Sepia Saturday: Ellis and Eliza Zaring Ellis
Ellis Ebenezer Ellis was born June 13, 1836 in Old Town in Hampshire County, Virginia. Hampshire County was in the part of Virginia that was later carved off to create West Virginia. Ellis was the son of David Ellis (1782 - 1852), a man of Welsh Quaker descent, and his second wife Sarah Jane Farmer (1805 - 1873) Ellis. When Ellis was quite young, perhaps two or three, the family moved across the river to Allegany County, Maryland and David farmed there for several years. Shortly after the 1850 Census, the family gathered belongings and moved to Mahaska County, Iowa. Ellis would have been perhaps 15 or 16 when the family moved. The distance from western Maryland to Mahaska County, Iowa doesn't seem daunting now in the era of interstates. But it was a major undertaking then and likely took weeks and weeks of travel. David died soon after arriving in Mahaska County and Sarah Jane was awarded guardianship of the minor children. While living in Iowa, Ellis met and...