The Elliott Family of Butler County, Ohio

ARTHUR TV. ELLIOTT.

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

who made the beginning and first uttered the Word of I °,. _ I

God to the hardy pioneers of this county. He was born, in the county of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, on the 22d of February, 1784, At the age of eighteen, moved by the spirit of adventure, he fell in. with the ! tide of emigration, just then beginning to set powerfully toward the great Northwest Territory. On horseback he crossed the Alleghanies, and continued his course westward until he reached the Miami Valley, where he determined to make his future home. He went back to Maryland soon after, where he was married in 1804, and in the year 1805 returned, settling in Liberty Township. Here he remained tor many years.

In 1806 an event took place which gave a new current to his thoughts, and changed his whole character and life. He was converted, and after a brief time became a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was admitted in the traveling connection in 1818. From the beginning, however, he devoted himself almost entirely to the work of the ministry, and his labors for ( urn Church of his love were more strenuous and more 1 enduring than any other form of labor, lie had pur- I chased a farm on his first arrival, which, was swept awa) by the duplicity of one of his supposed friends. With an effort, he made another start, in which he was successful, and he was a farmer as well as preacher for many years.

He was the founder of +he Spring Church, the earliest Methodist organization in Eastern Butler. He was a man of powerful frame, and with great energy and force. As a preacher he was a man of great fervor ami power; he moved his audiences at his will, and many were converted under his ministrations. He was a man of wit and humor, and many of his sayings are still preserved by those who were fortunate enough to hear him. He took a decided part in politics, at a time when that was regarded as far more unseemly than now. He was a Whig, ands a Whig speaker he accompanied General Harrison on his famous electioneering campaign of 1840. He was an ardent Mason, and was a member of that organization for more than forty years, in which society he was the grand chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Ohio. In 1854 he removed to Paris, Illinois, where he died January 18, 1858. He had seen his work prosper; his Church, at the time of his birth, had only ninety-three preachers in the United States, but at the time of his death it had 10,794. Few had done more for it than he had.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

For many years prominent in the affairs of Liberty township and distinguished as a citizen whose prestige and influence were felt far beyond the limits of the community honored by his residence, the late Arthur Elliott stood out a conspicuous figure among the successful farmers and representative men of Butler county. Characterized by remarkable breadth of wisdom and strong individuality, and in all of his enterprises and undertakings actuated by noble motives and high resolves, his success and achievements but represented the result of fit utilization of innate talent in directing effort along those lines where mature judgment and rare discrimination lead the way. He was one of the strong, forceful men of his day and generation, a leader in movements having for their object the material advancement of the community, while his influence in directing and controlling enterprises for the social and moral welfare of his fellow men was second to that of none of his contemporaries.

Arthur Elliott was born near the old Spring church, in Liberty township. Butler county, Ohio, on the 2d day of March, 1817. His parents. Joshua and Betsey (Hughes) Elliott, were natives of Maryland and from them he inherited many of the sturdy characteristics and sterling qualities which made his life such a conspicuous example of usefulness and his influence so strong in moulding and directing the careers of others along the lines of honorable achievement. His uncle, Rev. Arthur W. Elliott, was one of the pioneers of Methodism in southern Ohio, and did as much as any minister of his day to establish the church upon the solid foundation which made its early growth and subsequent history in the middle west so bright and illustrious.

Arthur Elliott was reared in a comparatively new and undeveloped country and experienced the various vicissitudes incident to clearing and developing a farm from the virgin forest. He was taught the necessity of industry from his youth, and grew to the full stature of manhood with a proper appreciation of the dignity of toil and of responsibilities which every one must meet and overcome who would make life a success. On arriving at manhood’s estate he those agriculture for his vocation and during the remainder of his life followed the same with most gratifying results, as is attested by the fact of his having accumulated large and valuable tracts of real estate, reduced to a high state of tillage and improved with fine buildings. Enterprising and progressive in all the words convey, he was one of the model farmers of his day and his aptness in business as well as in labor and management made him in due time one of the wealthiest men of his township.

In the year 1840 Mr. Elliott and Miss Emmeline Van Gorden were united in the bonds of wedlock and during the eight years following they lived on the old homestead in Liberty township. In 1848 Mr. Elliott purchased the farm in the same township on which he laid the foundation of his subsequent success and on which he reared his family and spent the remainder of his days. During his active years he devoted his attention very closely to agriculture and stock raising and while thus engaged added to his means until at the time of his death his estate amounted to eight hundred acres of fine land in Liberty township, besides a large amount of valuable personal property which was the legitimate result of his energy and well-directed toil. The real estate was in a high state of cultivation.

Seven children were born to Arthur and Emmeline Elliott, only three of whom survive. namely: James C. and E. T. are residents of Butler county and B. F. resides in

Los Angeles, California. Arthur Elliott possessed many noble traits of character and was always distinguished for strict integrity upright conduct and a high sense of personal honor. Among his other pronounced characteristics may be noted his sobriety, morality, prudence and punctuality in business, temperance and devotion to family and friends. He donated the ground upon which the old Spring church was erected, and contributed liberally to the building, besides giving a lot for cemetery purposes. In politics he was an enthusiastic Republican. His ideas were always clear and explicit; his opinions carried weight and commanded respect, and among his fellow citizens he was regarded as an adviser and counsellor in business affairs. Mr. Elliott was intensely and enthusiastically an American and the love of country and its institutions was to him paramount to nearly every other consideration. He discharged the duties of citizenship as became a broad-minded man. with the good of the state and nation at heart, nor was he ever negligent in his obligations to the community in which he lived, but encouraged to the extent of his ability every enterprise and progressive measure which made for its interest. As a neighbor he was obliging, kind-hearted and generous: liberal almost to a fault, he gave freely of his means to the needy, assisted to carry out undertakings for the public good which necessitated the expenditure of considerable sums of money, and in religious and charitable enterprises his name generally headed the lists. Mr. Elliott’s life was replete with good to his kind and blessed by his presence. He lived to a good old age and died greatly beloved and deeply mourned by all who knew him, on the 24th of April. 1898. in the eighty-second year of his age.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

ELMORE T. ELLIOTT.

The record of the subject of this review is that of an enterprising gentleman who worthily upholds an honorable family name and whose life has been very intimately associated with the material prosperity and moral advancement of Liberty township during the most progressive period of its history. E. T. Elliott, the youngest son of Arthur and Emmeline Elliott, is a native of Butler county, Ohio, and was born on his father’s homestead in the above township, January 24, 1852. During his boyhood and early youth he manifested a lively interest in the work of the farm and while still a mere lad took a pardonable pride in keeping pace with much older and more experienced person in all kinds of manual labor in the fields. At the proper age he entered the district school, where his young and naturally strong and inquiring mind began to unfold and to give promise of the intellectual advancement which he subsequently made under more favorable circumstances in higher institutions of learning. Finishing the elementary branches in the country schools, he spent the sessions of 1869-70 in the Seven Mile Academy, after which he yielded to a laudable desire to increase his scholastic training by entering Miami University at Oxford, where he pursued his studies from 1871 to 1873 inclusive, during which time he acquitted himself creditably and earned an honorable reputation as a diligent, enterprising student. His father having large landed interests which held out flattering inducements to one desirous of living an independent life and achieving a useful career, young Elliott those agriculture in preference to the honors and emoluments of a learned profession and, leaving the above institution at the time noted, he returned to the farm and assumed the duty and responsibility of its management. On November 10, 1875, he contracted a matrimonial alliance with Miss Margaret M. Withrow, the accomplished daughter of John L. Withrow, a prominent farmer and influential citizen of Wayne township and a descendant of one of Butler county’s oldest and most highly esteemed families. Mrs. Elliott was born in the township of Wayne, March 16, 1856, received a liberal education in the public schools and the high school of Jacksonboro and intellectually as well as in other respects is admirably fitted to be the companion and helpmeet of the husband of her choice. The Withrows have figured quite prominently in the affairs of Butler county and the name is also widely and favorably known in other parts of the state, a brother of Mrs. Elliott, Dr. John M. Withrow, being a man of commanding influence in the medical circles of the city of Cincinnati.

The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Elliott has been blessed with two children, Mabel, born July n, 1877, and Edith, whose birth occurred on August 9, 1879. The former, after finishing the public-school course, entered the Hamilton high school and was on her second year’s work in that institution when prematurely stricken by the cruel hand of death in 1891. Edith attended the public schools, spent one year in the Western College, Oxford, Ohio, and the same length of time at Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, after which she became the wife of Eugene Hunter. She is still an inmate of her father's beautiful home and the happy mother of a bright and promising son by the name of Elliott Hunter, who was born on the 21st day of December, 1898, and who is the pride and delight of his grandparents and the sunshine of the household.

For a number of years following his marriage Mr. Elliott devoted his attention very closely to agricultural pursuits and in due time became one of the leading farmers and representative citizens of his township. His farm, consisting of two hundred and fifty acres of fine tillable land, is in an excellent state of cultivation and, being admirably situated for agricultural and livestock purposes, it returns him the handsome income, which, with his earnings from several other enterprises in which he has been and is still interested, has made him not only independent but one of the financially strong and reliable men of Butler county. While still residing on his farm, where he has one of the most beautiful and attractive rural homes in the county, Mr. Eliott has retired from active life, though he still retains his interests in the Black & Clawson Company, of Hamilton, and the Sidney Steel Scraper Company, of Sidney, this state, with both of which concerns he has long been identified and from which, as already indicated, no small share of his liberal income is derived. Mr. Elliott is an optimist and has always looked on the bright side of life and received therefrom all the pleasure obtainable as well as a goodly share of profit. He has been judicious in expending his means for wise and useful purposes; has not been spring in beautifying his home and supplying it with needed improvements and comforts, and in a much wider scope he has aided and encouraged all worthy enterprises, besides lending his influence and financial assistance to measures and movements having for their object the educational and moral welfare of the people among whom he lives.

Like his father before him. Mr. Elliott is first of all an American and the love he bears his country is second only to that of the strong and abiding religious convictions which have ever been among his most pronounced characteristics. A firm believe in Christianity and the church, he gives to each an earnest and intense devotion, being a Methodist in belief and an active member of the congregation and one of its most liberal contributors. A Republican in the full sense of the word, an uncompromising supporter of the principles upon which the party is founded* and a believe in the great mission which called it into existence, he has persistently refused to enter the political arena as an office seeker, nor has he ever permitted his quiet to be disturbed by dreams of public honors or aggrandizement. His chief aims have been to dignity and make successful his chosen calling and to live so that the title of citizen may mean something higher and nobler than a mere empty sound. Mr. Elliott is a clever gentleman, popular with a large circle of friends and acquaintances, and he embodies in his make-up the sterling qualities and sturdy characteristics of the broadTminded, enterprising American who hopes for the best and strives with might and main to make these hopes vital and real. Of pleasing personality and dignified presence, he is easily accessible and the high esteem in which he is held proves that the universal confidence with which he is regarded has been worthily bestowed.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

ROBERT M. ELLIOTT, who as a representative and capable business man of Hamilton has become well known through the adjacent country, was born in this city May 14, 1855. He is a son of William A. and Elizabeth G. (Millikin) Elliott, the former a native of Maryland, and the latter of Hamilton. The family of which he is a member consisted of four daughters and three sons, of whom, besides himself, two sisters survive, viz.: Anna, wife of George W. St. Clair, of Lexington, Ky.; and Mary E., who married Taylor Murphy, of Hamilton.

The father of this family came to Ohio, and purchasing a farm one and one-half miles north of Hamilton, there engaged as a miller of the soil until his death, in 1881, at the age of seventy-two.

His wife survived him until 1887, when she died, at the age of sixty-eight. Our subject’s paternal grandfather, Arthur W. Elliott, was a native of Maryland, and became one of the early settlers of Butler County. He was an uncle of the well known statesman, Dan Voorhees, and was himself a man of much more than ordinary ability. He was not only well posted upon current events, but also a fluent speaker and gifted orator. He was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and traveled on horseback on his circuits in Ohio and Illinois. For some time he preached regularly in Paris, Ill., and that part of the state. In addition to his ministerial work, he carried on a farm, and as an agriculturist also displayed considerable skill and ability. During the famous “log cabin campaign” he was an ardent supporter of the Whig party, and when General Harrison was a candidate for President he traveled with the hero of Tippecanoe, driving him in his own carriage, which was worn out before he reached home at the close of the successful campaign.

The subject of this sketch was reared in Hamilton and upon his father’s farm near the city. In. youth he received a practical education, which fitted him for an honorable and useful career. He remained with his parents as long as they lived, and upon leaving the farm was engaged in the insurance business for ex-Gov. James E. Campbell for eighteen months. Later he was elected County Recorder and served one term, retiring in 1887.

As printed in the source³. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.