Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2023 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Centennial History of Grant County, Indiana 1812-1912, Vol. II Compiled from the Records of the Grant County Historical Society, Archives of the County, Data of Personal Interviews, and Other Authentic Sources of Local Information pub. Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York - 1914 Pg 676-678 WILLIAM S. ELLIOTT Grant County, Indiana, has among its honored retired citizens many men to whom it owes much, men of the highest type of responsible citizenship. they have been useful to the community through their activities in busi- ness and agriculture, their public services and their professional achievements, and now, having stepped somewhat aside from the busy paths that their descendants still creditably occupy, they are entitled to the consideration which they universally receive. Among these men, one who holds prominent place in his community is WILLIAM S. ELLIOTT, now living a retired life at Fairmount, after many years spent in agricultural pursuits. MR. ELLIOTT is a member of a family that originated in New England, but which for more than a century and a half made its home in the South. His grandfather was born near Dobson's Cross Roads, in North Carolina, about the year 1800, and was reared to agricultural pursuits. As a young man he moved to Virginia, where he was married to RACHAEL OVERMAN, a native daughter of the Old Dominion State, and a member of an old and honored Virginia family, and as young married people came to Wayne County, Indiana, probably about the year 1818, as their youngest child was born there in 1819, and the second child, REUBEN, the father of WILLIAM S., was born in the latter part of 1821. In 1822 the family came on, as they had come from from the old Quaker settlement of Virginia, with wagon and teams, and located at what is now the land and location of the present Soldiers' Home in Center Township, Grant County. Here MR. ELLIOTT pur- chased government land, all wild and undeveloped, and from this property started to carve out a home. The first family residence was a little log cabin on the banks of the Mississinewa River, and there the grandfather died in 1868, his widow passing away at an advanced age some years later. They were both of old Quaker stock and were themselves well known and prominent Quakers of this settlement, having come North to avoid the slave holding element. For many years MR. ELLIOTT was an elder in the Quaker meetings, and at the time of his death was the head of his church. He and his wife were the parents of twelve children, of whom about one- half died in childhood, while the others grew to maturity, while three are still livng, as follows: ISAAC, who is married and lives in Fairmount, Ohio; ELIJAH, who is married and resides with his family in Michigan; and a sister, the REV. RACHEL, wife of HENRY THOMAS, residing in Howard County, Indiana, and a leading minister of the Quaker faith. REUBEN ELLIOTT, the father of WILLIAM S. ELLIOTT, was reared in Grant county, Indiana, at the old homestead of his father, and received his education in the church schools. After his marriage he settled down on a part of the homestead, and later, in 1849, the father purchased eighty acres of land from the government, which was then known as Sugar Creek Settlement, at that time in the Indian reservation, but which later be- came the site of the present sity of Amboy. This became the home of REUBEN ELLIOTT, and here he resided until 1869 or 1870, when he moved with his family to Wabaunsee county, Kansas. There he took up a section of school land and broke a fine farm from the raw prairie, developing and excellent homestead, and planting an orchard which became famous throughout that locality, and was noted for its beauty, being located on a plateau which gave it eminence for many miles surrounding. REUBEN ELLIOTT died, honored and respected by all who knew him, in 1897, while his wife passed away there in 1903, at the age of eighty-four years. MR. ELLIOTT was for many years an elderin the Quaker church, in which his wife was a noted preacher. He was a stalwart Abolitionist, and when the Republican party was organized he joined its forces. His children were as follows: WILLIAM S.; ELWOOD, who died unmarried when a young man; KEZIAH, the wife of PLEASANT PERRY, residing on the old ELLIOTT homestead in Kansas; MARY E., who died in infancy; SARAH, who is the wife of WILLIAM HINSHAW and lives in the vicinity of the old homestead in Kansas; VIRETTA, the wife of MARCETA WALTON, living at Sunnyside, Washington; ISAAC N., for years a railroad conductor and engineer in Kansas, who died at the home of his brother WILLIAM S., of injuries received in a wreck, while his widow and children live in Kansas City, Missouri; and JOSEPH CLARKSON, a railroad carpenter and contractor whose home is in Topeka, Kansas. WILLIAM S. ELLIOTT was born on the old homestead farm in Grant county, Indiana, on the present site of the Mess Hall of the National Military Home, January 20, 1844. He received his education in the Quaker and public schools and the Friends' Academy, an in reality has never ceased studying, as he has been a keen student of human nature and an observer all of his life, as well as a great reader. He became a pioneer tile- maker, the first in this section of the State, starting in a crude way and gradually developing his business until he had produced the first steam and gear machine, this being later worked out from his method by Chandler & Taylor, of Indianapolis. This has since been the plan and principle by which all of these machines have been manufactured. In addition, MR. ELLIOTT early turned his attention to agricultural pur- suits, in which he met with unqualified success, accumulating a hand- some property in Center and Liberty townships, a part being the present city of Radley, which was named in honor of his wife. There he has more than 200 acres, all in a high state of cultivation, being operated by the most up-to-date machinery and modern methods. In August, 1862, MR. ELLIOTT enlisted in Company C, Eighty-ninth Regi- ment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, as a private, being then not nine- teen years of age. He joined for three years' service but before he had been out five weeks he was taken prisoner by the Confederates, at Mum- fordsville. Shortly thereafter, he was paroled and sent home, and six weeks later was exchanged and rejoined his regiment at Memphis, Tennessee. There he did post duty while the army marched on to Vicks- burg, Mississippi, but eighteen weeks later, during which time MR. ELLIOTT did much special duty of an important nature, he was appointed a non-commissioned officer. Early in 1864 the regiment was ordered into the field and went to Vicksburg under GENERAL SHERMAN to raid all that section in Mississippi as far as Meridian, destroying the enemy's stores, factories, etc., and then returned to Vicksburg. The Eighty-ninth was later sent to meet BANKS, at Alexandria, to support that general, but never lost its identity as a part of the Sixteenth Army Corps. Later the regiment was engaged in moving gun-boats and transports up the Mississippi river, but in April, 1864, left the transports to assist GENERAL BANKS and his retreating army. The Sixteenth Army Corps allowed him to retreat through their lines, and then checked the Confederates in the Battle of Pleasant Hill, where both sides met with great loss. Later the Union army retired from the Red river country, and was sub- sequently sent North and West, against FORREST at the battle of Tupelo, Mississippi, where that general's army was scattered. Returning to Memphis, MR. ELLIOT'S regiment was sent with others to St. Louis, and took part in driving GENERAL PRICE and his army out of Missouri, and then returned to St. Louis and was sent by transport to Nashville, arriving there on the eve of the great battle of Franklin. Two days of hard fighting ensued, following which HOOD'S defeated army was pursued to the Tennessee river. The regiment was then sent to New Orleans, and thence via the gulf route to Mobile, participating in the siege of that city, which lasted two weeks. It was then sent to Montgomery, Alabama, and was at that point when the news came of GENERAL LEE'S surrender, the regiment being then ordered to Mobile, where the men were discharged and mustered out of the service, July 26, 1865. MR. ELLIOT'S record was that of a faithful soldier, who won promotion by reason of his bravery and gallant service. Returning to his home by way of Indianapolis, MR. ELLIOTT again engaged in farming on an extensive scale, but for the past two years has made his home in Fairmount, having retired somewhat from active life. He has always been a stanch Republican, and has served as a member of the com- mon council for ten years, being chairman of the board for the past four years, an office which he still holds. At the age of twenty-four years he was made an elder in the Quaker church, in which he served for four- teen years as meeting clerk, and for six years as clerk of the quarterly meetings. For the past six years MR. ELLIOTT has been trustee of the White Institute of Wabash county, and institution for the care of poor and needy children. In the fall of 1865 MR. ELLIOTT was married in Grant county, Indiana, to Miss RUTH WILSON, daughter of JESSE WILSON, a prominent churchman here, and she died eighteen months later without issue. MR. ELLIOTT'S second marriage was to Miss ALICE RADLEY, in Fairmount, Indiana, she born in England, in 1845, and brought to this country as a child by her parents, SAMUEL and MARY (BULL) RADLEY. The RADLEYS have always been agricultural people and Quakers, and the parents of MRS. ELLIOTT spent their lives in farming in Grant county, where both died. Eleven children have been born to MR. and MRS. ELLIOTT, all of whom are liv- ing, having homes and families of their own. They have been well edu- cated and fitted for honorable places in the world and are credits to their parents and their community. They were born as follows: WILSON R., born May 31, 1869; MARY, born January 19, 1871; EDWARD E., born February 23, 1872; ELIZABETH J., born October 26, 1873; FREDERICK CHARLES, born October 23, 1875; STANLEY P., born November 1, 1877; WALTER W., born February 6, 1879; GERTRUDE A., born October 19, 1880; REBECCA RUTH, born September 4, 1882; SAMUEL R., born September 26, 1884; and LUCY V., born September 26, 1886. ================================================================================