Ellis, Joseph

ELLIS

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 10/1/2008 at 13:58:48

Joseph Ellis

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.185, Neola Twp.)
Joseph Ellis, farmer, P. O. Neola, was born in Monroe County, W. Va., in August, 1824, son of John and Ellen (Rupert) Ellis; he, born in Virginia, was a Surgeon in the war of 1812; she, born in South Carolina, is living in Virginia, and the mother of six children - five girls and one boy - our subject. He attended the common schools of his native county, and then went to the seminary in Alleghany County, Va. He went to Missouri in 1844, where he was occupied as a Government land agent till the breaking-out of the war. He advocated the right of slavery, but did not join the Southern army. In 1864, he came to Iowa; lived in Council Bluffs a year, two years at the Eight-Mile Grove, one year in Crescent Township, thence to his present farm of sixty acres, which he purchased of J. P. Casady. When Mr. Ellis first purchased this land, it was unimproved; he has improved it, and now has a comfortable home there. January 19, 1847, in Missouri, Mr. Ellis married Frances Cochran, daughter of James Cochran, who was born in Madison County, Ky., and migrated to Missouri when it was a Territory. By this union there are five children - Mary E., born March 17, 1849; Minerva A., 1851; Robert S., May 20, 1853; Charles A., April 11, 1855; and Harvey, born in 1856. During his residence in Missouri, Mr. Ellis was at one time Judge of the County Court; he was also Major of militia. Since coming to Iowa, he has been a member of the Board of Supervisors of this county, and has also served as Justice of the Peace, and is now a memberof the Board of School Directors. Politically, he is a Democrat.