Monterey County CA Archives Biographies.....Ellis, W. R. 1842 - 
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Author: Luther A. Ingersoll, Editor (1893)

W. R. ELLIS.—Nowhere more than in the lives of the California pioneers do we
find the lights and shades of fortune and misfortune reflected in more varied
hues. The subject of this sketch affords an excellent illustration of the truth
of this statement. Briefly given, an outline of his life is as follows:

  W. R. Ellis was born in Rochester, Monroe county, New York, October 3, 1842,
and is descended from a line of patriotic ancestors, some of them having fought
on Revolutionary battle-fields. His father, W. R. Ellis, a midshipman in the
English navy, was killed in the Mexican war. And his mother was a direct
descendant of Commodore Rogers of the American navy. She died in 1882, aged
ninety-one years.

  In 1857, when a boy of thirteen years, Mr. Ellis ran away from his home in New
York and went to sea. He visited every port of any note in the United States,
and was at Liverpool three times. Returning to New York about the time the Civil
war came on, the patriotic spirit he had inherited from his ancestors was
aroused, and he enlisted when the first call for volunteers was made, the date
of his enlistment being May 7, 1861. As a member of Company C, New York
Volunteers, he entered the conflict and heroically did he serve all through that
sanguinary struggle. He was in many of the most important battles of the war,
among which were the battles of Bull Run, Gettysburg, Antietam, South Mountain
and Fredericksburg. On the 22d of July, at the time General McPherson was
killed, he was taken prisoner at Atlanta. Fourteen times he was wounded. He now
receives a pension of $27 per month.

  Mr. Ellis received his education in the public schools of New York and
Michigan. He came to California in 1868, making the journey by way of Arizona
and with an ox team. After his arrival here he was variously employed. He helped
to build the Union Pacific railroad, fought the Apaches in Arizona, etc. He came
to this State with $27,000. Since then he has lost three fortunes and has been a
tramp and everything else except a thief and a rascal. He has never held any
office save that of City Marshal. He was for a time engaged in farming and
stock-raising, but is now conducting a livery business in Salinas.

  Mr. Ellis was married July 3, 1888, to Mrs. Joanna Edwards, who died December
1, 1890. Like her husband, she was descended from Revolutionary stock. Her
brother fought through the late war and lost a leg in that conflict.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California.

Illustrated.

Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the
Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of
its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent
Citizens of To-day.



HENRY D. BARROWS,
Editor of the Historical Department.

LUTHER A. INGERSOLL,
Editor of the Biographical Department.

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."-Macaulay.


CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.


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