In the Quoted Biography below, the name Ephraim Elliott caught my
attention. The reason being is that My g-g-g-g-grandmother's name was
Cynthia Elliott. She married George Personett. They lived in Henry
County, Indiana and resided in or near Mechanicsburg. In fact George
Personett is buried in a plot purchased by an Elliott and which is very
near the grave of Ephraim Elliott in the Mechanicsburg Cemetery. George
Personett and Cynthia Elliott had a son that they named Ephraim
Personett. Since my Personett family has never used the name Ephraim is
is most likely that Cynthia named her son after her father or a beloved
relative, i.e. Ephraim Elliott. Cynthia is recorded as being from N.C.,
which matches the state that Ephraim Elliott previously resided in. The
only discrepancy I have is Cynthia's birth date. Information given to
me states that it is 1816 which is 4 years before Ephraim Elliott's
marriage according to the biography. I have no proof of Cynthia's
birthdate so her info could be in error. If anyone has information on
Cynthia and can connect her to Ephraim Elliott I would be extremely
interested in hearing from them.
Sincerely,
Mike Pearson
COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY
Of Henry County Indiana
B.F. Bowen
1920
Page 362, 363,364, 365
Surnames in this biography are: Elliott, Hardee, Watkins, Swain, Cooper,
Wilhoit, Terhune, Hazard, Corwin, Cooper, Van Matre, Wisehart, Hendricks,
Voorhees, Turpie, Morton, Thurston, Theme,
NIMROD RICHARD ELLIOTT
This highly respected and eminent resident of Mechanicsburg and
president of the Farmers Bank at Middletown, Henry County, Indiana, was
born in Perquimans County, North Carolina, May 4,1827, and is a son of
Ephraim B. and Eliza (Hardee) Elliott, the former also a native of Perquimans
county, born in 1782, and the latter a native of Georgia. Both were of
Scotch-Irish descent, of the Quaker faith and were married in North Carolina
in 1820. Of five brothers of the Elliott family who had resided in England and
who came to America from that country in the Colonial days one settled in
North Carolina; one in Virginia and one in Kentucky; the others in all
probability returned to England. Ephraim B. Elliott was a true
American patriot and a lover of liberty and enlisted for the war of 1812 in
defense of the rights of the Union against the encroachments of the British
king and parliament, but as he had met with an accident in which one of his
legs was broken, he was not placed upon active service. His financial
circumstances were not very satisfactory in their character and to remedy the
paucity of his purse he resorted to school teaching and at the same time read
law. In 1829 he came to Indiana and first located in Wayne County in the fall
of 1833, a year remarkable for a meteoric shower of unusual
brilliancy. Later he came to Henry County and settled in Fall Creek
Township, his son, Giles C., having preceded him in 1831. Nimrod R.
Had also preceded his father earlier in the fall of 1833 and made his home
with the wife of his elder brother, Giles C., while the latter
was making the necessary trips bring the family and their household
goods, farm implements, etc.
Giles C. Elliott erected a log cabin three miles southeast of Mechanicsburg on
wooded land, east of which Ephraim B. had already cleared up
three or four acres. Some little time afterward, after having cleared
up about twenty acres and made a small farm, he bought anew place in the
woods and began all over again. On this place he passed the remainder of his
life and died in 1859 when seventy-seven years old; his widow survived him
until 1862 and died at about the same age. Ephraim B. Elliott kept up his
interest in schoolwork, his earliest employment, until the last hours
of his life. There was but one schoolhouse within five miles of his
farm, and that was at Middletown. He therefore donated from his
forty-acre tract a quarter-acre lot, upon which a log building was erected,
and this is still known as the Elliott School house. It had a puncheon floor,
slabs set on pegs served for desks and seats, one log removed from the wall
formed an aperture which was denominated a window and this was covered with
greased paper in lieu of glass. The first pedagogue was a Mr. Watkins, an old
man fromVirginia, who chewed an immense quantity of tobacco and constantly
expectorated on the hot stove. He could barely add and subtract and would dash
his whip on the floor and tell the pupils with in difference to get their own
lessons.Ephraim B. Elliott was compelled to cipher out the more difficult
problems, and, being a splendid penman, devoted much time to teaching his son,
Nimrod R., this elegant accomplishment. He was very anxious that Dick, as
Nimrod R was usually called, should be well educated and was willing to spend
his last dollar to attain this end. Dick was accordingly sent to school at
Greensboro,where in due time he secured a license to teach for two
terms, one of these being for the school held in the Huff meeting
house in the winter of 1850, the largest in the township and having an
average attendance of forty pupils. In 1851 Nimrod R. Elliott began to
sell goods in Mechanicsburg, a business he followed for over
forty-three years, and also had interests in stores at Cadiz and
Middletown. Mr.Elliott started with a capital amounting to about three
hundred and twenty-five dollars, borrowed one hundred and fifty
dollars and of this total invested four hundred dollars in stock. During his
long career as a merchant in Mechanicsburg he occupied only one site,
but at different times used three buildings, one, a frame, being
destroyed by fire in 1863; this was replaced by a frame and later by a
brick in 1866, which is still standing. Mr.Elliott carried a stock of
fromfive thousand dollars to fifteen thousand dollars and his annual
sales averaged fifteen thousand dollars to forty thousand dollars. Mr.
Elliott had several partners at different times, but started trade
alone. His first associate was Ezra Swain, for ten years; his second, Elihu
Swain, for twelve years, and next with Imla W. Cooper for twenty years as
salesman and partner. Finally the firm consisted of himself alone. Whenever he
made money Mr. Elliott would invest all his profit in real estate, and
whenever he saw anythingat all that promised to net him a dollar he would buy
it. He carried on a long credit trade, but he could also buy on four and six
months time. Mr. Elliott did all the buying and four times a year-visited
Cincinnati on horseback. Cambridge City was his nearest trading point by canal
and his first stopping place on the railroad was Chesterfield, on what is now
known as theBellefontaine railroad, and goods were brought to the village
with four-horse teams. As he held the confidence of the people in a very large
degree, he frequently had during the Civil war as much as twenty-five thousand
dollars ata time in his safe in keeping for his neighbors. He did by far the
largest mercantile business in the township and retired there from February
16, 1895. He next began to invest in farmlands, although he had already much
of that class of property in his possession. In partnership with
another person, he purchased one hundred and sixty acres adjoining
the town of Mechanicsburg at thirty-five dollars per acre, but soon
afterward offered this partner five hundred dollars to take it off his hands,
but this the latter declined to do. So Mr. Elliott put it under
cultivation and has converted it into one of the most profitable places of its
size in the township. He also owns the homestead of his late father, his
possessions being in tracts of one hundred and ninety, four hundred, one
hundred and ninety acres, or a grand total of nearly seven hundred and eighty
acres. He paid as high as seventy dollars per acre for a
one-hundred-and-sixty-acre tract just after the close of the Civil War part of
which he sold for one hundred and sixteen dollars per acre; but while he has
bought as low thirty-five dollars per acre, the average cost has been fifty or
fifty five dollars per acre. He generally keeps from sixty to seventy-five
head of cattle, mostly thoroughbred,and although he has been president of the
Middletown Fair Association for sixteen years, had never made an exhibit. He
and Thomas Wilhoit were the founders of the association and respectively hold
the offices of president and vice-president at the present time. Mr. Elliott
has also done something in the way of pork-packing at Middletown, but the
result has not been altogether satisfactory to a man of his business
acumen. Mr. Elliott has always been an advocate of good roads, as being
of incalculable value to farmers and other citizens. He was president of the
first pike road company at Middletown and of others at Mechanicsburg, until
all the pikes were turned over to the county; he is now aiding in the
promotion of the interurban electric line. In Company with John Terhune and
George Hazard, in 1874 Mr. Elliott started the Farmers Bank at Middletown,
with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars. This bank carried on business
for ten months, when it was sold to a company at Anderson and was
organized as the Farmers Bank of Anderson, with Mr. Terhune as cashier, John
E. Corwin as president and Mr. Elliott as vice-president, with the capital
stock fixed at one hundred thousand dollars. It was run for four years and
then converted into a national bank with a capital of fifty thousand dollars.
At the end of the four years Mr. Elliott sold his stock in this bank and
organized the present Farmers Bank of Middletown in May, 1882, with a capital
of thirty thousand dollars, and officered as follows: N. R. Elliott,
president: Thomas Wilhoit,vice-president; E. L Elliott, cashier; B. H. Davis
assistant cashier, with I.W.Cooper, William Wisehart and Thomas Wilhoit as
additional stockholders. The capital stock still remains the same; the
deposits average one hundred and ninety-three thousand dollars and the
earnings or surplus is disposed of, as the laws require. The present officers
of the bank are N. R. Elliott,president: Adolph Cooper, vice-president, E. L.
Elliott, cashier, and Joseph Van Matre, assistant cashier, and the bank stands
as one of the most responsible moneyed institutions in the state of Indiana.
Mr. Elliott was also for a time a stockholder in the Hagerstown Bank, but
concluded to concentrate his financial interests in Middletown, where he has
been an earnest and liberal promoter of all its industries. In politics Mr.
Elliott has always been a stanch Democrat, having been even when a boy
inimical to the Whig doctrine of protection or high tariff imposts. In 1884 he
was a presidential elector from the sixth congressional district and
was alternate at the national convention. He attended all the national
conventions,both Democratic and Republican, for twenty years with the
exception of the last few. Always in the councils of his partys leaders, Mr.
Elliott was an intimate friend of Thomas A. Hendricks and. was a delegate to
the state convention when that distinguished Democratic states man refused to
accept a nomination for theoffice of governor and was likewise a member of
the committee appointed to callon Hendricks and urge him to accept which the
latter did finally and was elected. Mr. Elliott was also quite intimate with
Senators Voorhees and Turpieand a close friend of Governor Morton. In his
prime he was selected by the Democratic managers as a leading speaker, and his
extraordinary eloquence never failed to draw about him immense audiences and
to strengthen the weak-kneed and convince the doubting. In religion
Mr. Elliott is a Universalist,but freely contributes to the support of all
religious societies. Of secret orders he is not a member of any except the
Masonic. He was made a Mason in 1852 at Middletown and is a charter member of
the local lodge, which was organized in 1858 and of which he was the
first worshipful master, holding this exalted position sixteen years.
He has sat in the grand lodge and has done some committee work therein, but
has refused to take grand lodge work proper. He is a member of New
Castle Chapter, Royal Arch. and Knightstown Commandery, Knights Templar. He
Attended the national conclaves at Cleveland, Chicago. St. Louis, Washington,
Denver,Pittsburgh, and Louisville, and at the latter city in 1901was in the
march from start to finish. Mr. Elliott is a member of the Eastern Star branch
of the order at Middletown, as is also his wife. During the war of the
Rebellion Mr. Elliott was a loyal and devoted friend of the Union and aided in
Raising all die military companies in Henry County. He was constant and
untiring in his care of the families of many of the soldiers who went to the
front and expended more money in this and other ways than will ever be known.
In temperance work Mr. Elliott has been active and ardent all his life
and was identified with it as far back as the early Washington movement; in
public educational matters he favors compulsion when necessary.
Nimrod R. Elliott has a family of two children. Ida Florence and Erasmus
Leonidas. Of these Ida Florence is the wife of J. M. Thurston,M. D., of
Richmond, Indiana and a professor in the Physio-Medical College
At Indianapolis: she finished her education in the New Castle Academy, was
Married young and has one daughter, Eva, who is the wife of Hugo Theme,
professor of languages at the University of Michigan. Erasmus Leonidas
Elliott, now the cashier of the Farmers Bank at Middletown, was graduated from
the law department of the University of Michigan, is a Republican in politics
and has served two terms in the state legislature of Indiana.