Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/454

 ELLIS

ELLISON

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was admitted to the bar in 1842, practising in Sjilisbury. N.C. He wjis a member of the state house of representatives, 1844. 184G and 1848; and a judf^e of the superior court of the state, 1848^58. In 18")8 lie was elected governor of North Carolina and was re-elected in 1860. serving 18:)9-G2. He was married Aug. 25, 1844, to Mary, daugh- ter of the Hon. Pliilo White, U.S minister to Ecuador; and sec- ond, Aug. 11. 1858, to Mary IMcKinlay, daughter of John P. and Elizabetli (Gra- ham) Daves of New- bern, N.C. By his second wife he had two daughters: Mary, born Jime 9, 1859, was married to Wil- liam H. Knowles of Pensacola, Fla.; and Jane Graham (born Oct. 8, 1860, died May 25, 1897) was married to Maj. William Trent Russell, U.S.A. Governor Ellis died at Red Sulphur Si)rings. Va., July 7, 1861.

ELLIS, Powhatan, senator, was born in Vir- giiiia alK)Ut 1794. He was graduated at William and Mar)' college in 1813, and settled at Winches- ter, ^lississippi Territory, as a lawyer. In 1818 he was elected a judge of the supreme court of the new state, and in 1825 resigned, having been appointed by Governor Brandon to the seat in the L'.S. senate made vacant by the resignation of Senator David Holmes, elected governor of Missis- sippi. He served three months, when he was succeeded by Thomas B. Reed, elected to fill the vacancy by the state legislature. At the expira- tion of the term, March 3, 1827, Judge Ellis was elected for a full senatorial term. He resigned his seat in the senate in 1832, having been ap- pointed U.S. district judge for Mississippi by President Jackson. On Jan. 5, 1836, President Jackson apjx)inted him charrje d'affaires in Mex- ico an.l he closed the American legation. Dec. 28, 1836, and returned to the United States. On Feb. 15, 1839, President "Van Buren appointed him U.S. minister to Mexico. He returned in April, 1842, and difd in Iiic-Iunond, Va., in 1844.

ELLIS, Theodore Grenville, civil engineer, was born in Boston, Mass., Sept. 25, 1829. He was chief engineer of the Sacket Harbor & Sara- togji railroad, 1854-56, of .silver mines in Mexico, 1856-.5S. and of the dike in the Connecticut river at Hartford. Conn, 1859-61. He joined the Union army as adjutant of the 14th Connecticut volun- teers and was promoted major in April, 1863. He commanded the regiment at Chanccllorsviile and

also at Gettysburg, where it captured five battle flags. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel, Sep- tember, 1863, colonel in October, and on June 8, 1865, was brevetted brigadier-general. He was surveyor-general of Connecticut, 1867-74; was vice-president of the American society of civil engineers, 1873-77; conducted hydraulic experi- ments in Holyoke, Mass. , 1874, and at the time of his death was in cliarge of the government work in improving the channel of the Connecticut river. He died in Hartford, Conn., Jan. 8, 1883.

ELLIS, William R., representative, was born near Waveland, Ind., April 23, 1850. He removed with his parents to Guthrie county, Iowa, in 1855, attended the district school, worked on his father's farm, was a student at the Iowa state agricultural college, taught school, and was grad- uated from the law deimrtment of the Iowa state university in 1874. He practi.sed law and en- gaged in journalism at HamVmrg, Iowa. He served as city attorney two j-ears and as mayor one term. He removed to Oregon in 1883 and in 1884 settled at Heppner. He served one term as county superintendent of schools, three tei'ms as district attorney, and was a Republican repre- sentative in the 53d, 54th, 55th and 56th con- gresses, 1893-1901.

ELLIS, William T., representative, was born near Knottsville, Ky. , Jul}^ 24, 1845. He attended the public school, worked on a farm, and in 1861 enlisted in the 1st Kentucky Confederate cavalry, serving with his regiment till April 21, 1865. He attended Pleasant Valley seminary, in Daviess county, for a few mouths in 1865-66, and was principal of Mount Etna academy, in Ohio county, 1866-67. He was admitted to the prac- tice of law in 1868, attended Harvard law school in 1869, and in 1870 settled as a lawyer at Owens- borough, Ky. He was county attorney, 1871-79; presidential elector in 1876; an unsuccessful can- didate for representative in the oOth congress in 1886; and a representative from the second dis- trict of Kentucky in the 51st, 52d and 53d con- gresses, 1889-95. He published One Hundred Days in Europe.

ELLISON William H., educator, was born in Charle.ston, S.C, Dec. 4. 1805; son of John and Susan Ellison. He was graduated at South Car- olina college in 1825 and was licensed as a Meth- odist preacher in 1826. He was married to Anna Capers of Charleston, S.C. In 1833 he was trans- ferred to the Georgia conference and was pro- fessor of mathematics at La Grange female college, 1833-36, resigning because of illness. After two years spent on a farm he accepted the chair of mathematics in the Wesleyan female college at Macon, Ga., and in 1840 was elected ])resiilent of the institution, serving as such until Julv, 1851, when he removed to Alabama.