Author: Ellis, Erastus W. H.
Biography:
ELLIS, Erastus W. H. (1815-76: findagrave.com)
Erastus Winter Hewett Ellis was born on 29 Apr. 1815 at Penfield NY, the eldest son of William Robinson Ellis (d 1839), a physician; his mother’s name is not known, and she died in 1828. The father seems to have been a good doctor but an unsuccessful businessman whose ventures frequently uprooted the family. Erastus had a patchy education that included some Latin: his father’s pride in his attainments is demonstrated in the publication of his poems in 1831-2, first as a five-page appendix to the second instalment of his father’s own spiritual autobiography, A Brief Narrative (1831), and then under his own name. For seven years (1829-36) he lived as an apprentice to a doctor in Brockport NY; he also attended a term of lectures (1833-4) at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and received a diploma from them. He undertook newspaper campaigning for the Democrats and enlisted in the local militia as a lieutenant. He joined his father in medical practice in Indiana in 1837, first at South Bend and then at Elkhart. He accepted the position of editor of the Goshen Democrat, continuing his public political engagement. He was elected Auditor for Elkhart County in 1846, and for the State in 1850-53. Ellis was married three times: to Maria Crozier in 1842; after her death in 1846, to Minerva Jenette Brown in 1848; and finally, after she died in 1856, to Rosalie (Harris) Harris, a widow (1821-95). By his first two wives he had seven children, four of whom died in childhood. In 1850 he became the owner of a printing office which undertook government contracts, and founded the Indiana Statesman, a weekly newspaper (1852-4). Although he resigned from the Democratic Party in 1855, he continued to hold public office and to sit on influential boards. He was a Grand Master among the Masons. He raised a militia regiment during the Civil War (they were based at Camp Ellis outside Goshen) and acted as Deputy Marshal of the County until the end of the war. He edited the Times of Goshen for two years and was elected to the Auditorship of the County 1858-65. He died at home in Goshen on 10 Oct. 1876 and was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery there. (findagrave.com 21 Jan. 2023; findmypast.com 21 Jan. 2023; Charles C. Chapman, History of Elkhart County, Indiana [1881], 935-9; capitolandwashington.com)