|
a.
|
Note: 1. Mollie J. Smith (14 May 1854 - 15 May 1876). 2. Copied from marriage records of Monroe county, MO: John W. Ellis To Lizie B. Trumbo. Married by Rev. Wm. Sart--. Mr. John W. Ellis and Miss Lizie B. Trumbol in Monroe Co. Mo. February 26, 1878. 3. Copied from the 24 Nov 1892 issue of the Mexico Ledger: "Mrs. J.W. Ellis celebrated her 39th birthday on the 20th by inviting a few of her friends to dine with her. An excellent dinner was served, consisting of the dainties of the season, in which a nicely roasted turkey formed an important part. Mrs. Carrie Ellis treated the guests to some beautiful music -- pieces suited to the tastes of all were played, from the sweetest of hymns down to the "Arkansas Traveler." Mrs. Ellis' birthday and that of Mr. W.H. Wilson are on the same day of the month and they celebrate the occasion by turns, this making the 8th celebration. After spending a very pleasant day the guests departed, wishing Mr. Wilson and Mrs. Ellis many happy birthdays." 4. Copied from the Mexico Intelligencer of 1 Mar 1907: "JOHN W. ELLIS DIES THURSDAY Word was received here Thursday evening that John W. Ellis, a promi- nent farmer residing near Youngs Creek, had died at his home there Thursday afternoon. Mr. Ellis was a highly respected citizen of Audrain and his death will be a shock to the entire community in which he lived." 5. Copied from the Mexico Ledger of 1 Mar 1907: "JOHN W. ELLIS DEAD One of Audrain's Most Prominent and Wealthiest Farmers Dies at His Home, North of This City, Thursday -- Funeral Saturday John W. Ellis, one of Audrain county's most prominent farmers and wealthiest residents, died Thursday afternoon at five o'clock, in his home twelve miles north of this city. The funeral will be held Saturday morning at eleven o'clock from the Bereah church, Rev. Sipple conducting it. The deceased was fifty-eight years old and leaves a wife and two sons, John and Clyde, both young men well known in this city where they attend high school. Mr. Ellis was one of the most progressive men in the county and was universally liked by all who knew him. His death will be a great shock to the community. Of his own family Mr. Ellis is survived by a stepmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Ellis, brothers, Nolan V. Ellis, who is in the army, Iry Ellis, of this city, Jefferson Ellis of Indian Territory and Pickney Ellis of Old Mexico, and sisters Mrs. W.H. Wallace, of this city, Mrs. Annie White, of Iowa, Mrs. L. Smith, of Oklahoma. The Ledger joins the many friends of the family in extending deepest sympathy." 6. Copied from a newspaper clipping; no name or date: "JOHN D. ELLIS DEAD. John W. Ellis died at his home 12 miles north of Mexico Thursday, Feb. 28, 1907, of cancer of the stomach after an illness of about a year. Mr. Ellis was born Feb. 7, 1849, in Callaway county, hence was in his 58th year. His wife and two sons, Clyde and John, survive him. Mrs. E.A. Ellis of this city is his stepmother. He leaves six brothers and three sisters besides many relatives and friends. Funeral services were conducted Saturday at 11 a.m. by Rev. B.D. Sipple of Montgomery City. Burial at Berea, the resting place of his parents and brother. Jeff. D. Ellis of Muskogee, I.T., came to attend the funeral. Deceased was an excellent citizen, well known over the county. He has been a sufferer of late and loving relatives did all they could to ease the pain of the latter days. A good man has gone to rest." 7. Copied from the Mexico Ledger of 27 Aug 1925: "ELLIS BROTHERS --- BUILDERS OF FARMS For More Than a Century the Soil of One Fertile Audrain County Farm Has Been Tilled by the Men of One Blood. When I boarded the family bus to visit my friends, John and Clyde Ellis of near Molino, Mo., it was to get a story about "the farm of a thousand sheep." I knew that on those bluegrass pastures I should find as good Rambouillets as grow thick fleeces and curved horns. But after I entered the hospitable homes of the Ellis brothers, met their mother and their wives and children, partook of their hospitality and looked over the many acres that make up the great estate I changed my mind. There was a story of far greater importance than the mere telling of the work of successful stock masters. It was a great story of human endeav- or and achievement along other lines as well. So, if I "talk sheep" but little, bear with me. Away back in 1808 the first John Ellis, one of three brothers, came from England to America. With little money but with strong hands and intell- *** igent mind he homesteaded a farm in what now is Audrain county. [NOTE: the FGR and information concerning Abraham Ellis, the father of "Squire John," shows the above statement to be false.] A Family of Builders There his son John was born. [NOTE: John II was born in Callaway county, MO, not Audrain.] To the comparatively few acres owned by John the first, John the second added others. Both were builders. By intel- ligent rotation, the use of livestock, and the constant clearing of new land they kept the fertility on the soil unimpaired. It had grown to something like 600 acres when John the second passed on in the early fifties, leaving an heritage worth far more than the land he had possessed. [NOTE: John II died in 1907.] "A wonderful man was the boys father," the elder Mrs. Ellis told me. "A wonderful mother," I thought as I talked with her. The senior Ellis was a semi-invalid for years [this is John II] and it was he who introduced sheep on the farm. He taught the boys to love and care for the gentle animals. There have been sheep on the farm for 50 years. Since the farm has been operated as a partnership by Clyde and John Ellis it has grown to 1,800 acres, stretching away in one vast body. There isn't a dime of indebtedness against it. There are a half dozen improvements, not one of them but creditable to a topnotch farm. Five men are employed the year around, being paid $40 a month with good house, garden spot and other things provided. They stay. One man has been with them eight years. This year they have 300 acres in corn, 100 in oats and a considerable acreage of soybeans. But the great bulk of the land is in bluegrass pasture, some of it wooded. Thereon graze 1,000 registered Rambouillet sheep with a few Delanies to add to the show flock. It is a magnificent sight. John Ellis told me they expect to increase the flock to 1,000 breeding ewes. They are building a great barn that will house a thousand sheep at one time. Brain Work Counts As becomes builders the Ellis Brothers work more with their brains than their hands. By that I mean, that except for actual necessity, they do not "make a hand." Nor do they entrust care of the sheep to anyone else. During lambing season John and Clyde virtually live with their pets. John cares for and exhibits the show flock, winning more championships than any other Missouri breeded of Rambouillets. Clyde keeps the big farms and the flock work running like a well-oiled machine while John is away. There is no friction, no jealousy. Just affection- nate teamwork. Of course each of the brothers has his individual bank account, both Clyde and John have land holdings, in the main tract, as have their wives, but the great bulk of the business is carried on as a partnership. "They get along marvelously," an acquaintance told me. "Always ready to fight for each other but never among themselves." How different a story from that of some descendants of men whose ambition it had been to see their work perpetuated. Both Clyde and John had the good sense to marry daughters of nieghbor- ing farmers. I found them women of refinement and culture, interested in the work of their husbands, manifestly proud of their life partners and their children. Clyde's boys are "all girls" -- four of them. John is daddy of the fourth John Ellis and has a winsome little daughter. The school house is on Ellis land but little John has to go a mile or more to reach it. That gives you some idea of [the] extent of the farms. The two farm homes occupied by the brothers are some distance apart. Clyde living on the old home, but they have their private telephone line and winter nights John phones the other folks to listen in, tunes up the big five-tube radio and all enjoy lectures and concerts. Each of the women folks has her own car and with good roads the 15 miles to Mexico usually is only a pleasure jaunt. Neither truck the sheep away for shipment but John has a "mongrel" Ford which he calls a "hoopee" in which he goes buck-jumping around over the big place or hauls a few sheep on special occasions. The machinery is top-notch, the many head of work stock as good as can be found. The brothers keep well-bred mares and raise mule colts as a profitable sideline. But, I'd better "talk sheep" a bit or the Missourians who know John Ellis as president of their state sheep and wool association will be disappointed. John has about 30 Rambouillets and a few Delanies in the show flock this year and I can tell the world that I saw some of the best lambs that that I've looked at in show ring or pasture and John was still creep feeding those huskies on oats, corn, molasses, soybeans, hay and alfalfa. The Ellis's have been breeding registered sheep only since 1917. They had used registered Rambouillet rams in the grade flock, had been impressed with the vigor and money making qualities of the breed and when they started they bought as good stuff as could be had. Probably 75 to sell for breeding purposes and the bulk of them go to the farmers right here in Missouri altho Texas sheep men are good customers. When I visited the farms, shearing was in progress. Two neighbors were handling the power clippers and the wool came off in a fleecy mass, free from burs, dirt or any other thing that cuts value. Last year the clip brought the top price of 50-cents, a total of $3.500. This year they were putting it away. The Rambouillets average about 10 pounds to the sheep and they were shearing 600. Some wool. Shearing was in progress in the lambing barn and John showed me how they backed the walls with straw, making the place warm as toast in coldest weather. Despite their largest holdings and evident prosperity, there is noth- ing pretentious about the buildings and their farm and flock as a business equipment. Ellis brothers handle their farm and flock as a business investment. As I stood with them, looking over Ellis land as far as I could see, I smiled to think of the warped viewpoint of some city folks who think of farmers as "hicks" and agriculture an occupation carried on by inferiors. Big fellows, physically, tanned and garbed in working clothes, yet power and ability radiated, and I'd bank on either man making good as a bank president or head of a great corporation. They'd tell you it probably would take a lot less hustling and head work to make it pay dividends than do the farms. When I came to leave after a stay all too short, John drove with me to see his aged mother who lives with her maid a half mile or so away -- still on Ellis land. "I like these fine boys of yours," I told her. Mother Ellis said "They are fine boys. I don't know how I could get along without my boys." She won't have to. My belief is that when another century closes, an Ellis will be on the old home land, helping as his forebearers have done in building a great agriculture. And there is inspiration in the thought that those of today and tomorrow justify the faith of the men and women who built for builders, laying a founda- tion which was sure and strong. But, of course, a sheep story wouldn't be complete without a closing "sheep talk." Ellis Brothers have shown Rambouillets in 15 states and won 1,200 ribbons, 110 of them being purple ribbons. They have shipped breeding stock to 15 states and to Canada. Shepherds representing three agricultural colleges have bought from them. One ram bred on their farms sheared 50 pounds and one ewe 89 pounds. John Ellis now is vice- president of the American Rambouillet Breeders association and in line for the presidency. Yes, Clyde and John "know sheep." But, as I have said, they know and do other worthwhile things. Long life and continued prosperity to these fine Audrain county citizens." 8. Copied from the 17 Jan 1939 issue of the Mexico Ledger: ELLIS CABIN, PIONEER HOME, IS DESTROYED Fire Takes Hundred Year Old Former Charlton Log Residence. A mid-afternoon fire of undetermined origin, destroyed last Thursday, the historic pioneer house and cabin on the Ellis Brothers farm in northern Audrain County. The blazes, discovered by Mr. and Mrs. G. Riddle, who had been occupying the cabin as a home during the winter, could not be controlled and before they subsided, had leveled to ashes, one of the county's best known and best loved landmark. The four room, two story cabin has been the favorite camping spot for many years of Boy Scouts throughout this section and of picnic parties and other organizations. Through the generosity of John and Clyde Ellis, who had kept the hundred year old building in splendid repair, without removing its pioneer architectural lines, it had been made available to hundreds of out-door lovers and used consistently for almost 40 years as a camping spot. Built By Pioneer The house was built more than a century ago, by John Charlton, pioneer Audrain settler, on the farm now owned by the Ellis brothers, but still called by many the old Charlton place. In its huge kitchen, was the beautiful deep fireplace made of native stone and laid, it has been said, in keystone fashion by Martin Howard's father. It was completely equipped for campers, as were the big front room, with four double bunks, and two smaller upstairs rooms. The cabin began its career as a recreation spot when first used many years ago by Mexico's early Boy Scouts under the leadership of the late Roy Ferris. Heavy walnut beams, hand hewn, supported the building. The beams, beautifully finished by hand, like every other bit of material in the house, were taken from the farm on which the building was erected and had stood for a hundred years. The fireplace was termed unique and it was said several attempts had been made to purchase it. The house had once faced the traffic of a county road, which ran along in front of it, up past the Eisele place and came out at Central School. But when Highway 15 was laid out, it skirted considerably south of the cabin, and left the old building an ideal spot for picknickers. Rebuilding Improbable Clyde Ellis said Tuesday, the place would not be rebuilt this winter, and may not be restored at all. He said the cabin was always known among pioneers as "the oldest on Young's Creek." It was of log construction, with outside weather stripping. In the interior, the logs were joined by white mortar chinking." [Note by Ellis Brockman. The J.H. Charlton farm was west of the John Ellis farm; it (the Charlton farm) was in sections 4 and 33 of T52 R9. The 1877 Audrain Atlas shows a dwelling (the cabin?) in the SE qr of Sec 33. The same is also seen in the 1898 Audrain Atlas. The dwelling appears just to the west of a road running N and S. The following was copied from page 171, History of Audrain County (1884): "John Charlton, of Ireland, came to America and settled in Monroe county, Virginia. His children were Joseph, Thomas, John, Isabella, Ella, Letitia, and Polly, all of whom, except John, lived and died in Virginia. John was a soldier of the War of 1812. He married Isabella Humphreys, and came to Missouri in 1820. The journey was made on a flat-boat as far as Shawneetown, Illinois, where they disembarked and came by land to St. Charles county. They settled first on Dardenne prairie, and removed from there to Audrain county in 1830. Mr. Charlton built the first hewed log house in that county (Audrain?), and had to go 25 miles to get hands to assist in raising it."] SOURCES INCLUDE: Marriage Records of Monroe co., MO, Book 3, page 307. 1880 Salt River twp., Audrain county, MO census; p. 93. 1900 North Salt River twp., Audrain county, MO census; p. 111. Berea Cemetery in Audrain co., MO. Mexico Ledger 1 Mar 1907, 19 Aug 1929, 17 Jan 1939 and 6 Jul 1956. Mexico Intelligencer 1 Mar 1907. History of Audrain County, MO (1884), page 171. Correspondence with David W. Higgins of Eau Claire, WI .
|
