Biography of 	Ellis, Crawford Hatcher  Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by	Frances Ball Turner December 1997

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Source: History of Louisiana by Chambers
Vol. II, pg. 354

Crawford Hatcher Ellis.  The largest organization engaged in the handling
and shipping of fruit between Central and South America and the United
States is the United Fruit Company, owning and operating a fleet of
steamships, and with business offices in the principal ports of the western
hemisphere.  The executive in charge of the offices at New Orleans almost
since the inception of this company has been Crawford Hatcher Ellis.

Mr. Ellis was born at Selma, Alabama, August 26, 1875, son of Thomas
Jefferson and Elizabeth (Hatcher) Ellis.  He was educated in public
schoools in Alabama, and graduated with honors in the commercial course
from the Kentucky University at Lexington.

His experience in tropical products and commerce began when at the age of
eighteen he went to Central America as an employe of the Orr and
Laubenheimer Company, who were engaged in the crude rubber business and
operated steamers between Mobile and Nicaraugua (sic).  Mr. Ellis was one
of the company's representatives in Central America until 1897, when he was
put in charge of the company's office at Mobile.   The following year, in
1898, when the Bluefield Steamship Company was incorporated at New Orleans,
he went with this organization as accountant.

It was in December, 1899, that he entered the service of the United Fruit
Company, which had been organized only a short time previously and which
attracted him into its service as a young man with a knowledge of
commercial conditions in Latin America.  In 1900 he was appointed acting
manager and in 1901, when only twenty-six years of age, was made manager of
the entire southern business of this company.  Subsequently he was promoted
to various responsibilities in the general organization, being made a
director of the company, and since then director and vice president, the
positions he holds today.  He has a beautifully appointed office at 321 St.
Charles Street.  Among other interesting features of the office are about
one dozen loving cups which have been presented to Mr. Ellis at different
times and by different organizations and testifying to his capable service
in behalf of various movements for the welfare of the community of New
Orleans, and the South in general.  Mr. Ellis organized in 1911 and is
president of the Pan-American Life Insurance Company.  He is a vice
president and director of the Whitney Central Bank.  His prominence as a
citizen and business man has also brought him honorary positions and titles
on the staffs of Governors J. Y. Sanders, R. G. Pleasant and L. E. Hall.

Mr. Ellis takes his recreation in automobiling, fishing, hunting and
golfing, and is a member of the Boston Club, New Orleans Club, Southern
Yacht Club, Motor League Club, Young Men's Gymnastic Club, and the various
carnival organizations.   He married, April 24, 1895, Miss Inez Molett
Saffold.  They have one daughter, Inez Lucile, whe was queen of the
Carnival in 1916 and married Mr. Franz Hindermann in November, 1916.  She
has two sons, Crawford Ellis Hindermannn, aged eight, and Richard Lane
Hindermann, aged two, grandsons of Mr. Ellis.