Ellis Family Reunion

Submitted by Lorena McNeely

Source: Interlibrary loan, Microfilm reel 295374, Springs Valley Herald, French Lick, IN, Thursday, October 2, 1913, p. 4, col. 1

The Ellis reunion was held Wednesday, Oct. 1, at the Ellis Hotel, the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Levi K. Ellis. Among the out of town relatives attending were Rev. Chas. Ellis of Greencastle and daughters Ida and Mrs. Mollie Allen, Rev. Wm. Cox and wife of Shoals, John C. Hall and wife of Leipsic, Ernest Hall and family of Illinois, T. G. Ellis and family of Paoli, and W. F. Decker and family of Vincennes. Included was the record of the first ancestors of the Ellis family in Indiana: Daniel Ellis, the oldest child of James Ellis, was born in North Carolina, the year 1779, of Welch parentage. He had one brother named Jacob and two sisters named Melvina and Mary Ann, both younger than Jacob. Daniel was but a boy when his father died and was "bound out" or apprenticed, to a man who afterward moved to South Carolina taking Daniel with him. But when he was grown he returned to Chatham County, North Carolina, and at the age of thirty years married Abigail Gifford, the only daughter of Levi Gifford. She was born October 22, 1790. Her father was Scotch and her mother came from Holland. Abigail had three brothers. The oldest was Jesse and the second Peleg and the third was Levi, who was younger than Abigail. Daniel Ellis and Abigail Gifford were married Sept. 17, 1809. About the year 1815 they moved to Orange County, Indiana, as also did the Gifford family where they all afterward lived and died. Abigail Gifford Ellis died Dec. 7, 1827, leaving eight children, as follows: Levi G. Ellis, 17 years old, James 15, Jesse 13, Mary Ann 11, Elizabeth 9, Marvin 6, Margaret 3, and Sarah Jane 1. Eight years later Daniel Ellis married Sarah Brown and to them were born two sons, John W. in 1836 and Wm. B. in 1838. On the 6 day of Aug. 1854, Daniel Ellis died at the age of 75 years and was buried in New Berry cemetery about one mile west of Paoli, county seat of Orange County, Ind., where also were buried Abigail, 1827, and her father in 1832, and her mother in 1844.