Grant County, KY - Bios: Elliston, R. H. Posted by Sandi Gorin on Wed, 15 Nov 2000 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************ R. H. ELLISTON 5053, Grant Co. Surname: Elliston, Mount, Willis, Payne NOTE: I have no connection and no further information. Souvenir Edition, The Williamstown Courier, Williamstown, Ky, May 30, 1901, reprinted September 19, 1981 by the Grant County KY Historical Society. R. H. ELLISTON was raised up on his father's farm, attending the country schools three or four miles from home. When he grew up in youth he spent two years as a student at the Kentucky University at Lexington, and one year at the college at Lebanon, O. [sic]. He received a fine education, which he has improved by vast reading and much study during all of his life. Mr. Elliston when a young man expected to study law and make that his profession, and with that end in view he bought some books and began to read Blackstone. "Man proposes and God disposes." Before he had read a single book he was nominated for County Court Clerk of Grant County by a Democratic convention, and was elected to that lucrative office the same year he was twenty- one. He was re-elected at the end of his term, and served the county in all eight years in that capacity. He was one of the best clerks the county ever had, his records being to this day a marvel of neatness and accuracy. While he was in office all of the old records were newly cross indexed, the entire office overhauled and new business methods adopted. He left the office of his successor in elegant shape. He was elected Clerk in 1874 and served until 1882. When he went out of office he and his father bought out J. W. Mount, now of San Diego, Cal., who then was in the hardware and undertaking business in Williamstown. The firm name was R. H. Elliston & Co., and for twenty years they have conducted the largest business in their line in northern Kentucky. They handle lumber, building material, all kinds of hardware, etc. Their trade is now and has been from the very beginning very extensive. Mr. Hiram Elliston died recently, and the business is still being conducted at the old stand as a firm. In 1893 Mr. Elliston was elected State Senator on the Democratic ticket from this Senatorial District, and served with distinction in the Senate during the session of 1893-94 and 1894-95. He had passed the free turnpike law under which we are now operating, and was a very prominent and worthy member of that body. In politics all of the Elliston family as far back as the records have been kept have always been Democrats. Mr. R. H. is a member of the Baptist Church, as is his wife. He is quite a secret society man, being a Master Mason, an active member of the Odd Fellows in all of its branches for the past twenty years, and is today one of the most prominent members of the Knights of Pythias in the state. He is at present chief of staff to W. R. Logan, Commander of Kentucky Division Uniformed Rank. Mr. Elliston has been especially active in the business world. He was one of the organizers of the Bank of Williamstown, and has been director in that institution for sixteen years. He was one of the organizers and has been Vice President, a Director, and is now the President of the Grant County Building, Loan and Savings Association. He organized The Williamstown and Owenton Telephone and Telegraph Company, and was its first President. This spring he resigned the Presidency and took the Vice-President's place, turning over the active management to younger hands. Mr. Elliston has always been a great friend to schools. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Williamstown Graded Free School ever since the school was organized, now nearly twenty years ago. He is the only member of the original Board of Directors now on the board. Last year he was appointed by President McKinley to take the census in the Sixth Congressional District, and he performed that undertaking with his usual skill and accuracy, and was complimented by the department at Washington for his good work. In 1878 he contracted a marriage with Miss Clara Willis, a daughter of B. G. Willis, of Brooksville, Bracken County, and a granddaughter of General John B. Payne. To this union several have been born, only one of whom is still living, Will C., a young man almost grown. Senator Elliston is an omnivorous reader and a connoisseur of good books and fine literature. He has done some writing himself, especially when a boy he wrote a history of Grant County, which was read by him at the celebration of Independence Day in 1876. It was a very creditable work, considering that all of the facts were gotten together and the history written in about four weeks. Mr. Elliston by years of industry and good business judgment has laid up a competency, and is now prepared for the proverbial rainy day.