Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/158

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

deceased ; Jane Rives, living unmarried at C atonsville. Maryland ; Tarlton F., of fur- ther mention ; Eleanor Hartwell, died while the wife of Thomas Faulcon Parsons, of Petersburg: one child, unnamed, died in in- fanc}-.

Tarlton Meming Heath grew to the age of ten years on his father's plantation in ( loochland county. Having lost his father 1-y death, he went to Petersburg to live with his grandmother, and there he attended the jniblic schools and McCabe School until thirteen years of age, when he started out to maintain himself. He began his business life as a clerk in a retail grocery, and in 1887 eiigaged in the grain business on his own account. At this time he had a partner, and the business was conducted under the style of Cabaniss & Company, which after- wards became T. F. Heath & Company. The business is now incorporated under that title, and his associate is his brother-in- law, Thomas F. Parsons. Mr. Heath is in- terested in various business enterprises, has been a director of the Petersburg Telephone Company since its organization, is a direc- tor uf other institutions, and became presi- lient of the National Bank of Petersburg in 1914. With his family he is associated with the Protestant Episcopal church, and in matters relating to civil affairs he acts with the Democratic party. He married, Janu- ary 12, 1887, at Warrenton, North Carolina, Rosa (lilmore Arrington, a native of that tcnvn, daughter of the late Samuel P. Ar- rington. who was for many years a mer- chant of Petersburg, member of the firm of John .Arrington & Sons. Her mother, Han- nah B. (White) Arrington, is now living in Warrenton. Air. and Mrs. Heath are the parents of three children: i. Rosa Arring- ton. wife of William Lunsford Long, resid- ing in Halifax county. North Carolina. 2. Jesse Hartwell, now engaged in business with his father ; married Emily Gordon Gil- liam, of Petersburg. 3. Tarlton Fleming, Jr.. a student at Woodbury Forest.

John Hanckel Ellerson. Dr. John Flanckel Ellerson was born in Philadelphia, son of Andrew Ellerson. who came to this country from Christian ia, Norway. He was highly educated for the medical profession, his studies in this calling being completed in the universities and hospitals of Paris, France. Returning to the United States he was for a

long time a resident uf New Orleans, Louisi- ana, an eminent and successful physician. He married Laura Roy, of Gloucester county, \'irginia, and had children : John Hanckel, of whom further; Andrew Roy; \\'illiam; Mary; James. Of these Andrew Roy and James are the sole survivors, the former a resident of Richmond. N'irginia, the latter living in Washington, D. C.

John Hanckel (2) Ellerson. son of Dr. John Hanckel (i) and Laura (Roy) Eller- son, was born in Mathews county, \^irginia, in the family home at Green Plains, July -?7- 1835. and died May 28, 1891. He was the possessor of an excellent education ob- tained through study in the schools in the vicinity of his Virginia home, and had but started upon the business of life when loy- alty to the Confederate cause led him to forsake private enterprise and to enlist in the army of that government. He became a member of a regiment recruited in Rich- mond, and served throughout the four years of the war, for seven months of that time being held prisoner at Fort Delaware. At the fall of the Confederacy he returned to his home, in 1870 accepting the position that he held at the time of his death, the Virginia state agency for the Equitable Life Insurance Company, with business head- quarters in Richmond. He completed a thorough organization and was enjoying the fruits of a strong and vigorous business when death called him, at the age of fifty- six years. With absolute authority as the chief representative of his company in Vir- ginia he was given free rein to pursue what- ever methods he deemed most productive of results beneficial to his emplovers, and thus, independent of hampering restrictions, he laid out wide confining boundaries for the business of the Equitable Life Insur- ance Company in the state and widened the scope of the company's influence to these limits. He was a successful man of affairs, held high standing in his community, and owned many close friends. He was a Demo- crat in political conviction, and cast his vote with that party. Mr. Ellerson was a com- municant of the Second Presbyterian Church, of Richmond.

He married, in this city, October 17, 1872, Ida Watkins, born in Richmond, Virginia, October 16, 1846. Mr. and Mrs. Ellerson wfere the parents of two children : Laura Roy, now Mrs. Eugene Carter Massie ;