The Ellison Family

Submitted by Robert Kingrey

Source: Compiled by Colonel Charles V. Deland

The Ellison Family was among the early settlers in Eastern New York. The father of Owen Ellison was a Revolutionary soldier and after the war settled in Orange County. Owen Ellison was born in 1809 and lived at home until his father died in 1816. Owen volunteered in the war of 1812, and was in the battle of Plattsburg. His mother was born in 1780 and died in Michigan in 1830. Mr. Ellison married in 1830, and removed to Michigan in 1834, settling in Summit Township in 1835. Mr. Ellison was always known as a hustler, and by his energy acquired a farm of six hundred acres. They had a large family, of whom four sons are yet living, George W., who is a farmer in Summit; Frances M., who resides on the old homestead; Owen Jr., who was assistant surgeon of the Thirty First Infantry, resides at Ironton, Ohio, and Benjamin was a druggist at Alma, Michigan. Owen Ellison was a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, and was for years a preacher in that denomination. He was a strong anti-slavery and temperance man, and the families are all reliable Republicans. Owen Ellison and his wife both died at a good old age, and sleep side by side in the beautiful rural cemetery at South Jackson.

George W. Ellison, one the hundred and fifty thousand people who resided in the state of Michigan in 1837, when it was admitted into the sisterhood of states, not many are now living. Most of those who still survive were mere babies at that time, a few have moved to other localities, but the great majority of those who were here and saw the first birthday of the new state have passed into eternity. It would be interesting to know how many of them are still living and residents of Jackson County. Whether few or many, it is quite certain that the down of youth does not still grace the cheek of any of them. The subject of this review, George W. Ellison, of Summit township, is one of those who was here then and is here yet, but he remembers very little about the admission of the state, being then only about two years old.

George W. Ellison is a native of Ohio, born in Ashtabula, August 21, 1835. His father, Owen Ellison was born at Penn Yan, New York, April 17, 1810, while his mother, Mary Ann (Bloomingdale) Ellison, was a native of the same place. The grandfather of the subject of this article was also named George W., and was a veteran of the Revolution. In 1834, not long after his marriage, Owen Ellison, accompanied by his wife, left the place of their nativity, in Yates County, New York, and, with a view of bettering their condition, went into Ohio and resided in that state two years. In 1836, with his wife and two children, he came to Michigan and located in Jackson County, on property, which he had purchased in the southern part of Summit Township. There he remained until 1863, carrying on general farming, when he sold the place to Allen D. Lyon, who is still the owner and occupant of the premises.

At that time it was his purpose to retire from the active duties of life, and with this view he purchased property in the city of Jackson and took up his abode there. One year of life in retirement sufficed to convince him that there was still vitality enough left in him to be useful to himself and to the world, and he determined to utilize it. Accordingly he purchased the Bartholomew farm, adjoining the one he had previously owned, and there he remained, an active, energetic man, sound in mind and body, personally superintending and managing all his affairs, until April 3, 1891, when he died, being then in the eighty-third year of his age. As may readily be suspected from this, he was a man of great vitality and uncommon energy, wisely active, not only in his own personal affairs, but in all public matters arising in the locality. He served as supervisor several terms and was for several years a justice of the peace of Summit Township. Mr. and Mrs. Ellison were the parents of six children as follows: Jacob B. enlisted in Company C. Eighth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, attained the rank of first sergeant, and served until June 13, 1863, when he was killed at the Battle of James Island, South Carolina; George W. is the subject of this review: Owen is a practicing physician of Ironton, Ohio; Benjamin W. is a resident of Gratiot county, Michigan; Charles died in infancy; Francis M. owns the old homestead.

During the boyhood of Mr. Ellison the facilities for procuring an education in the new state of Michigan were by no means all that could be desired. Nevertheless he succeeded in mastering the common school branches and, being of a studious disposition, he used his leisure to good advantage in the acquisition of learning. He remained on the farm, aiding his father, until his twenty-third year, when he purchased a place of his own, the Reynolds place, on section 35, Summit Township.

Life on a farm is dull and monotonous enough at best and is doubly so when coupled with the loneliness of bachelorhood. On the 13^th day of June 1858, George W. Ellison was united in marriage to Miss Anna M. Reynolds, with whom he had grown up from infancy, both having often been rocked in the same cradle. She was a native of New York, born in Seneca, Ontario County, June 13, 1835. Her parents were John and Sarah (Ackerson) Reynolds, who were also natives of the empire state. The Reynolds was of English ancestry; the Ackerson’s were of colonial Dutch stock. The grandfather of Mrs. Ellison, Isaac Reynolds, was a soldier in the war of the revolution. He was born in East Nottingham, Maryland, in 1775, and died in Seneca County, New York, February 4, 1871. He was a son of Isaac and Ann Reynolds, grandson of Henry and May Reynolds, and great grandson of Joshua Reynolds. The latter was a native of England, but came to America and settled on land belonging to William Penn. Isaac Reynolds married Mary Haynes in 1800, and settled on Seneca County, New York, in 1803, where he reared a family of seven children, Sarah (Ackerson) Reynolds, Mrs. Ellison’s mother, was born April 10, 1813, and was married to John Reynolds, March 28, 1833. Her parents came to Michigan at about the same time as did the Reynolds family, and settled in Napoleon Township, where Mr. Ackerson acquired considerable prominence, the post-office and railroad station being named in his honor. He made a good farm and resided there until past eighty years old, though his death occurred in occurred in Tompkins Township. Mrs. Sarah Reynolds died on the fourth of July 1891, aged seventy-seven years, after seeing all her children married and well settled in life.

Mr. Reynolds purchased the subject’s present farm of a Mr. McCullough in 8137. It comprised one hundred sixty acres and at that time was entirely unimproved. He soon erected a log house, in which he lived until his death, having converted eighty acres of the place into a valuable farm. Besides Mrs. Ellison, the Reynolds children that reached maturity were Mary N.; the wife of Lafayette Bunce, of Liberty Township, and Isaac H.; a farmer of Pulaski Township.

In September 1836, about the time Michigan became a state, the Reynolds family settled in Michigan. Mr. Reynolds was by trade a carpenter and builder and when not employed on his farm, worked at his calling. Through indiscreetly exposing himself in the winter of 1842-1843, he took a severe cod, which culminated in lung trouble, from the effects of which he died January 27, 1843. Four children were born to Mr. And Mrs. Ellison, all of whom are living: William Seward, assistant superintendent of the Metropolitan Insurance Company, at Battle Creek; Mary Ella is the wife of Eli Brunley, Onondaga Township, Ingham County; Hattie is a dressmaker by trade and is the wife of Eugene Brunley; Nettie N. is the wife of Parker R. Deland, of Napoleon, and was a teacher for five years.

The farm on which is the home of the Ellison’s comprises some two hundred and fifty acres of fine fertile land, and is situated in Summit and Napoleon Townships. While he has never engaged very actively in politics, Mr. Ellison is a straight Republican and has been honored by his fellow citizens with various offices. He has served twenty years as justice of the peace and has been recognized as one of the most efficient occupants of the office in the county. In religion he and his wife are members of and regular attendants on the services of the Methodist Episcopal Church.