Duval County FlArchives Biographies.....Ellis, Robert Naudain January 6, 1843 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 July 7, 2015, 7:15 pm

Source: Vol. II  pg.33-34  The Lewis Publishing Co. 1923
Author: History of Florida, Past and Present 

        ELLIS, ROBERT NAUDAIN. Resident of Jacksonville almost half a century, 
ROBERT NAUDAIN ELLIS has been distinguished as one of the legal civil and 
mechanical engineers of the Southeast. He designed and built Jacksonville’s 
waterworks and several other public utilities, and a number of constructive 
enterprises stand to the credit of his particular genius.
	He was born at Fredericksburg, Virginia, January 6, 1843, son of JAMES 
E. and ELIZABETH (NAUDAIN) ELLIS. His mother was of a French Huguenot family, 
and her father, ARNOLD NAUDAIN, was at one time a member of the United States 
Senate. The Ellis family was established in North Carolina in the latter part 
of the seventeenth century, and many generations of the family lived in 
Virginia. Dr. JAMES E. ELLIS was a successful physician of Fredericksburg.
	When ROBERT N. ELLIS was a boy his parents removed to New York State, 
and he was educated in the public schools and in the academy of Fergusonville. 
He began the study of civil engineering under private instruction, completed 
his course in 1858, and in 1859 began a service of nearly two years as a 
draftsman with the Baldwin Locomotive Works at Philadelphia. About the 
beginning of the Civil war he was appointed a member of the Engineering Corps 
of the United States Navy, and he saw active service during the war under 
Admirals Farragut and Porter on both Atlantic and Gulf coasts. He was captured 
at Galveston in January, 1863, but was soon exchanged.
	Mr. Ellis resigned from the navy in 1867, and his first interest in 
Florida was orange growing at Orange Mills. In 1872 he moved to Jacksonville 
and resumed his profession as a civil mechanical engineer, being associated in 
partnership with A. E. McCLURE from 1873 until 1888. This firm handled a large 
number of architectural and engineering contracts throughout Florida and 
adjoining states.
	It was in 1878 that Mr. Ellis was engaged by the board of trustees of 
Jacksonville to draw the plans for the waterworks and drainage system. He was 
superintendent of construction in installing both systems, and continued as 
superintendent of the works until 1891. In 1886 he was the first salaried city 
engineer appointment for Jacksonville. After resigning the city positions in 
1891 Mr. Ellis was interested in the phosphate industry, designing, building 
and operating the National Peace River Phosphate Plant near Bartow.
	In the latter part of 1894 he returned to Jacksonville and opened an 
office as consulting engineer. On July 1, 1895, he was again called to serve as 
engineer for the Board of Bond Trustees to plan and superintend the exterior of 
the waterworks, sewers, and drainage system of the city. On May 1, 1899, the 
city electric light plant, originally under the control of the Board of Public 
Works, was turned over to the Board of Bond Trustees and came under his 
supervision and was in a few years one of the best paying municipal plants in 
the county. He continued in this position until November, 1911, when numerous 
changes were made in the city government and he was appointed city purchasing 
agent, and fills that position at the present time.
	Mr. Ellis for many years has been an active member of the Jacksonville 
Chamber of Commerce, formally the Board of Trade. He is a member of the St. 
Johns Protestant Episcopal Church, and is a democratic voter.
	December 31, 1873, Mr. Ellis married Miss FRANCES McCLURE, who was born 
in Wisconsin, November 5, 1852, daughter of Rev. EDWARD and SARAH McCLURE. Mr. 
and Mrs. Ellis have a family of six sons and one daughter: ROBERT N., Jr., 
whose career is briefly sketched on another page; CLARENCE H., living at West 
Palm Beach; JAMES E., associated with his brother in business at Havana, Cuba; 
ARNOLD WRIGHT, a captain in the United States army located on the Canal Zone; 
FRANK L., of Havana; DONALD R., who died at the age of 12 years, February 15, 
1904; and FLORENCE M., wife of FRED McCUEN.
     

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