Elston - Isaac Compton III
ISAAC COMPTON ELSTON III
Source: Crawfordsville Journal Review April 12, 1964
Isaac Compton Elston, 90, prominent in the business and social life of Crawfordsville for many decades, died at 7:30 a.m. Saturday at his home in Delray Beach, Florida where he had been spending the winter. He had been seriously ill many weeks. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Elston Home, 400 E. Pike Street. Burial will be in the family plot in Oak Hill Cemetery. Friends may call at the Hunt & Son Funeral Home after 7 p.m. Monday. Mr. Elston was a member of a pioneer Indiana family active in the business life of the state for nearly 150 years and was the third generation to bear the name of Isaac C. Elston. At the time of his death, Mr. Elston was honorary chairman of the Board of Directors of the Elston Bank & Trust Co and had been a member of the Board of Trustees of Wabash College since 1921. For 50 years Mr. Elston was a prominent figure in Chicago business circles as an investment banker and brokerage firm operator. Mr. Elston was born in Crawfordsville Nov 13, 1873, the son of Isaac C. and Sarah S. Mills Elston. He began his business career as a youth when he walked the five miles to Yountsville each Monday to work at the Yount Woolen Mills, and walked back to Crawfordsville on Saturday nights. Mr. Elston attended Wabash College with the class of 1894 and later attended Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio with the same class. At Wabash, he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. After college, Mr. Elston served as First Lt. in Company M, 158th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers in the Spanish American War. After the war, Mr. Elston began his business career in association with the Dawes family of Chicago, in the field of public utilities in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. He returned to Chicago in 1912 to begin his career as an investment banker with the founding of ELston & Co. This later became Elston & Allyn, which is now the brokerage firm of AC Allyn & Co. In 1916, with Paul H. Davis, he organized the brokerage firm of Paul H. Davis & Co with which he was closely associated until its merger with the firm of Hornblower & Weeks in 1953, when he became a partner in that firm. Mr. Elston served on the board of directors of many corporation which he helped establish and was serving as director of Mickelberry Food products, Chicago and Marietta Chair Co, Pittsburg. In 1935 Mr. Elston restored the Elston Homestead in Crawfordsville which his grandfather had built 100 years before and used this as his summer home. He immediately took an active interest in the business life of Crawfordsville. In 1940 he became actively associated with the Elston Bank & Trust Co .with his election to chairman of the board of that instituion , continuing the unbroken family relationship with the bank which now spans some 110 years. In 1952, Mr. Elston purchased the controlling interest of the Citizens National Bank of Crawfordsville, which merged with the Elston Bank & Trust Co. Long interested in higher education and the problems of the small independent college, Mr. Elston has generously given of his time and money in the interests of Wabash College. He personally gave more than $1 ΒΌ million to Wabash over the years of his association. It was through his major efforts that the current building (sorry rest is gone) - kbz