Elijah Ellis
Of the descendants of the early pioneers of Perry Township, none is more deserving of mention than Elijah Ellis. He was born near tlie site of New Martinslnirg, this county, October 1, 1817, and is the oldest son of David and Hannah Ellis, who settled in Perry Township, in 1799, near where Elijah now lives. The house in which he was born was destroyed by fire, in the year 1877.
The parents of our subject were of Quaker stock, and their son is piously devoted to the doctrines and usages of that society of Christians. The Ellises came from Tennessee in the year above named, actuated by a desire to live in a country free from the curse of slavery.
Our subject was married, in May, 1844, to Jane Jury, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Fisher) Jury. To this marriage, five children were born: David William, born May 17, 1845; Joseph R., born June 9, 1846; Cyrenius, born November 10, 1848; Margaret E., born April 25, 1850, married Samuel Devoss, since died; Isaac L., born November 17, 1852, died June 11, 1857. Mrs. Ellis died, December 5, 1852, aged twenty-six years.
On the 6th of January, 1859, Mr. Ellis was again married, to Mrs. Eliza B. Ogborn, widow of the late Samuel F. Ogborn, of New Jersey. She is the daughter of Abel and Rhoda (Johnson) Thornberry. Her grandfather, John Johnson, was an early settler in the State of Indiana. He erected the first court house in Indianapolis, and his residence there was the first brick building erected in the city. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and for years kept a temperance hotel in the same city. Mrs. Ellis, by her first marriage, became the mother of two sons : Henry M. and Isaac F. Henry M. served in the 73d O. V. V. I. during the war of the rebellion, and Isaac F. was a lieutenant in an infantry regiment of Indiana volunteers. He was captured by the enemy at Richmond, Kentucky, in the fall of 1862, paroled and exchanged. Mr. and Mrs. Thornberry were the parents of the following named children: Lydia J., Eliza B., Mary Ann (died an infant), Mary Ann, Rachel B., Susan J., William J., and John Thomas. Lydia J., Eliza B., Mary A., and William J., still live. The latter is a minister of the Society of Friends.
The father of Mrs. Ellis came to this state in 1799, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. In the prime of life he traveled from New Orleans to Leesburg, this state, on foot. He served as a member of the Legislature of Indiana, in tlie years 1833 and 1834, from Wayne County, and_ was also a member of the city council of Richmond, Indiana, several successive years. He erected several mills in and near Richmond, Indiana, and one or more in Michigan. He was a man of remarkable qualities, a mathematician of some note. He embraced religion in the latter years of his life, and died a glorious and peaceable death at the age of seventy-five years.
Mrs. Ellis has in her possession a photograph group representing five generations of the family: Abel Thornberry, Eliza B. Ellis, Henry M. Ogborn, Ella D. Reese and Clara Reese. At the birth of Henry Thornberry, the great-grandmother of Mrs. Ellis could have said: " Arise, my son, and go to thy daughter, for thy daughter's daughter has a son." Eliza B. Ellis was a great-grandmother at the age of fifty-eight, and now has two great-grandchildren, who have a great-great-great-great-great-aunt. The oldest of this line is Ann Nordyke, aged eighty-two; the youngest, Laura Grace Reese, aged one year.
Thomas Bales, tbe great-grandfather of Eliza B. Ellis, was the first white preacher who crossed the Allegbanies. He was suspicioned, and taken by the British as a spy, during his ministry among the Indians. His real character becoming known, he was released and permitted to preach unmolested. At his death, in 1801, he was buried in a rude coffin hewn out of a butternut log, in compliance with liis own request.
From R. S. Dills' History of Fayette County