Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 565
ALEXANDER B. M. ELLIS

Alexander B. M. ELLIS, of Missouri Valley, came to Harrison County in the autumn of 1854, and settled in Jackson Township, remained two years and then moved to Little Sioux Township, where he purchased a farm, remaining until 1870, when he moved to Morgan Township, lived four years and returned to Little Sioux Township, where he remained until he moved to Missouri Valley in 1881, at the same time disposing of his farm property.

Mr. ELLIS is a native of the Buckeye State, and was born October 12, 1833, in Brown County, Ohio. He is a son of John and Hannah (MARTIN) ELLIS. His mother was born in Kentucky, and removed to Ohio, when quite young. The father was born in Ohio, and died in 1849. The mother died in May, 1891. They reared a family of ten sons and three daughters, of whom our subject was the seventh child, and of this number eight are living -- one brother in Omaha, NE and the remainder in this county. One sister is the wife of James COOPER, of Little Sioux Township and the older sister is Mrs. M. MURRAY, of Little Sioux. The father was a farmer by occupation,and as a matter of family record, it should here be recorded that the father was buried in Brown County, Ohio, and that the mother was eighty-six years, six months and twenty days of age at the time of her death, and was buried in Soldier Valley Cemetery, while the father was forty-nine years of age at the time of his death.

Our subject's education was received in the common schools of Ohio. In 1851, one of his brothers came to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, and two years later was followed by another. Our subject came to Harrison, and on August 18, 1862, in the dark days of the Rebellion, when the sisterhood of States was in jeopardy, our subject enlisted in Company C, Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry. He was mustered out August 19, 1865, and discharged fifteen days later at Davenport, Iowa. He was in the Southwestern Division, and later in the Gulf Division, of the Union Army. He took part in the battles of Spanish Fort, Fort Blakely, and Saline River. After the close of the war, he returned to Iowa, followed farming and worked at the carpenter's trade.

He was married May 20, 1858, to Lois A. PRATT, at Magnolia, Iowa. She was a native of Vermont, and came to this county with her brother in the autumn of 1856. Her brother still (1891) resides in Little Sioux Township. Her sister was married to S. J. SMITH, (now deceased). They came to the County in 1854.

Our subject and his wife are the parents of four children -- Flora, born August 21, 1859; Elmer M., March 18, 1862, and died February 18, 1864; Mortie S., born September 28, 1866; and Arthur, August 7, 1875.

Politically, Mr. ELLIS is an all the year around Republican. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Belden Post, No. 59, at Missouri Valley, while he and his estimable wife are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and bear the respect of the community in which they live.

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