays, which rested on stout pins 
 driven in the log walls. 
 
 There was also the bee-house, of which the Small 
 Boy was discreetly shy ; and the corn-house and 
 wagon shelter ; containing also the work -bench and 
 tools for carpentering and repair work. Beyond these 
 were the stables and sheep-folds, and no stock was 
 without a comfortable shelter. 
 
 There was one other building for storage near the 
 dwelling, called " the barrel house." Its principal 
 contents were some of the farm and household sup- 
 plies, mostly in barrels; as salt, soap, rosin, pine tar, 
 lime and the like. The memory of house and con- 
 tents had long since faded from the Small Boy's 
 mind ; when one day in passing through a wholesale 
 street in Boston, suddenly a vision of the old barrel- "^ 
 
 4 r 
 
^o The Nexv York Visit. 
 
 house flashed before hun as though painted on a can- 
 vas. Startled and amazed, he stopped and wondered, 
 until after some moments he recognized that the vision 
 of memory was caused by the fragrance of fine tar 
 barrels in a ware-house he was passing ! 
 
 At some time not long after the Ellis family came 
 to this their new home, Henry Babcock came also, as 
 previously noted, and established his cooper-shop. 
 He may have had relatives at Newport, and with his 
 wife Sibyl he may have also gone there to visit Silas, 
 Diana, and Henry ; but in any event, on his return 
 he brought with him a young cooper named Aaron 
 Edgell, perhaps to work for him. The result was an 
 acquaintance and marriage with Melissa Ellis in 1837 ; 
 followed by the departure of the young pair to New- 
 port, which was ever afterward their home. 
 
 Two years later, the second and only remaining 
 daughter Cherrill, was married to John Burtnett, Jr., 
 and went back to her new home on the " old farm." 
 Nearly the whole of their married life was spent 
 there; and their only remaining son, Martin Ellis 
 Burtnett, is now living there. 
 
 In the summer of 183S, after the wheat harvest and 
 " laying by " the corn, Benjamin and Lois Ellis went 
 on horseback to visit relatives about Zanesville, and 
 thence to Watertown. They made the trip partly 
 or largely because of the frail condition of Lyman, 
 then about a year old ; the doctor telling them it would 
 probably save his life. He was carried by the mother 
 on a pillow in front of her ; and was benefitted or 
 entirely restored by the journey. 
 
 This visiting trip occupied six weeks, and evidently 
 included the Palmers, parents of Lois, and probably 
 
A Fa^nily Affliction. 51 
 
 some others of her family ; and if Rufus and Martin 
 Ellis were in that region, they were no doubt also 
 visited. On their return, if we have learned rightly, 
 they went to Newport to seethe young Edgell family, 
 and Benjamin's brothers Silas and Henry, and sister 
 Diana. 
 
 But distressing news reached the father and mother 
 on their return journey, probably at Newport. They 
 learned that "little Benja," eight years old, was ill 
 or already dead, of dysentery ; and on their arrival, 
 he had been buried some days. The whole family 
 was in the deepest affliction, for he seemed to have 
 been a favorite ; and was remembered as of " beauti- 
 ful features and complexion, with dark eyes, and 
 brown curling hair." Doubtless the parents felt that 
 though they had saved one child's life, they had lost 
 another ; and that perhaps had they been at home 
 they could have saved him. But they had the assur- 
 ance of the elder children that the medical attend- 
 ance and nursing were all that could have been 
 rendered by the parents themselves. One thing, 
 however, must have sorely tried them. On their 
 departure they left a young woman as a helper for 
 Cherrill, now twenty years old, to care for the house- 
 hold during their absence. In order to better control 
 the young boys, this girl would tell them "bugaboo" 
 stories, which had an effect on one of them at least, 
 so that in all his after life he was timid in the dark. 
 If she had no better judgment in caring for a sick 
 child, than in such story telling, her help may have 
 been altogether for the worse. Poor little Benja ! 
 The father told years afterward, how he stood look- 
 ing on wistfully as they mounted their horses for the 
 
^2 Work and Play, 
 
 journey, and saying, " May I go too, daddy?" The 
 last time they ever heard his voice ! 
 
 Not many details of farm work are here given, but 
 the story is told in a general term, " hard work." 
 " Clearing a farm " is a term of vague significance to 
 one of the present generation, but to those who did it, 
 it was the embodiment of the severest toil. Cutting 
 off acre after acre of trees, many of them two feet or 
 more in diameter, sawing them into lengths for rails, 
 lumber or burning ; reducing logs to rails, and tree- 
 tops to fire wood and brush heaps ; this was a large 
 preliminary to cultivation. Not less laborious was 
 the " grubbing out " of the smaller saplings and 
 "stools;" for vmtil this was done there was little 
 room for cultivation between the big stumps. 
 
 But farm life had its resting spells and diversions, 
 and work itself had its enjoyable features. Sugar 
 making, sheep washing and shearing; haying and 
 harvesting, apple gathering and cider making ; these 
 and other features of the yearly round had each their 
 portion of fun for the young, and relaxation perhaps 
 for the elders. Huskings and apple-parings were 
 occasions for neighborhood gatherings at night; 
 while the debating society, the singing school and the 
 spelling match in the log school house, drew together 
 the young blood from a larger territory. Many a 
 man and woman of mark in later years had their 
 early experiences in these wholesome gatherings. 
 
 There were also sports at hand for leisure moments, 
 for both small boys and large boys, at school and on 
 the farm. At noon time and after supper, a few 
 minutes were often found for " pitching horse-shoes," 
 or a ball game of " two cat " or " three cat," accord- 
 
at Home and School. 53 
 
 ing to the number of boys available. " Running 
 jump," " standing jump," " pole jump," " hop-skip- 
 and-jump," racing and "rassling;" all gave variety 
 and exercise, were any needed after the day's work 
 and " chores " of feeding stock, milking and the like. 
 In the winter there was skating and "shinny," 
 besides "straw rides" in big sleds; and well to do 
 young men aspired to a "cutter" sleigh in which to 
 take out their " best girl." 
 
 At school, the leading game for the larger boys 
 especially was "town ball," played by chosen "sides," 
 and having many features of modern base-ball, of 
 which it was undoubtedly the progenitor. " Anteny 
 over" was played by boys and girls together, over 
 the schoolhouse roof. Then there was "bull-pen" 
 and "sock-ball," — much the same — for big boys 
 only ; the merit of which was in hitting the fellow 
 on the other side the hardest possible throw with the 
 ball, involving a Spartan test of "enduring hardness 
 as a good soldier." The old saying of "sock it to 
 'em " seems to have come down from that hard game. 
 
 There was also "black man" for boys and girls 
 of moderate size ; and for small boys only, what was 
 called " dosf." And one of the ineffaceable recoUec- 
 tions of the Small Boy is of one summer day when 
 he was the only boy at school, and there was no 
 other with whom he could play " dog" ! 
 
 But on the farms there was sometimes a day off for 
 the big boys and their fathers, that may have an- 
 swered to quilting bees and the like for the girls and 
 the mothers. These would take form as a bee-tree 
 hunt, a 'coon party, or a fox dig-out ; or maybe a 
 day's fish-seining in the river. And was not the 
 
CA Fishin" and Swiinniin' . 
 
 Small Boy allowed to " go along," and was not the 
 fun and the game the greatest on earth ? 
 
 And there were two things then, as now, that 
 could not be denied to any small boy; " fishin' an' 
 swimmin' !" He could get his own lithe fish-pole, and 
 a flax-line with the help of his mother ; then a bullet- 
 sinker, and a pin hook if he could do no better, and 
 that boy was fixed ; he could fish ! Early as may be, 
 when the spring " fresh" had subsided and there was 
 a chance for a bite, he was eager to try his luck. 
 Little cared he for politics or business, for chores or 
 school, for home or heaven, could he but feel a 
 nibble ! 
 
 Then came the warmer days and warmer water, 
 until after many teasings of his mother, the boy gets 
 leave to "go swimmin'." He always wants to be 
 the first to try it, and despite goose-flesh and chatter- 
 ing teeth, he says, " Why, the water is just as warm !" 
 And later, when it is a real joy to be in the warmer 
 water, he wants to go often, and the mother feels 
 constrained to establish a limit. Now, what boy can 
 bear to hear his rival boast, " I've been in five times 
 today !" while he has been himself limited to three 
 times ? And so there may have been transgressions 
 in those days ; and it was told of some boy that he 
 came in to supper, and was charged with having vio- 
 lated the statute of limitation, which was not admit- 
 ted. " Then how is it your shirt is wrong side out?" 
 Stunned and abashed, he finally recovered and said, 
 " Why, I must a done it climbin' over the fence !" 
 
 The larger boys always had guns for such game as 
 abounded, and often in clearing and plowing, there 
 might be a shot at a toothsome squirrel or marauding 
 
Silas and Henry Ellis. 55 
 
 hawk. A dog was always ranging the fields where 
 the Ellis men worked ; and a large family cat accom- 
 panied them in field and woods, as general super- 
 visor. He was of great dignity, and not disposed to 
 notice small affairs. At one time, while overseeing 
 the felling of a tree, he was seated with his back 
 toward a brush-heap, under which the dog was snort- 
 ing and barking after game. Presently a frightened 
 bis: buck-rabbit shot from beneath the brush and 
 knocked the " Judge " end over end several feet ; but 
 when he righted himself, he had the rabbit ! 
 
 The bottom-land along the river was very fertile, 
 and was early cleared, except a fringe of giant 
 sycamores on the bank; which remained well into 
 the recollection of the writer. Later years have seen 
 much of this alluvial soil carried away by high water, 
 and much more covered by the wash of sand and 
 gravel from the hills. We are now paying the pen- 
 alty in many states, for the slaughter of our primeval 
 
 forests. 
 
 When the sons of Benjamin Ellis came of age, they 
 were not all content to remain on the farm. Alva 
 P., the eldest, married and built a house a few rods 
 from his father, \\here the Small Boy was born, 
 which accounts for his presence on so many occasions 
 in this narrative ; and here the new family remained 
 for ten years. Albert also married and lived most of 
 the time for several years in the house built by his 
 uncle Henry Babcock, who had removed to Licking 
 county. This house was on land sold to Babcock by 
 Squire Ellis, and bought back again on his removal. 
 
 Silas Ellis learned the gunsmith trade of Sam StuU 
 in Millwood, and soon went to Zanesville, among the 
 
56 Alva and Henry 
 
 Ballou cousins. He was married there and then 
 settled at his trade in Adamsville, a few miles away, 
 and remained until 1856, when he emigrated to Boone, 
 Iowa. 
 
 Henry left the farm at the age of twenty-one, and 
 joined Silas in gunsmithing ; but a few months later, 
 early in 1850, Alva persuaded him to go with himself 
 and others to California ; where gold could be had 
 almost for the picking up ! 
 
 The departure of that party is one of the early but 
 distinct recollections of the Small Boy. The doubt- 
 ful, anxious, but half-hopeful parents of the two 
 departing sons, and the crying young mother with 
 us three little ones, in contrast with the eager gold- 
 seekers ; this may better be imagined than described. 
 This was in April, and the party of five or more 
 arrived at Marysville, Cal., in September, and in a 
 few weeks Henry died of typhoid fever. 
 
 There is but a fragmentary record of this overland 
 journey ; by mule teams from St. Louis, across the 
 unsettled alkali plains and mountain ranges. Pro- 
 visions became scarce and feed for mules limited, and 
 the greatest courage was necessary to keep going. 
 At one time they were very short of supplies and 
 hungry, when at very long range a large antelope was 
 seen. A hurried conference resulted in Henry Ellis 
 being chosen to make the shot. " Well," said Henry, 
 " I can try ;" and quickly but steadily brought down 
 to level his heavy rifle — his own manufacture — then 
 a flash, and a second later the buck dropped! Then 
 there was a wild shouting and throwing of hats ; for 
 this gave them venison to carry them nearly through. 
 
 The California experience was not financially 
 
in California. 57 
 
 profitable to Alva Ellis ; though he brought home a 
 few hundred dollars at the end of nearly two years. 
 Placer digging was practically all that was open to 
 men without capital, and few men "struck it rich." 
 For awhile at one time he worked for some one on a 
 "venture" at a dollar a day, there being nothing 
 better in sight. In one of the remote mountain dig- 
 gings, where he was for a time, the price of nearly 
 every article of food was a dollar a pound ; flour, 
 pork, beans, coffee, sugar, salt — all at the one price. 
 Everything was brought into the mines on wagons or 
 pack-mules from Sacramento, having been first 
 brought to San Francisco via Panama or Cape Horn. 
 Fortunately for the miners in the mountains, there 
 was plenty of game, and venison and bear meat 
 helped out many a lean camp. The mountain air 
 was so dry and pure that the fresh meat would hang 
 in the shade indefinitely, and dry up without tainting. 
 
 The most hopeful enterprise in which Alva Ellis 
 engaged, was in a company formed to dam the 
 Feather River, and turn the water into a new chan- 
 nel, so as to get the gold in the river bed. He was 
 a prodigy of strength, and seemed to be the only 
 Ohio man in this company ; and it was common for 
 some one to sa}^, when a particularly heavy log or 
 stone was to be handled: "Make room there, and 
 let Ohio get hold of it!" 
 
 But a freshet broke the dam, and with it the larger 
 expectations of this Ohio miner. He had been long- 
 ing for home, and this was a turning point. Having 
 saved up a considerable bag of " dust," he figured 
 that he had enough to pay his return via " the isth- 
 mus," and have moderate wages left ; so about No- 
 
58 A Railroad Project. 
 
 vember, 1851, he took passage on a vessel called 
 " Gen. Wool." The voyage v^as sluggish, w^ith 
 calms and head w^inds, and the vessel poorly pro- 
 visioned ; but finally he arrived at and crossed the 
 isthmus ; thence by a steamer to New Orleans, from 
 which by river boat to Cincinnati, and soon there- 
 after, in February, 1852, he was back to his native 
 county. 
 
 Meantime it must have seemed disappointing if not 
 discouraging to farmer Benjamin Ellis, now in his 
 sixtieth year, to have three of his grown sons away 
 from him, and one of them soon dead. Albert 
 remained, as noted, and the younger boys, Andrew, 
 Lyman and Luther, aged fifteen, thirteen and ten ; 
 these constituted his working force. But in the fifteen 
 years just passed, the farm had been well established, 
 and a good measure of comfort and independence 
 prevailed. 
 
 About 1850-53 there was developed a railroad 
 project, to run from some point west of Knox 
 county, through Mt. Vernon and down the river 
 through the Ellis farm to some point eastward, per- 
 haps Coshocton, on the Ohio Canal. To aid the 
 enterprise, farmer Ellis mortgaged half his farm and 
 bought stock in it ; but the road was never completed ; 
 some grading and the like being done in Delaware 
 county, and it became a total loss. Millwood sank, 
 as it were, into the ground ; instead of becoming a 
 railroad town ; and many a castle in the air vanished 
 " like the mist before the sun." 
 
 The mortgage inheritance from this " slump " was 
 the burden of Benjamin Ellis' remaining years, and 
 doubtless shortened his life. What would have been 
 
" Uncle Martht" Ellis. 59 
 
 a comfortable old age, was one filled with anxiety 
 and effort to pay interest and redeem his land. And 
 he had plenty of company in it, among his neighbors. 
 
 " Uncle Martin " Ellis, next older brother to 
 Benjamin, made two or more visits to the Millwood 
 farm, from 1837 to 1S53. He had lived in New 
 York until perhaps about 1843 ; when, being a wid- 
 ower, he came to Ohio, having with him on one visit 
 a lame or crippled son, Benjamin. Two other 
 children came ; Henry Ingalls Ellis, who taught 
 school in Knox county, became a physician, and 
 married a Miss Mulford ; and Eliza Ellis, who taught 
 school in Licking county, and was married there to 
 Dr. Paramore. Dr. Ellis lived for a time in Mill- 
 wood, then joined practice with Dr. Paramore in St. 
 Louisville, Licking county ; but later removed to 
 Chicago. One daughter is remembered, probably 
 the only child. The Paramores, with two or more 
 children, later removed to some town in Illinois. 
 
 An amusing incident is remembered as occurring 
 at the marriage of Eliza and Dr. Paramore. It was 
 a church affair with a "full house ;" and the dignified 
 Baptist clergyman had just pronounced that part of 
 the service which says, " if any persons know of any 
 reason why," etc., "let them now make it known, 
 or ever after hold their peace." At 'this juncture, 
 after a momentary pause, a solemn individual arose 
 in the audience and, as if in discharge of a grave 
 public duty, announced, " I presume, parson, there 
 are no objections !" and solemnly sat down, amid 
 many smiles. The ceremony then proceeded to its 
 conclusion. 
 
 It seems probable that "uncle Martin" Ellis had 
 
6o ''Old Biliy Smith, 
 
 other and older children left in New York, but of 
 this we have no account whatever. Neither do we 
 know that he had a home in Ohio ; but it rather would 
 appear that after the coming of the before-mentioned 
 children to Ohio, he returned to New York and lived 
 there. He was about sixty years old when the Cali- 
 fornia gold fever broke out, and started from where 
 he was to some eastern port, either Boston or New 
 York, to ship via " the Horn" for the mines; but 
 slipped and broke his hip on an icy sidewalk, and 
 went no further. He was afterward at his brother 
 Benjamin's in 1853 or '54, and walked with a cane, 
 as we distinctly remember. It is probable that he 
 and the children mentioned visited with the family of 
 his uncle Ebenezer Ingalls, in Hebron, south of 
 Newark, but of this we have no tradition ; and 
 neither do we remember any mention in the Benja- 
 min Ellis family of those Ingalls relatives, though 
 they were hardly more than fifty miles away. 
 
 It was not the purpose of this narrative to introduce 
 any other than those connected with the Ellis line ; 
 but in the neighborhood was a character so unique 
 and widely known that we must be pardoned the 
 digression. His name was probably William at first, 
 but his fame in all later time was by the name of 
 Billy Smith. -He was an expert angler, and we have 
 just one memory of meeting him with rod and basket 
 on the Millwood road, and he kindly stopped and 
 showed us boys the fish he had just caught above the 
 dam. As remembered, he looked exceedingly like 
 the pictures we have seen of Daniel Webster in 
 farmer costume at Marshfield ; a wide hat, loose coat, 
 and heavy boots. But his resemblance and his fame 
 
the Ohio Munchatisen . 6i 
 
 were not of statesmanship, nor yet of fishing ; but that 
 he was " the monumental liar of Ohio !" And it is 
 doubtful if any other American state ever produced 
 an equal of this modern Munchausen ; whose extrava- 
 gantly absurd and inimitable yarns filled a place 
 which none other dared to claim. For a half cen- 
 tury since, we have from time to time met in public 
 prints, reproductions and perversions of these mar- 
 vellous recitals, W'hich we first had heard attributed 
 to Billy Smith ! His fertility and audacity were 
 astounding, and he would tell these preposterous 
 stories, often at his own expense, with such serious- 
 ness that he seemed actually to believe them. 
 
 Billy was a " church member," and in good stand- 
 ing except for this one characteristic. It was related 
 that out of respect for public opinion he was finally 
 cited to appear before the church ofiicials, and 
 humbly acknowledged his fault, saying in part, " I 
 know it's wrong, bretheren, and I've talked over it, 
 and I've prayed over it, and I've cried over it ; why, 
 I've shed just barrels of tears I" 
 
 It is believed that the " bretheren " let him go as 
 easily as they could, privately acknowledging him as 
 incorrigible. He is said to have lived to be very old ; 
 and on returning from Millwood to his farm on foot 
 in the evening, was overtaken by a cold rain, lost 
 his way and perished by the roadside, not far from 
 home. Poor old Billy ! We know not if a stone 
 marks his grave and commemorates his fame ; but he 
 shall have at least this word of remembrance. 
 
 One of the later improvements of the Millwood 
 farm was the " water-telegraph," installed in 1S53. 
 This was a device for bringing water from the spring 
 
62 Modern Improvements. 
 
 to the door or porch of the house, without going down 
 the declivity and bringing it by hand. The idea and 
 work were from Silas, who came from Adamsville to 
 visit his former home ; and its essential features were 
 a taut heavy wire, supported on posts carrying curved 
 steel fingers which touched and upheld the under 
 surface of the wire ; and a trolley hung upon the wire 
 with the carrying bucket attached underneath. The 
 trolley would easily run down the wire, and the 
 bucket, dipping full, was drawn back to the house by 
 an attached cord, wound on a wheel. This was a 
 great curiosity to many, and remained in use perhaps 
 fifteen years. The stone trough made for this pur- 
 pose to receive the spring water, finally broke in two 
 and was taken out many years later. 
 
 Another labor-saving device was introduced per- 
 haps a year earlier; namely, a horse-power wood- 
 sawinsr machine. We think that Silas Ellis had 
 talked up this idea also ; anyway we remember his 
 being present when it was in operation. When first 
 it was discussed, the 'Squire said, " Well, I'll give 
 ten dollars toward it." Then Alva and Albert 
 " chipped in " if we rightly remember, and John 
 Burtnett contributed the use of the horse-power of 
 his threshing-machine. The circular saw, shaft and 
 balance-wheel were ordered somewhere, and all the 
 frame and other wood-work was home-made, and 
 well made, mainly we think, by Andrew ; who was 
 already a good mechanic, though but about seventeen 
 at the time. With a pair of horses hitched to each 
 of the four " sweeps," there was ample power, and 
 a day's work at the house of each of the partners 
 would cut a whole winter's wood into desired lengths ; 
 
Threshing Time. 63 
 
 an immense saving over the ordinary cutting with the 
 axe. At that time, it is doubtful if there was another 
 such apparatus in the whole county. 
 
 There was another innovation or improvement that 
 came in about the same period, viz., cider-making. 
 From time immemorial, apples had been hauled away 
 to some water power, and there made into cider. 
 But some one said, " Let's make our own cider." 
 And so a mill and press were made then and there, 
 and many a barrel was thenceforth had at first hand, 
 without the benefit or encouragement of a protective 
 tariff. And such cider as that was ! ! 
 
 Until about 1850 the grain thresher and separator 
 was unknown. From earliest history the beating out 
 by flail, or treading out by the feet of horses and oxen 
 had been universal ; and many a time after the above 
 date did the Small Boy lend his presence to work of 
 this kind on the main floor of the big barn. But 
 machinery w^as coming in to supplant the primitive 
 methods ; and perhaps during the '40's was brought 
 out the threshing machine, or * 'chaff -piler" as it was 
 afterward called. This was run by horse-power, 
 and its essential feature was the iron-toothed cylinder 
 w^hich beat out the grain and threw it and straw and 
 chaff into a common heap. After this the straw was 
 raked away and the chaff and grain separated by a 
 fanning-mill, which was also a modern device. But 
 American invention soon combined the two machines ; 
 and we think John Burtnett was one of the first to 
 introduce it into Knox county. 
 
 " Thrashing-time" was thenceforth a big day for 
 the Small Boy in the big barn. He was large enough 
 to help get sheaves from remote parts of the big mow 
 
64 Going to Jelloway. 
 
 toward the machine, or to help in some other small 
 way. The men generally had a wet sponge tied over 
 nose and mouth to keep out the dust ; but there was 
 no protection for the ears, and the noise was great. 
 The machine was one of the original " knocker " 
 build, and we think the men all liked the racket as 
 well as the boys ; and we remember John Burtnett, 
 who " fed " the machine, and was son-in-law, or 
 brother-in-law or uncle to all the crowd, asking us 
 small fry, "Don't your ears ring?" 
 
 In their religious responsibilities, Benjamin and 
 Lois Ellis are remembered as unobtrusive, yet faith- 
 ful and conscientious. They had been early instru- 
 mental in the establishment of public worship on 
 their first Ohio farm, as will be remembered ; and 
 when settled on the Millwood place they became fac- 
 tors there in the church affairs. It is said they were 
 quietly but firmly attached to their denomination, and 
 looked with strong disfavor on all others. But at a 
 time, somewhat earlier than the writer's recollection, 
 there chanced that way on some errand, a homespun 
 preacher of another school than their own. It was 
 near time for supjDer, and he was invited to eat with 
 the family, for Christian courtesy was stronger than 
 denominational prejudice. The conversation became 
 interesting, soon involving features of the visitor's 
 doctrinal teaching; and hour after hour passed in 
 reading the Scriptures and discussion, until morning 
 came without their having slept at all ! Afterward 
 we heard of the father's saying, " We ought to have 
 heard these things long ago." 
 
 Thenceforth, and ever after the writer's recollec- 
 tion, the family church-home and burial place was 
 
The Country Church. 65 
 
 at the " Jelloway meeting-house," some three or four 
 miles northwesterly ; and thither in all passable 
 weather on Sundays, a delegation went from the Ellis 
 farm. Parents and children, representing three gen- 
 erations, went in wagons and on horse-back, some at 
 times, and sometimes all. There were very few 
 carriages then ; we do not remember one that came 
 to that meeting. But there were horses, horses, 
 horses ; such numbers of whinnying horses, tied to 
 the oak trees, and having a meeting of their own ! 
 
 Here was a gathering of a considerable number of 
 families of thrifty, hardy farmers, of whom Benja- 
 min Ellis was a worthy sample. Some were men of 
 no small ability, and nearly all were of strong char- 
 acter. There were public speakers often present, of 
 their own plain, hardy type ; mighty in the scriptures, 
 and knowing far less of other books than is now 
 thought necessary. Among these was the writer's 
 own maternal grandfather, Benjamin Sanders, whose 
 local and itinerant ministry extended over a consider- 
 able portion of Ohio, during some twenty years. 
 The worship here was simple, dignified, devout, and 
 its influence wholesome ; to be carried thence by 
 some to distant places. Here were Drakes, Dawsons, 
 Critchfields, Cassils, McFarlands, Moodys, McElroys, 
 Grahams, Spindlers, Encells, EUises and others ; but 
 a half century later we find only their headstones ; 
 and the meeting no longer held there, but in the town 
 of Howard. The present house is, however, in good 
 repair, and a memorial meeting is annually held there 
 by the descendants and others. 
 
 These pages are written not more to preserve to 
 posterity the genealogical record of the Ellis-Palmer 
 
 5 
 
66 Last Days. 
 
 line, than to narrate in brief outline the story of a 
 plain hardworking pioneer couple of Ohio, in the 
 first half of the nineteeth century. By their industry 
 and fidelity they made themselves a home, and a place 
 in the community second to none in all the country 
 about. There is no thought of eulogy or over-praise ; 
 but a simple testimony to sterling worth. Neither of 
 this couple perhaps ever thought that any descendant, 
 at any time later, would be sufficiently interested to 
 make their life the subject of even this little history. 
 But the end of their labors was approaching, and 
 when not yet having reached the allotted three-score 
 and ten, they entered into rest. While two sons yet 
 remained with him, the father's health began to fail, 
 about 1856; and in something less than two years, 
 perhaps, he died peacefully; March 17, 1S58. His 
 last words were, " I have all confidence in God, and 
 know all is well with me." 
 
 The mother, some six years younger, continued 
 with the two younger sons in the home ; they and the 
 next older, Andrew and Albert, near by, working the 
 farm. Luther, the youngest, began to break down, 
 and died in 1S61, aged nearly twenty -two. The same 
 year, Albert and Lyman entered the volunteer army, 
 the one as lieutenant and the other as sergeant in the 
 65th Ohio. This left Andrew alone on the farm 
 with his mother, so he made his home with her as we 
 remember, until her death, March 14, 1864. Albert 
 returned in broken health within two years after his 
 enlistment, and Lyman, on a furlough, returned 
 after two years' service ; so the mother lived to see 
 both at home. 
 
The Aaron Edgell Family. 67 
 
 The Benjamin Ellis Descendants. 
 
 It will be in order now to follow the several families 
 of the children of Benjamin and Lois Ellis, in suffi- 
 cient detail that an intelligible record may be had for 
 present reading and future reference. 
 
 In the order of age of the children above mentioned, 
 we have first ; 
 
 The Aaron Edgell Family. 
 
 (53) Aaron Edgell, ] married at Millwood 
 (43) Melissa Ellis, j Oct. 12, 1837. 
 
 Children : 
 
 (54) Benjamin Ellis Edgell, b. Newport, Ohio, 
 
 Nov. 8, 1839. 
 
 (55) Henry Ellis Edgell, b. Newport, Ohio, 
 
 Apr. 27, 1842. 
 
 Benjamin E. Edgell was in the 129th Ohio for 
 about one year ; and later became a Methodist clergy- 
 man, and married Louise Dawson of Knox county, 
 Dec. 18, 1867. After serving several pastoral charges 
 in Pennsylvania, he was appointed missionary to 
 China for three years, returning in 1876. After a 
 ministry In California, the couple returned to their 
 native state, and have now completed more than forty 
 years of active pastoral work. For some years their 
 home has been in Oberlin, Ohio, and Mr. Edgell is 
 in charge of the endowment fund of his Conference, 
 for the benefit of superannuated ministers. There are 
 no children. 
 
68 Aaro7t Edgell Family. 
 
 Henry E. Edgell has always lived on the farm 
 where he was born in Newport. He was married 
 Feb. 19, 1861, to Amanda Gregory; and five chil- 
 dren were born to them : 
 
 (i) Elmer E. Edgell, 1861 ; married Lou 
 Beach, 1893. 
 
 (2) Clarence Benj. Edgell, 1866; married 
 
 Lola Odgin, 1890. 
 Children: Ruth A.; Mary L. ; Helen; 
 Ogdin. 
 
 (3) Nellie Melissa Edgell, 1872. 
 
 (4) Fairman Ross Edgell, 1879. 
 
 (5) Thomas M. Edgell, 1887; married Rose 
 
 Felter, 1908. 
 
 Henry E. Edgell's sons are, like himself, connected 
 with the petroleum industry which abounds in that 
 region. An oil pumping station is located on his 
 farm, to which oil is piped from adjacent wells, and 
 then forced eastward across the Ohio river toward the 
 refineries ; and natural gas is wholly used for fuel 
 and lighting. 
 
 The Edgell ancestry was English ; the John Edgell 
 sons settled in Licking county, Ohio ; and one of 
 these, Robert Edgell, born 1775, came to Newark, 
 1806. Seven children were born, of whom Aaron 
 was the second, in 181 1; and in 1820 the family 
 came to Newport. The father lived until 1865, the 
 last twelve years with his son Aaron and wife Melissa. 
 
 The married life of Aaron and Melissa Edgell has 
 always been remembered as one of marked devotion 
 and felicity. In the presence of others, and in what- 
 ever each wrote concerning the other, there was always 
 
John Burtnett Fajnily. 69 
 
 the kindest consideration and appreciation ; so that 
 for more than half a century they maintained an ideal 
 home life. Their golden wedding was celebrated in 
 1887 ; and although in failing health in later years, 
 they remained in active intercourse with friends and 
 relatives to the last. They v^^ere moderately prosper- 
 ous, and welcomed many kindred ; and themselves 
 visited frequently in return. Their housekeeping, if 
 we mistake not, began in the cabin home built for his 
 mother by Benjamin Ellis, Melissa's father, in 18 12 or 
 '13; and there they dwelt until 1853, when a large 
 and convenient house was erected, which is yet stand- 
 ing, and there their days ended. She died in May, 
 1890, and the affection of the husband shown in her 
 sepulture was as marked as that always manifested 
 during her life. He survived her about two years, to 
 the age of eighty -one. 
 
 The John Burtnett Family. 
 
 Charilla Ellis (47) wasm. to John Burtnett 
 Jr., at Millwood in 1S39. Their children are : 
 
 (62) Lois Burtnett, 1840; m. Mahlon Mc- 
 
 Artor ; she d. 1868. 
 
 (63) Mary Burtnett, 1842 ; m. Armedian 
 
 White ; he d. 1905. 
 
 (64) Martin Ellis Burtnett, 1845; m. Angie 
 
 L. Adrian. 
 
 (65) Martha Burtnett, 1845; m. William 
 
 Jacobs ; he d. 1902. 
 
 (66) Eliza Burtnett, 1847; m. Steve Tish ; 
 
 she d. 1879. 
 
 (67) Melissa Burtnett, 1850; m. Allen Os- 
 
 BORN ; he d. 1893. 
 
7o John Burtnett Family. 
 
 (68) Benjamin Burtnett, 1852; d. 1864. 
 
 (69) Emma A. Burtnett, 1855. 
 
 (70) William Burtnett, i860; m. Margaret 
 
 McMains; he d. 1890. 
 (Martin and Martha are twins) . 
 
 John Burtnett Jr., was a young man of nine- 
 teen when his father bought the Ellis farm in 1835. 
 He was second in a large family, and a hard-working, 
 honest man, with a desire and purpose from the first, 
 as he said, " to own that land himself some day." 
 And though he lived elsewhere at times after his 
 marriage, yet he kept close by or upon it for the most 
 part ; and after his father's death he gradually paid 
 off the other heirs, until we believe he finally acquired 
 full ownership. He was often engaged in other en- 
 terprises than farming ; we have noted his running a 
 threshing-machine. But his chief avocation was 
 dealing in live stock, successfully and otherwise. In 
 the '6o's he made two or more trips to Iowa with 
 car-loads of horses and sheep, and on his returning 
 from a later expedition of this kind, if we remember 
 rightly, during the '70's, he met his death, probably 
 by foul play, somewhere in Indiana. 
 
 Since that time the farm has become the home of 
 the only surviving son, Martin E. Burtnett ; so that 
 at this time the third generation of Burtnetts dwell 
 there. Since it is so well established as " the Burt- 
 nett farm," it is to be hoped that succeeding genera- 
 tions of the name may yet continue upon it. 
 
 Lois Burtnett McArtor left three daughters; 
 Mary and Rose, who married two brothers named 
 Norton, in Iowa county Iowa ; and Eva, who mar- 
 
John Burtnett Family. 7^ 
 
 ried Mr. Butts in Ohio, and lives near Danville. 
 The latter has three or more children. 
 
 Mary Burtnett White lives in Delaware county 
 Ohio, near Westerville and Lewis Centre; on the 
 farm where Mr, White died. There are two chil- 
 dren : I. Charles A. White, Delaware, Ohio, 
 dealer in carriages and farm implements ; has wife 
 and three children. The eldest of these, Orpha May, 
 was m. 1909, to Paul M. Gault. 2. Anna White 
 (Bale), Wester\-ille, Ohio, near her mother; hus- 
 band and two children. 
 
 Martin' E. Burtnett and wife have brought up 
 two children; Fred A. Burtnett, b. 1884, and 
 Florence Della May Burtnett, b. 1S87. Fred 
 was married in 1907, to May B. Allen of Howard, 
 and they have one daughter, Lois Burtnett, b. 1908 ; 
 and live on a farm near the town. Delia May was 
 married in 1908 to William J. McNabb of Butler 
 township, where their home now is. 
 
 Martha Burtnett Jacobs, and husband Wil- 
 liam, lived nearly all their married life in Gambler, 
 the college town of Knox county. About 1902 
 they removed to a farm some miles to the north- 
 ward, near Danville, where the husband and father 
 died not long after. There were six children in all : 
 Mary E. Jacobs, b. 1867 ; Cora A. Jacobs, 187 i ; 
 Edward H. Jacobs, 1874; Emma F. Jacobs, 1877 ; 
 John J. Jacobs, 1880; and Ruth B. Jacobs, 1885. 
 Cora A. was married in 1908, to Mr. Blue of the 
 same neighborhood, and died of pneumonia the same 
 year. She and her elder sister Mary had for some 
 years carried on a business in skilled embroidery de- 
 
72 Alva P. Ellis family, 
 
 signs, their trade extending throughout the country ; 
 and were for a considerable time located in Colum- 
 bus, O. The two sons have proven themselves suc- 
 cessful and prosperous farmers. 
 
 Mr. Jacobs, the father, was a direct descendant of 
 Myles Standish and John Alden of the Plymouth 
 Pilgrims, his family being the ninth generation. 
 
 Eliza Burtnett Tish was married and lived in 
 Knox county. Left one son, Burleigh Tish, who 
 died young. 
 
 Melissa Burtnett Osborn lives on her farm 
 near Marengo, Morrow county. Has one daughter, 
 Lois Osborn, m. 190S, to H. R. Smith Jr., of 
 Delaware ; now resident at Houghton, N. Y. 
 
 Emma A. Burtnett, unmarried, lives with her 
 sister, Mrs. White, near Westerville. 
 
 William Burtnett lived in Knox county, then 
 in Iowa, and again in Ohio, where he died. Left 
 one daughter, Charilla, who died young. 
 
 The Alva P. Ellis Family. 
 
 (45) Alva P. Ellis ") married in Knox 
 
 (71) Margaret Sanders J Co., O., 1844. 
 
 Children : 
 
 (72) Francis O. Ellis, b. Howard, O., 1S45. JO . f *f 
 
 (73) Sarah C. Ellis, b. " " 1S46. 
 
 (74) Laura E. Ellis, b. " » 1848. 
 
 (75) Clara B. Ellis, b. " " 1853. 
 
 (76) Norton S. Ellis, b. Wellman, Iowa, 1855. 
 
 (77) Emma L. Ellis, b. Green Center, Iowa, 
 
 1856. 
 
on Millwood Farm. 73 
 
 In nearly everything that has been written concern- 
 ing the Millwood farm, Alva Ellis is to be counted 
 present as boy or man. He was about fifteen when 
 the family came from the "Burtnett farm," thence- 
 forth so called ; and he bore a sturdy part with his 
 father in all the great labor of clearing, fencing and 
 tilling that new possession. He was tireless, ambi- 
 tious and energetic ; never shirking ; and fully 
 equalled his father in the prodigies of work he 
 accomplished. When he married and built a house 
 a few rods from his parents, it was to be as a tenant, 
 and no suggestion of allotment of land to be called his, 
 seems to have been made. And mostly for nearly 
 ten years, except while absent in California, he 
 worked as before on his father's land. 
 
 He was by nature sufficiently mechanical to be 
 skilful in all ordinary farm or house-building and 
 repairing ; a faculty which always was useful in the 
 making of farm implements. We have heard of his 
 once going with his parents to Mt. Vernon, when he 
 was perhaps twelve years old ; and when they were 
 about to return, they found him greatly absorbed in 
 examination of a wheelbarrow. He had evidently 
 never before seen one, but this inspection bore fruit 
 not many days after ; when out of the meagre facilities 
 on the farm, he constructed a really creditable wheel- 
 barrow ; and came to the house in great feather, 
 wheeling to his mother a load of bark for firewood ! 
 None but those who have achieved victory by their 
 own effort, or parents who have rejoiced with them, 
 can well appreciate such a homely episode. 
 
 There were severe trials for the farmers in the 
 early years of the Alva Ellis family. Wheat was 
 
74 A. P. Ellis Family^ 
 
 about the most readily salable crop, and wheat seemed 
 to have a host of enemies in those years. Hessian 
 fly, rust and weevil successively devastated the 
 promising crop ; and doubtless had an influence on 
 the young farmer ; first, to seek his fortune in Cali- 
 fornia, and later to turn his face toward the prairies 
 of Iowa. 
 
 However that may have been, we find that the next 
 year after his return from California, he joined with 
 several others, who like himself had no land, and 
 went prospecting to Iowa. They all "entered" or 
 purchased "government land," never before occupied 
 by white men, at $1.25 per acre. This was in Iowa 
 county, some twenty odd miles from Iowa City, then 
 the capital of the State, and which was a State then 
 but seven years old. Most of this same land is now 
 worth about one hundred twenty-five dollars per acre, 
 a little more than a half century later ! 
 
 The next year, on October 12, 1854, witnessed the 
 migration of the Alva P. Ellis family to their land of 
 promise. It was one of the great years of exodus 
 from eastern and central states to what was then 
 "way out west." Many went by rail as far as rail- 
 ways extended ; perhaps one line had at that time 
 reached the Mississippi, but we think not. The river 
 was not bridged till some years afterward, and there 
 was not a rail laid in Iowa until about 1855-6. 
 
 But the great throng of emigrants for Illinois, Iowa, 
 Wisconsin, Minnesota, and some yet further, was by 
 means of the " covered wagon." Their appearance 
 is familiar to all who possess a school history or 
 geography ; but the experience of such a journey is 
 in itself an epoch in life, especially to the young 
 generation. 
 
Removal to Iowa. 75 
 
 The ordinary outfit was a pair of horses or oxen 
 attached to the canvas-covered wagon. Some may 
 have had two wagons ; in other cases two families 
 went in one wagon. Many had small means and 
 large families, and to procure even a modest outfit 
 was difficult. Doubtless some had to stop short of 
 their intended destination, by reason of bad roads 
 or exhausted animals; but generally they "went 
 through," anywhere from four hundred to a thousand 
 miles, in from three to eight weeks. 
 
 The outfit of Alva P. Ellis was decidedly larger 
 and better than the average. While many went upon 
 the plan of converting pretty much all their posses- 
 sions into cash, and carrying a light load, he did just 
 the opposite. Believing it would be better to take 
 with him everything possible which w^ould be needed, 
 he procured from one source the running gear of a 
 wide track, extra heavy mountain wagon, once prob- 
 ably used on the National Road, with tires nearly an 
 inch thick. Then from his brother-in-law John 
 Burtnett if we mistake not, he bought a large Pennsyl- 
 vania wagon-body, just fitted to the running gear; 
 and he then had a complete wagon, such as were 
 formerly used to transport six-horse loads over the 
 Alleghanies before the day of railroads. 
 
 The stowage capacity of this big wagon was great, 
 nearly three times that of the ordinary emigrant out- 
 fit. This was packed with the skill of an experienced 
 " forty-niner," all heavy articles at the bottom, and 
 filled almost solidly to the arched canvas roof. A 
 space was reserved in the forward end for the family ; 
 snug and comfortable in all weathers, but with an 
 outlook ahead only. This family space was at night 
 
^6 Ejiiigration Experiences. 
 
 made into a sort of Pullman compartment, wherein 
 slept the Boy, — no longer so small as he had been — 
 and a young man named Jasper Horner, who was 
 " working his passage " to Iowa. This was great 
 enjoyment for a boy ; but others of the family were 
 housed at night under a large tent, which was equally 
 as great fun for such as liked it. The end of the first 
 day's travel was a few miles west of Mt. Vernon in 
 the beech woods, with the fallen leaves several inches 
 deep ; beneath which were quarts and pecks of beech 
 nuts. And wasn't that a royal camping place ? 
 
 The motive power of the big wagon was two yoke 
 of heavy oxen, led by a large horse ; all full-shod. 
 Shoeing oxen was by no means common, but it saved 
 the risk of lameness, and no delay occured on the 
 way ; the team working perfectly. Three cows, and 
 a saddle-horse for following them, completed the list 
 of live stock. The Boy generally rode the saddle- 
 horse, and milked the cows ; these latter in Ohio 
 before starting, in Indiana and Illinois on the way, 
 and in Iowa after they arrived ; milked the same 
 cows in four States. But he will never do the like 
 again. 
 
 The weather was generally favorable, and for the 
 greater part high spirits prevailed. If some things 
 became monotonous, new things came to enliven 
 the travellers. 
 
 There are distinct recollections of crossing the 
 Olentangy at Delaware, where the Boy for the first 
 time saw a " cuUud pusson ;" of Urbana and Piqua ; 
 of the corduroy and plank roads through what was 
 then called the Black Swamp in Indiana, and the 
 numerous toll-gates ; for in those days many thor- 
 
Indiana and Illinois. 77 
 
 oughfares were chartered private enterprises, and 
 exacted tribute from all who passed over them. 
 Attica is also remembered, because of its water sys- 
 tem ; probably log pipes in the ground with drinking 
 places along the streets, called " fountain pumps" — 
 a great curiosity to the Boy. And the Wabash, if 
 we mistake not, was the river crossed by a " rope 
 ferry," another curiosity. A strong cable was 
 stretched across, between big trees ; and the flat boat 
 was attached by a V rope, with a pulley running on 
 the cable. By varying either length of the V rope, 
 the angle of the boat to the current would be changed, 
 and it would run across, and back again, as desired. 
 
 Then they came to Danville, to Bloomington, and 
 to Peoria, thrifty towns even then. There was a 
 railroad at Peoria coming down from Chicago and 
 going on south, to Springfield, probably. The Boy 
 remembered the place particularly because of the size 
 and number of buffalo fish he saw there, caught in 
 the lake ; and they were an entirely new variety to 
 that young angler. 
 
 A singular and unpleasant experience attended the 
 mother and children in crossing that part of Illinois 
 called the Grand Prairie. A sort of ophthalmia attacked 
 them all, caused probably by some local microbe or 
 vegetable dust peculiar to that region. For several 
 days, the eyelids would be so stuck together in the 
 mornincT that it was no small task to " wash and come 
 
 ^fc) 
 
 seeing. 
 
 About Nov. 8th the emigrants reached the Father 
 of Waters opposite Muscatine. Did the great river 
 ever look so big to any other Boy ? Full to the bank's 
 limit, it rolled down from the vasty North ; cold, blue, 
 
ijS Early Settlement. 
 
 immeasurable, irresistible, eternal ; they said it was 
 a mile wide, and from twenty to forty feet deep ! 
 It does not seem so now, from any of the great steel 
 bridges; but from the low, flat horse-ferry boat 
 it was then awe-inspiring. 
 
 And here was Iowa ; then a State of eight years ; 
 a year or two older than Ohio, when the first Benja- 
 min Ellis family came down the river to Newport. 
 It had about a quarter million white inhabitants ; one 
 tenth the number of fifty years later. There was not 
 a mile of railroad or telegraph; transportation was 
 wholly by wagons to and from the river towns, and 
 the interior settlements. All merchandise was by 
 river steamboats, then in their glory, but now almost 
 obsolete. Business was good, for the great tide of 
 immigration brought money and needs, and those 
 who had aught to sell found a good market with the 
 new comers. Little or nothing was sold for export 
 
 in those days. 
 
 A singular feature of the earlier settlement of the 
 state was in the fact that the larger number of the 
 pioneers located in the woods or "timber" along the 
 streams, where nearly all the existing trees were 
 found. They built cabins and farmed generally in a 
 small way, after the manner of the wooded states ; 
 and did not venture out upon the prairies where the 
 soil was far better. Many actually cleared land of 
 trees for farming, as their fathers had done in Ohio 
 and Indiana ! 
 
 But the great immigration of the '50's was of those 
 awake to the value of prairie land for farming. All 
 they wanted of the land along the streams was for 
 wood-lots, from which to cut firewood and building 
 
'"'■ Breaking Up" the Land. 79 
 
 and fencing material. They fearlessly faced the 
 bleak winds of winter in the open, for the greater 
 freedom and better soil, rather than to shelter them- 
 selves behind the bluffs and trees as did the earlier 
 comers. 
 
 Two or three days travel brought the Alva Ellis 
 family from Muscatine to the county next that where- 
 in lay their own land. Friends who had preceded 
 them by a year welcomed them ; and in a few days 
 an empty cabin was found on the bank of Smith 
 Creek, perhaps a half mile from the present thriving 
 town of Wellman. A year was spent in this neigh- 
 borhood ; a crop raised on rented land, and prepar- 
 ations made to occupy their new farm at the end of 
 1855. 
 
 This temporary home was seven or eight miles 
 from their own tract, and no attempt was made to do 
 anything there until the next summer. The father 
 traded his two horses for more oxen, and organized a 
 four yoke "breaking team," for turning over the 
 tough prairie sod. The Boy became driver, and soon 
 learned to snap the big whip over the long line of 
 oxen as they drew the breaking-plow, which turned 
 abovit a twenty -four inch furrow. Land was then 
 broken up, if we rightly remember, for a dollar and 
 a quarter per acre ; just what the owners paid Uncle 
 Sam for it. Considerable money was earned in this 
 way for about three years. 
 
 In August, 1855, the first break was made to open 
 up land for their own home. A considerable area 
 was turned over for a wheat crop to be sown the 
 following spring ; and the same was done for a neigh- 
 bor whose land adjoined, who built a small house 
 
8o First Divellings^ 
 
 immediately afterward. Up to that time there was 
 but one roof to be seen anywhere about there. North, 
 south, east, west ; all was unfenced native pasture, 
 green and waving prairie grass, over which roamed 
 wild deer and coyotes, and from which the Indian 
 and buffalo had but lately disappeared. But what a 
 great, out-door, roomy place it was, " with no one 
 nigh to hinder"! Here was life, liberty, and hap- 
 piness indeed ; and the more than half century since 
 has not effaced nor dulled the memory of that boy- 
 hood experience. 
 
 After a few days of camp life on the new home- 
 stead, and sleeping at night in the big wagon, the 
 two departed, and early in December the family all 
 came, and housed with neighbor Lybarger, who had 
 just built and moved in, after the Ellises had done 
 their plowing. In the two families thus brought to- 
 gether, there were the fovir adults and eight children, 
 aged from one to ten years. The house was one 
 room, not more than eighteen feet square, with a loft 
 overhead, where beds were made for the rising gen- 
 eration, and to which dormitory they ascended by a 
 rude ladder. Pretty snug packing it was, up stairs 
 and down ; too close together to be cold, and too 
 much fun always to think of quarreling. 
 
 A lean-to addition was soon built, making the 
 accommodations more ample, and here they all dwelt, 
 healthy and comfortable until the following spring. 
 During the winter, the two men, who had been school 
 boys together in Ohio, assembled and prepared the 
 materials for the Ellis house. As built, it contained 
 seven rooms, and was more commodious than most 
 others erected at that time. Many dwellings of the 
 
and Early Farming. 8i 
 
 period were called " plank houses," being enclosed 
 with upright planks with the joints battened, making 
 a fairly tight "shell;" and in such an enclosure 
 families often lived for years, until able to get the 
 interior ceiled or plastered. The Ellis house was a 
 regular " balloon frame," covered with weatherboards 
 of black walnut, and floored and shingled with white 
 oak, all from the " timber " along English River, 
 where a ten-acre lot belonged to the farm. In early 
 spring, stone was hauled five or six miles for a 
 foundation ; and in a few weeks the house was 
 " enclosed " and occupied, May, 1856. 
 
 Plastering materials were not to be had that year, 
 and only with difficulty in 1857. A trip to Musca- 
 tine was made to get sashes, glass and hardware, 
 ' together with some additional supplies for the new 
 farm. Soon after, during 1857, a railroad was com- 
 pleted to Iowa City, about twenty-two miles distant, 
 so that from that time there was a selling and pur- 
 chasing market one day's journey away. But to 
 return ; now for the farming. 
 
 First, the spring wheat must be sown, even in the 
 midst of the house-building. Scattered upon the 
 half -rotted sod of the previous year, it was harrowed 
 in as thorovighly as possible, and with favorable 
 weather a good crop of " Canada Club " was har- 
 vested in about four months. Then more of the vir- 
 gin turf was turned over by the big " breaking team," 
 and " sod-corn " was planted, for there was yet no 
 ground tillable for corn. Sod-corn was planted by 
 cutting a gash in the raw sod with an axe, dropping 
 in a few grains and then closing the cut with the 
 foot. No cultivation was possible, so the corn grew 
 
82 Garden^ Hay and Fences. 
 
 as best it could, and in favorable seasons a consider- 
 able crop was often grown, the best of which would 
 make meal for the family, and the other, with the 
 stalks, was good feed for stock. 
 
 Some of the land broken up the first summer was 
 a " hazel-rough," covered thick with hazel bushes; 
 and no sod in it. This made a wonderful soil for 
 garden use, where everything grew abundantly, iDar- 
 ticularly potatoes and melons. Two seasons on that 
 spot produced watermelons of fabulous size, and of 
 a quality we have never since seen equalled anywhere. 
 Later, however, the quality and size both declined to 
 the normal. 
 
 Since cattle could run at large for pasture, it was 
 necessary to fence all cultivated land, and the build- 
 ing of fences was a large item of labor and expense. 
 These were mostly of mortised posts carrying three 
 rails, or posts with the rails spiked on ; this being suf- 
 ficient to turn all well-bred cattle and horses ; while 
 swine were kept shut up. 
 
 The hay needed for stock was for some years 
 wholly from the wild grass of the prairie. At its 
 best, it was equal to any of the domestic varieties, for 
 milch cows, horses and working cattle. But when 
 in time it became scarcer from fencing up more of 
 the.land, it was necessary to seed down part of each 
 farm for pasture and hay. But to this day there are 
 those who prefer prairie hay, even at a higher price, 
 and though brought perhaps a thousand miles. 
 
 The advantages of the new location and method of 
 farming were marked and encouraging. The land 
 was already cleared ; not a bush, stump or stone 
 interfered with cultivation; and it was "great larks" 
 
Crops and Wood- hauling. 83 
 
 for a man who had been always before limited by 
 such obstacles, now to plow a clean, straight furrow, 
 in the deep, black soil, for a quarter or half mile ; all 
 on his own land ! 
 
 The second year, that is, after the first wheat crop, 
 saw the land ready to plow deeper, for the first actual 
 corn crop. This was usually a fair yield, but generally 
 not equally good with Avhat followed a year or two 
 later, when the prairie grass roots had thoroughly 
 rotted. Oats, rye and buckwheat grew readily, also 
 all the vegetable crops, so that by the third year of 
 such a farm as indicated, everything was in "full 
 swing." Corn-stalk pasture was from the first a 
 favorite way of fall and winter feeding of cattle. 
 But little corn was cut into shocks for some years ; 
 the small grain and the larger job of field husking 
 seeming to overshadow the minor one of "cutting up" 
 corn. But all live stock, including even the hogs, 
 could in winter forage with the prairie hens in the 
 fields; which then as now, gave them a good living 
 for many weeks. 
 
 The providing of wood for present and next sum- 
 mer's use, and the getting out of sawed lumber and 
 split posts and rails for more fences, made a chief 
 feature of the winter's work. The daily trip with 
 oxen or horses to " the timber " whenever weather 
 allowed, was as regular as the plowing or mowing of 
 summer ; and was often a test of physical endurance 
 not so common at the present day. Many men and 
 boys at that time had neither overcoat nor under-suits ; 
 and to face a northwester at zero for a homeward 
 drive of one, two, or three miles, often necessitated 
 running and stamping and thrashing of arms to keep 
 
84 Schools and Churches. 
 
 from perishing ; and the Boy had such a fight often- 
 times. Winters seemed much more severe then than 
 now in Iowa ; and the farms and roads had then no 
 groves and wind-breaks which are so common today. 
 The neighborhood of the Alva P. EUis farm at 
 Green Center was rapidly settled, so that in two or 
 three years nearly half the land was fenced and being 
 broken up. Abundant territory yet remained for 
 pasturage, belonging to speculative non-residents ; 
 which was afterward gradually acquired by settlers. 
 Schools were lacking at first, but ere long there were 
 facilities provided to teach the young idea how to 
 shoot. In the earlier days, perhaps on becoming a 
 state. Congress had granted to Iowa one square mile 
 of unsold land in each township, the proceeds of 
 which when sold, were to constitute a fund for the 
 promotion of common school education. Any school 
 district which could muster a certain number of 
 pupils or children of school age, could borrow from 
 this fund for the building of a school house ; and thus 
 what would have been at first impossible by direct 
 taxation, was made accessible to hundreds and per- 
 haps thousands of districts. 
 
 As to church accommodation, this was at first 
 in the dwellings of the settlers, but promptly on the 
 appearing of school houses, they became the places 
 of meeting. Denominational preferences soon led to 
 the country church house ; and while some died, as it 
 were, yet in most cases they have lived and served 
 their generation well. But in these later years, with 
 the improvements of roads and vehicles, the tendency 
 is to centralize both schools and churches in the rail- 
 road towns, thus leaving not a few of the former 
 places to fall into decay. 
 
Primitive Stabling. 85 
 
 The early farm buildings in Iowa were very differ- 
 ent from those in the wooded States. Nearly all the 
 stock was sheltered under hay or straw sheds, formed 
 of a frame of poles covered with brush, upon which 
 was piled or stacked a great heap of wild grass from 
 the sloughs or hollows of the prairie. This grass 
 was often fully six feet high, and when well built 
 upon a brush roof, would shed the rain well for 
 some years. The south side of these shelters would 
 be left open, and the other three sides walled up to 
 the eaves with sods, or banked with a great quantity 
 of straw ; so that when well done either way the 
 shelter was even warmer than the ordinary log or 
 board stables of the older States. Often a large part 
 or the whole of the farm threshing would be done 
 here, and an immense heap of straw piled on and 
 around the sheds, so they would be buried many feet 
 deep. Cattle and horses would then feed on straw 
 and chaff all winter, and often needed little else. 
 When the next threshing season arrived, the old straw 
 would have almost disappeared, and the process 
 would be repeated. 
 
 But threshing soon came to be done mostly in the 
 midst of the fields, where the straw was stacked in 
 some order, and then all winter through the cattle 
 had free access to it. And even at this day it looks 
 comfortable and home-like to see a " bunch" of 
 calves, cows and steers eating their way into a big 
 straw-stack ! 
 
 In addition to opening up the new farm, Alva P. 
 Ellis and Boy continued for two years to run the four- 
 yoke breaking-plow for other settlers, and earned 
 considerable hard money by doing so. We remember 
 
86 Sorghum Cultivation. 
 
 that gold and silver seemed quite plentiful then ; no 
 silver dollars ; gold ones nearly alw^ays. Nobody 
 wanted the paper money of that day, from the state 
 and private banks, and both of uncertain value. On 
 the way thither from Ohio, it was hardly possible to 
 pass the paper money of any state at face value out- 
 side of its own boundaries ; and not a few sharpers 
 did a good business " shaving" the bank bills of the 
 time. Compare that state of things in currency, with 
 the system in use ten years later, as developed by 
 Salmon P. Chase ! 
 
 The introduction of the sorghum sugar-cane began 
 here in 1857, and immediately on every farm was 
 found a space devoted to its culture. Two or more 
 neighbors usually joined in making a crusher of up- 
 right wooden rolls, turned by a horse hitched to a 
 sweep, after the manner of a brick-clay mixer; and 
 by this was the juice pressed out. Evaporating pans 
 after the pattern of the Benjamin Ellis maple sugar 
 plant, made the production of syrup easy ; and 
 nobody henceforth lacked sweetening, such as it was. 
 Sugar was not produced to any extent, but the best 
 made of the syrup was quite palatable, and filled an 
 important place in every household for some years. 
 
 The spring and early summer of 1858 were phe- 
 nomenally wet, so that the corn crop was very meagre, 
 and small headway was made that year. Sound corn 
 was so scarce that it was difficult to get enough for 
 seed the following spring. There was then no tile- 
 draining, except in the " Prairie Farmer," where we 
 remember it was advocated at the time ; nor was there 
 any education in selection and improvement of corn, 
 as now. A curious result of that wet season was the 
 
A. P. Ellis; Early Death. 87 
 
 coming up of cotton-wood seedlings on all cultivated 
 land, and where not pulled up they soon became 
 thrifty trees. Many large trees about the homesteads 
 of today date from that year. 
 
 The season of 1859 was propitious, and an abund- 
 ance resulted, particularly of corn. The price had 
 been naturally high for awhile — perhaps twenty-five 
 cents — and much was expected by everybody. But 
 the price went down, and stayed there ; the following 
 spring the Boy hauled corn away to Iowa City and 
 to Washington, and received in either place twelve 
 cents a bushel. At the present time sixty to seventy 
 cents is paid, with one-fourth the distance to haul. 
 Pork was correspondingly low ; our recollection being 
 that dressed hogs were not worth over two dollars 
 per hundred pounds ; one of our surviving friends of 
 that time says " a dollar and a half." Cotton was 
 king then ; corn had not yet come to the throne ! 
 
 But this was the last of Alva Ellis's farming. In 
 the early autumn, after the hard summer's work, he 
 learned of the death of his brother Silas in Boone, 
 Iowa. They had always been much attached, having 
 been particular workers together; and the news 
 seemed to depress him. In a few days he became ill ; 
 and a week later, Oct. 19, 1S59, he died of blood- 
 poisoning ; exactly nine years after the death of his 
 brother Henry in California, and himself in his thirty- 
 ninth year. 
 
 Thus went early and unexpectedly to his rest, an 
 honest, hardy. God-fearing man ; lamented not only 
 by his family, but by all the community of which he 
 was a part. Fifty years have since gone ; and still, as 
 
88 Civil War. 
 
 this little story of his life is told, there comes upon 
 the heart anew the sense of loss of a father and a 
 good man. 
 
 Such a loss must of necessity change almost entirely 
 the fortunes and prospects of the family ; neverthe- 
 less a brave struggle was made to carry on the work 
 of the farm, and with partial success. All that could 
 be done by mother and children enabled them to 
 "keep even;" no gain was perceptible. In the next 
 October, the younger son, Norton, in his sixth year, 
 died of diphtheria, — the first case of that scourge in 
 all the country around, and altogether new to the 
 doctors. 
 
 The following year, 1861, brought the national 
 convulsion of civil war. The yet new state of Iowa 
 rushed into the conflict, by companies, regiments and 
 brigades ; until the working force of the farms and 
 other occupations was very seriously depleted. The 
 necessities of warfare stimulated production, and an 
 inflated currency soon advanced prices and made 
 trade active. State and municipal debts were incurred 
 to pay bounties for enlistments, and later for the 
 care of needy families, and taxes naturally increased. 
 But the state continued to develop, and so general 
 had been the increase of population that each year 
 showed not only an increase of grain and cattle and 
 hogs, but also a new crop of young men for the army. 
 And it is worthy of note in this connection, that after 
 the war Iowa was the first of all the States to get out 
 of debt ; which was fully paid, if we are not mis- 
 taken, in the early seventies. 
 
 In the midst of the time of war, a third visitation 
 of death came to the Ellis home. This time, Laura, 
 
F. O. Ellis Family. 89 
 
 in her fifteenth year, was taken, after a brief illness, 
 on March 8th, 1863. She had superior faculties, 
 and was a favorite among all the young people, by 
 whom she was greatly lamented. 
 
 Leaving behind them their row of graves, the de- 
 pleted family soon after removed to Iowa City, 
 mainly for educational advantages. Ten years later 
 the mother and daughters removed to Keota, a new 
 railroad town in Keokuk county ; and in the home 
 there established, the mother, Mrs. Margaret Ellis, 
 and eldest daughter, Sarah C. Ellis, yet remain. 
 
 Frank O. Ellis (72), only remaining son of 
 the A. P. Ellis family, was in the Iowa State Uni- 
 versity about three years, and went to Boston at the 
 end of 1 868, and became accountant for his mother's 
 brothers, in wholesale shoe trade. In 1877 he started 
 business on his own account in Lynn, Mass., supply- 
 ing shoe manufacturers with certain lines of goods, 
 in New England and other States; continuing for 
 about thirty years. The only public office he ever 
 held was that of chairman or secretary of the School 
 Board of Swampscott for seven years. Published 
 from 18S3 to 1891 a monthly, "The New England 
 Evangelist ;" the result of which experience was to 
 make him entirely undenominational in church atti- 
 tude. Attention now given largely to Bible study 
 and teaching. Married in 1873, Celeste I. Porter 
 of Swampscott, where their home has ever since been. 
 Their children are : 
 
 (i) Emily Pearl Ellis, 1875; silverware sales- 
 woman in Salem, Mass. ; lives with her 
 parents. >0 . / *f (» f __^ 
 
90 Dr. F. B. Home Fainily, 
 
 (2) Stuart Porter Ellis, 1878; commercial 
 
 photographer, Swampscott ; lives with 
 parents. 
 
 (3) Carl Palmer Ellis, 1879; representative 
 
 of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., Boston; m. 
 to Elizabeth North of Lynn, 1906 ; lives 
 in Dorchester district, Boston. 
 
 (4) How^ARD Garfield Ellis, 1881 ; draughts- 
 
 man for shoe machinery in Lynn ; m. to 
 Edith Foster of Boston, 1909 ; lives in 
 Saugus, Mass. 
 
 Clara B. Ellis (75), was a student in the Iowa 
 State University ; then a teacher; and in 1875 was 
 married to Dr. F. B. Home, of Keota, Iowa. In 
 1888 they removed to Beloit, Kan. ; where they now 
 reside. Four children were born : 
 
 (i) Alva Earl Home, 1878; Beloit; surveyor 
 for Mitchell county ; lives with parents. 
 
 (2) Zela Belle Home, iSSfc); teacher; m. 1909 
 
 to George W. McClung, and lives in 
 Jewell, Kansas. 
 
 (3) Mary Ellis Home, 1887; accountant; lived 
 
 with parents ; d. 1907. 
 
 (4) Frank B. Home, 1890; teacher; with her 
 
 parents in Beloit. 
 Emma Lois Ellis (77) was m. in Keota, Iowa, 
 1875, to Arthur E. Stewart; farmer and stock- 
 man, and they have ever since lived in that place. 
 Their children are : 
 
 (i) Myrtle May Stewart, 1876; m. William 
 Charles Farmer, in 1902; and their 
 children are : Francis, 1903 ; Mary Lois, 
 
A. E. Stewart Fajnily. 91 
 
 1905; Margaret Isabel, 1907; Florence 
 Irene, 1908. Mr. Farmer is superintend- 
 ent of the Government Indian School at 
 Wetumka, Okla., where they now reside. 
 
 (2) Warren Francis Stewart, 1S78; farmer 
 
 and stockman, with his father ; Keota, 
 Iowa. 
 
 (3) Stanley .Sebern Stewart, 1883; m. in 
 
 1907 to Sarah McNurlen of Keota. Is 
 a farmer and stockman with his father in 
 same place. 
 
 (4) Emma Lois .Stewart, 1885 ; musician and 
 
 teacher ; with parents in Keota. 
 
 (5) Clara Belle Stewart, 1888; musician and 
 
 teacher ; with parents in Keota. 
 
 The Silas Ellis Family. 
 
 (46) Silas Ellis ) m. in Zanesville, O., 
 
 Sophia Stenger j 1847- 
 
 Children : 
 
 (93) Emma Ellis, 1850; Adamsville O. 
 
 (93) Norton A. Ellis, 1854; Adamsville, O. 
 
 Silas Ellis was the particular chum of his elder 
 brother Alva, whom he much resembled. Their 
 real boyhood together was on the " Burtnett farm ;" 
 for after the removal to the Millwood farm they soon 
 grew into the stature and work of men, where the 
 work of men was much needed. The younger boys 
 attended school after the removal ; but we have an 
 impression that these two had practically no further 
 schooling, as the necessities of labor were so great. 
 And as for Silas, it is remembered that school life 
 
92 Silas Ellis ^ in Ohio 
 
 was not particularly interesting to him, so far as re- 
 lated to " book larnin';" hence he was perhaps not 
 conscious of any great loss. A memory of his school 
 life is told, illustrative of this. The teacher of the 
 time had a strict rule forbidding whispering between 
 scholars, so that there should be no surreptitious 
 telling one another about lessons. But Silas was 
 " caught in the act " of whispering to another boy, 
 and was forthwith called to account with the 
 question, "Now, what was you asking him about ?" 
 With bashful reluctance, Silas finally confessed, " I 
 was jest tellin' him, 'How many dogs did he have ?' " 
 It is believed that the unexpectedness of the answer 
 excused him; with the admonition perhaps, "Not 
 guilty, but don't do so any more !" 
 
 As before recorded, Silas had a much greater liking 
 for tools and mechanics than for farm work. 
 Promptly at twenty-one, as it would appear, he went 
 to learn the trade of gun-smithing with Sam Stull in 
 Millwood. How long he remained in this shop we 
 do not learn ; but it is said " he did not stay his time 
 out " for some reason ; probably being in a hurry to 
 set to work for himself. So far as we remember to 
 have heard, he then went to Zanesville, as may be 
 supposed, to be among the Ballou cousins. He 
 evidently visited his uncle Silas at Grand View, and 
 his aunt Diana at Matamoras, as well as his sister 
 Melissa Edgell at Newport, but at what date is 
 unknown. As a memento of that visit we have in 
 his own writing, given to his brother Alva in 1853, 
 the instructions for building a cistern ; which he is 
 understood to have received from his uncle Silas at 
 some time previous. 
 
and in loiva. 
 
 93 
 
 He married at Zanesville, if we are rightly 
 informed, and afterward located in Adamsville, a 
 small town a few miles distant, from which time if 
 not before, he had a shop of his own, and where he 
 thrived to some extent at least. But the town was 
 not destined to grow, and property values ultimately 
 declined to a fraction of their anticipated value. 
 
 When his brother Henry came of age in 1849, he 
 joined Silas in Adamsville, to learn the trade. There 
 must have been good prospects in the business at that 
 time, or he would not have done this. But Henry 
 did not remain long, being persuaded by Alva to join 
 him in his California expedition, in the spring of 
 1850. So Silas continued the work alone, with 
 reasonable content as we believe, until perhaps 1855, 
 when his brother Alva's letters from Iowa seem to 
 have filled his mind with hope of better things there, 
 and to which state he removed about 1856. He 
 settled in Boone, then called Boonesboro ; on the 
 Des Moines River, some forty miles from the present 
 state capital. At that time the town must have been 
 small, but work was plenty, and his letters showed 
 great cheerfulness and expectation for the future. 
 
 But his time in Iowa was destined to be shorter 
 even than his brother Alva's. He seemed to have 
 good health for two years, but in 1859 he was made 
 supervisor of highways for the town, and overworked 
 himself in his conscientious example of public duty, 
 so that he was prostrated by sunstroke. He rallied 
 partially, but finally succumbed, dying on September 2 
 of that year, being a little less than thirty -seven at 
 the time. 
 
 Thus preceding Alva by a few weeks, the two who 
 
94 Silas Ellis Fantily. 
 
 had been close to each other in sympathy all their 
 lives, were not divided in death. And as we have 
 written of the one, so of the other ; he was a good 
 man and father, worthy of the name. His widow 
 lived nearly forty years in the same home, having 
 several relatives in the neighborhood, and she 
 died 1899. 
 
 Emma Ellis (92), daughter of Silas and Sophia, 
 was married in 1868 to Winfield S. DeWolf, 
 (b.1845, d.1891) ; and they lived in Iowa and Indiana. 
 
 Children: (1) Harry Ellis DeWolf, 1870; 
 married, lives in Indianapolis, and is mail carrier for 
 the State Capitol; (2) Opal DeWolf, 1874; m. 
 John H. Weir in 1894; they reside in Los Angeles 
 Cal., and have one daughter, Helen Vivian Weir, 
 1898. The widow, Emma EUis DeWolf, lives with 
 them. , . , ,./ ; / ^ / , 
 
 Norton A. Ellis (93), coming to Boone when 
 he was perhaps two years of age, may be said to be 
 almost a native of that place. He became a tinsmith 
 and plumber, and engaged in merchandising, and has 
 been for many years a prominent and useful citizen. 
 Like his father, he has shown a tendency to mechanics 
 and invention ; and despite a less rugged health than 
 that of some others, he nevertheless continues actively 
 in business and public interest. And like one of 
 Mark Twain's characters, it is to be recorded of him 
 that " he never shook his mother." Her home and 
 her interests were his until the last; and she lies 
 buried as " Sophia, the mother of Emma and Norton 
 Ellis." One regret may be permitted, that he has 
 never been married, yet. 
 
Albert Ellis Family. 95 
 
 The Albert Ellis Family. 
 
 (47) Albert Ellis ) m. in Mt. Vernon, O., 
 
 Sarah H. Encell j 1S48. 
 
 Children : 
 
 (95) Gilbert James Ellis, 1849; Howard, O. 
 
 (96) Lois Helen Ellis, 185 1 ; " " 
 
 (97) John Encell Ellis, 1852; " " 
 
 (98) ElmaE. R. Ellis, 1868; « " 
 
 Like his eldest brother Alva, Albert Ellis remained 
 on or near the father's Millwood farm. For perhaps 
 two seasons the brothers rented land a mile westward, 
 there being not yet enough cleared for them all ; after 
 which Alva returned to his own house as at first, and 
 Albert settled in the Henry Babcock house, then va- 
 cant. Here they continued as partners on the 
 father's land, until the removal of the Alva Ellis 
 family to Iowa. Albert's wife Sarah taught the 
 summer school of the district in 1850 ; and one of the 
 Small Boy's keepsakes of those early days is a 
 " Reward of Merit " to him from her, bearing their 
 initials. Later in life she became a successful physi- 
 cian, and with the two daughters, settled in Knox- 
 ville, Tenn., where she died in 1900, at the age of 
 seventy. 
 
 When the first call of President Lincoln was made 
 for 300,000 volunteers, Albert Ellis responded, and 
 joined with Alexander Cassil of the same county to 
 raise a company. After preliminary disappointments, 
 he set on foot a regular campaign of night meetings 
 and speech-making in school-houses, and soon had a 
 considerable roll of enlisted men. Albert was a 
 
^6 Albert Ellis Family. 
 
 Justice of the Peace, and under orders from the 
 Governor, all who signed the roll were forthwith 
 sworn into the service ; and his brother Lyman joined 
 him at this time. 
 
 When the company election took place, Cassil was 
 made captain and Ellis first lieutenant. The com- 
 pany was not yet full, but the new lieutenant was 
 detailed and commissioned by John vSherman, (after- 
 ward Secretary and Senator), to complete the enlist- 
 ment. 
 
 The company was mustered in as Co. A, 65th Ohio, 
 and the service of the regiment was mostly under 
 General Buell in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, 
 and Mississippi. The captain being promoted, the 
 command of the company devolved upon Lieutenant 
 Ellis for about a year and a half, when he was broken 
 down by typhoid, and eventually resigned his com- 
 mission, being no longer fit for service. Afterward 
 however, he regained a good degree of health, and 
 has now outlived by ten years any of his brothers or 
 sisters, and is the sole survivor of the ten children of 
 Benjamin Ellis Jr. He was married a second time, 
 about 1903 ; and has since resided principally in 
 Madison, Ind. ; but more recently in Lafayette, Ind. 
 Gii>BERT J. Ellis (95), was graduated from 
 Bethany College, and has ever since been in the min- 
 istry of the gospel. His pastorates have extended 
 from New York to Iowa, and are always well 
 spoken of ; as once was said of him to the writer 
 by a veteran of the pulpit : "A good, able, consci- 
 entious, safe man." He was a born preacher, and 
 probably has never thought seriously of doing any- 
 thing else. When the Small Boy was yet small, and 
 
Albert Ellis Family. 97 1 
 
 Gilbert was smaller, we remember his mother or her ' 
 
 sister telling of his being mounted on a chair or some 
 
 other convenient rostrum, from which he was vigor- 
 
 ously exhorting some sizable boys around him, in ' 
 
 substance: "You, B — ; and you, L — ; and you, 1 
 
 A — ; if you don't repent, you'll all go to h — /" The 
 
 "visible results" or "accessions" following this i 
 
 maiden effort are not recorded. 
 
 In his early ministry he was located in Cato, N.Y., 
 where in 1S82, he was married to Mary J. Harris. ) 
 
 Two daughters were born : Jean Encell Ellis, J 
 
 1883, at Portsmouth, O., and who died at Davenport, ^T?,^^^ J 
 Iowa, 1886; and Esther Ellis, 1891, at Galesburg,j^ x, i 
 
 111. The family is now resident at Carrollton, 111. j ^*^Jfi^ 
 
 J ^^ 
 John Encell Ellis (97) was a salesman, and in <. -r^, 
 
 1882 or '83 was married in Cleveland, Ohio, to "^ 
 
 Maude Mkhurin. He visited the writer in Mass- ■' 
 
 achusetts in 1876, and is remembered as very good- ] 
 
 looking, and distinctively of the Ellis type of the pre- 
 ceding generation. He died in Knoxville, Tenn., in 
 1890. Two children, Bruce and Bessie, died in 
 infancy. Kimpton Mehurin Ellis, born in Colum- 
 bus, Ohio, 1887, is said to have gone to California ' 
 with his mother some years ago, and definite wherea- 1 
 bouts are not known. | 
 
 Lois Helen Ellis (96) is a successful physician j 
 
 in Knoxville, Tenn. The date of locating there is ! 
 
 not given. 
 
 Elma E. R. Ellis (98) is a teacher of ancient ' 
 
 languages in a collegiate institution in Knoxville. 
 
98 Andrew Ellis Family. 
 
 The Andrew Ellis Family. 
 
 Andrew Ellis (50) was a farmer with his father, 
 and also learned carpentering. He worked for a 
 time at this in Newport, living there with the 
 Edgells. In this place he was first married, to Lucy 
 Ferguson, about December, 1854. They at once 
 went to his father's place at Millwood, and lived in 
 the house just vacated by the Alva P. Ellis family. 
 Two children were born, Angenora and James B., 
 both of whom died young; the first before, and the 
 second after the mother Lucy, who died 1858. 
 
 In 1859 Andrew married Elizabeth Spindler 
 of the Jelloway neighborhood, and we believe they 
 lived nearly all the time on the Millwood farm with 
 his mother Lois, until her death in 1864. Two sons 
 were born to them ; (99) William Albert Ellis, 
 1862; now of Marshalltown, Iowa; and (100) Nor- 
 ton Spindler Ellis, 1867 ; now of Ankeny, Iowa. 
 The mother, Elizabeth, died in 1870; and Andrew 
 afterward married her sister, Louisa J. Spindler, 
 who bore three daughters, (loi) Mary Cherrill, 
 1871 ; and (102) Lucy Pearl, 1879; who are men- 
 tioned later with the sons; and (103) Jennie P., 
 1874; who died 1877. 
 
 After the distribution of the Benjamin Ellis estate, 
 Andrew Ellis lived in Millwood and later in Monroe 
 Mills, if we remember rightly. But he had been for 
 years looking toward Iowa, to which his elder 
 brothers had gone many years before. Finally, in 
 1883, he removed to the vicinity of Melbourne, Iowa, 
 and as we remember him, was ever after an enthusi- 
 
Andrew Ellis I^amily. 99 
 
 ast over prairie farming. He worked at his trade of 
 carpentering perhaps more than at farming, being in 
 his later years not a strong man. Afterward he built 
 a house for himself in the town, and he was largely 
 instrumental in the erection of a church building 
 where he was a leader until his death in 1894. 
 
 Probably few men are as well beloved of kindred 
 and acquaintance as was Andrew Ellis. His enemies, 
 if there were any, were few ; but his friends were 
 legion. His nature was gentle and sympathetic, and 
 his heart on the right side in everything. Honorable 
 and industrious, his influence was always unto right- 
 eousness about him, and his departure was a marked 
 loss in any community where he lived. The widow, 
 Louisa J. Ellis, died in 1901. 
 
 Of the surviving children of Andrew Ellis, here 
 mentioned in order, is first : 
 
 William A. Ellis (99), who came with the family 
 to Melbourne in 18S3 ; and in 1887 was married to 
 Elmina L. Stouffer. Their home is near to where 
 his father first settled, and it would seem hard to find 
 a finer part of the country in which to live ; almost 
 in the exact center of the state. Corn, cattle, hogs 
 and horses, at good prices, tell the story of a pros- 
 perous farm; but the best of the products are the 
 following children : 
 
 (i) Glenn Andrew Ellis, 1890; (2) Mary Es- 
 TELLA, 1892; (3) Ruth Francil, 1896; (4) Har- 
 old Vernon, 1898; (5) Howard Raymond, 1900; 
 (6) Ronald Elmer, 1907. 
 
 No wonder Iowa is a great and rich State ! 
 
lOO Andrew Ellis Fatnily, 
 
 Norton S. Ellis (ioo) was for some years with 
 his father and brother on their farm near Melbourne, 
 and in 1889 was married to Emma A. Parke. They 
 have lived as far west as the Pacific coast ; changing 
 locations for the sake of Norton's impaired health. 
 He is a carpenter, and has worked mostly at this of 
 late years, as we understand ; but also has been much 
 engaged in electrical construction work. The family 
 now resides in Ankeny, Iowa ; some ten miles from 
 Des Moines. The children born are : 
 
 1. Lola Mae Ellis, 1S91 ; died 1896. 
 
 2. Edna Pearl Ellis, 1893. ^ Vow i,,|<iiJtX 1(^0 < 
 Mary C. Ellis (ioi) was married in Melbourne ^ 
 
 in 1904, to David B. Troxel of that town. He is 
 an all-round mechanic of Indiana birth ; and mostly 
 engaged in wagon building and repairing in a thor- 
 oughly-equipped shop, where he can build anything, 
 from a boy's sled to a threshing machine. And in 
 the house is one baby, Esther Troxell, 1908 ; and 
 
 she is the finest baby , well, in that house ! 
 
 Lucy P. Ellis (102) was married in 1902, to F. 
 M. Taylor, and removed to Estavan, Sask. ; and one 
 son, Merrill Howard Taylor, was born there, 
 1905. The Taylors are developing a large farm in 
 the midst of the great grain region. 
 
 Lyman Ellis Family. 
 
 Lyman Ellis (51) returned from army service 
 in 1865, and in 1866 was married to Eliza J. Gra- 
 ham, near Howard, Ohio. One daughter was born, 
 Edna Ellis (104), 1870; who was married in 1895 
 to Eli a. Wolf, a merchant in Howard. 
 
Lyman Ellis Fa7nily. loi 
 
 If we rightly remember, Lyman Ellis was a hardy 
 young man, and in the later years of his father's life 
 came to be a worthy worker on the Millwood farm. 
 We do not remember seeing him in school after 1S52, 
 when he was about fifteen, but was among the big 
 boys in plowing, haying, wood-cutting and ball play- 
 ing. In a sheep-wash in Owl Creek in '53 or '54, the 
 Small Boy remembers seeing him " tussling " with a 
 big wether, and gradually sinking until only the top 
 of his head was visible. He was nearly drowned as 
 we have since been told, but we did not realize it at 
 the time. 
 
 An unusual experience happened to him when per- 
 haps ten years old. He was running from the barn 
 to the house after dark, to pass through a gateway 
 which he supposed to be open, but a single rail or 
 bar had been put up, which he struck in great force 
 upon his mouth. Two upper front teeth were 
 knocked out, but a little later were found by his 
 mother and brother Alva, with the aid of a lantern. 
 They were replaced, and though somewhat discolored, 
 remained in use to the end of his life. 
 
 After the death of his father in 1858, he continued 
 at his farm work until the call to arms in 1861. He 
 was now twenty-four, and when his brother Albert 
 was enlisting men, he joined his company in October. 
 He was made sergeant, and was a good soldier; and 
 between '61 and early '64 he was in three hard- 
 fought battles without a scratch. He was furloughed 
 about February, '64, and came home to see his 
 mother Lois, who was in failing health, and who 
 died in March, while he was with her. 
 
I02 Lyman Ellis Family. 
 
 Returning to the army " for three years, or until 
 the end of the war," he was severely wounded at 
 Franklin, Tenn., on Nov. 30, 1864. A terrible en- 
 filading fire was raking his regiment, balls plowing 
 the ground, spatting trees and dropping men all 
 about him, when he received a ball through the thigh. 
 After falling, an order was given to carry him off, 
 but he refused, saying " Take care of yourselves 
 boys ! I'll get away somehow." And after stuffing 
 his wound with a handkerchief after the enemy 
 passed over him, he crawled and dragged himself to 
 the river, hoping somehow he might be able to cross 
 to where he could receive attention. As though 
 providentially arranged, as he said, " there stood a 
 banged little mule, with a yard of rope hanging to 
 his neck ;" and by aid of a log or stone he managed 
 to climb on his back and forded the river. Here he 
 was just in time to get on the last train for the hospi- 
 tal at Nashville. 
 
 He did not again see active service, although he 
 returned to Kentucky after having been at home two 
 months; when in a letter to the writer, he says, 
 " The Ellis family is scattered, and Home for me is 
 gone; perhaps I may never have a home again." 
 
 After being mustered out that same year, 1865, he 
 came back to Knox county, and we think was for a 
 time with Andrew in business at Monroe Mills. 
 Later he bought a farm there, on which he lived 
 until his death, about 1890. His widow lives with 
 the daughter in Howard. 
 
Publisher's Page. 103 
 
 Addenda, Etc. 
 
 Corrections and additional information are requested from 
 all who can furnish the same. They will be noted, and per- 
 haps printed as a supplement. 
 
 It will be a favor to hear from all who receive this book, 
 as to whether it is satisfactory, or otherwise. 
 
 The insertion of the prospectus pages at the close of the 
 volume will show to any in later years how the work was 
 undertaken. 
 
 It is hoped that the blank pages provided will be utilized 
 by writing in an accurate detail and account of the family to 
 which the book shall come. 
 
 g@^ A considerable debt is incurred by the writer, above the 
 liberal contributions of those named below. It is hoped that 
 others receiving the volume will be moved to liquidate this, 
 to the honor of the family name. 
 
 Any descendant desiring a copy need not hesitate to send 
 for it, or to order it sent to some one. If possible it will be 
 done, as extra copies will be printed. Copies should be put 
 in local and historical libraries, in the neighborhood of the 
 families concerned. 
 
 A large amount of incidental detail, portraits, &c., is 
 omitted ; because of limited funds ; condensation and omis- 
 sion have been necessary. 
 
 This little volume is made possible by the contributions of 
 Gilbert J. Ellis, William A. Ellis, Norton A. Ellis, Leander 
 A. Ellis and sons, Mrs. Clara B. Home and family, Mary E. 
 Jacobs, and Mrs. Melissa Osborn. Others may participate 
 as suggested above. 
 
 It has been accepted by the writer, that the first Benjamin 
 Ellis family came from Richmond to Watertown ; although 
 we have nowhere a statement to that effect. The circum- 
 stances and recollections make it seem almost certain that 
 the family came from Watertown to Newport, as assumed ; 
 and yet there is more than a possibility that they lived in 
 some other place in New York, and came from thence to 
 Newport. The twenty years between 1788 and 1808 are there- 
 fore not definitely accounted for at this time, 1909. E. 
 
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