Carey J. Ellis, Sr. Richland Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Frances Ball Turner ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** History of Louisiana, by Chambers Vol. II, pg. 248 Hon. Carey J. Ellis, Sr., of Rayville, Richland Parish, was admitted to the Louisiana bar more than half a century ago. His has been a career of unusual length of years and achievement as well. He has practiced law, served as district attorney and district judge, and at the same time has carried on extensive business activities as a planter, banker and in other lines. He was born eleven miles northeast of Jackson in Hinds County, Mississippi, February 4, 1849. His grandfather, Capt. Littleberry Ellis, of Virginia, was a Revolutionary soldier in Gen. Francis Marion's command and during the second war with Great Britain, he raised a company for service in the Battle of New Orleans, though personally he was not in command of the company in that battle on account of severe illness. He was a planter and died in Mississippi at the age of eighty-six. His religious faith was that of the Missionary Baptist Church. William C. Ellis, father of Carey J. Ellis, was born in Kentucky. From Kentucky, the Ellis family moved to Alabama, then to Mississippi and in 1853 to Caldwell Parish, Louisiana. William C. Ellis was a farmer and slave owner, and died at the age of fifty-six. He was a member of the Missionary Baptist Church. He married Mary Temperance Battle, a native of Tennessee, who died at the age if sixty-five. Of their fourteen children, the only one now living is Carey J. of Rayville. Three of the sons were Confederate soldiers, Josiah F., Oren L. and W.J. Josiah F., who was wounded at the Battle of Malvern Hill, was furloughed home and during the rest of the war was a lieutenant, trained troops for service, and subsequently became an attorney at Harrisonburg, Louisiana. Carey J. Ellis acquired his early education in Caldwell Parish, having been four years of age when the family moved to Louisiana. He attended the Copenhagen School in that parish and also studied at home. He worked as a farmer and in 1868 made a crop for himself at Millikin Bend in association with Thomas W. Watts. Growing up during the war, he had to endure some of its privations, which particularly limited his school advantages. While earning a living, he studied law with his brother Josiah at Harrisonburg and after examinations before the Supreme Court, was admitted to the bar at Monroe in 1874. Mr. Ellis had an extensive general law practice in different localities, at first at Harrisonburg and in 1875 located at Winnsboro, and in 1899 moved to Rayville. He served as district attorney of the district, composed of Catahoula and Franklin parishes from 1879 to 1884, was district judge of the districts comprising Franklin, Richland and West Carroll parishes from 1892 to 1900. Judge Ellis was a member of the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1913. All along he has been interested in planting and stock raising, and is owner of the Ellisdale Plantation of 2,600 acres in Franklin Parish. In 1902 he organized the Richland State Bank and has since been its president. This has been a very prosperous institution, long since repaying the stockholders their original investment and a large amount in dividends besides. There was a time when Judge Ellis knew personally every voter in his judicial district. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias. His son was a soldier in the World war, and the Judge looked after a strenuous program of home work as his contribution to the cause. Judge Ellis married on his birthday in 1879 Miss Julia House, daughter of Gabriel House of Madison Parish. They reared a family of six children. Leila is the wife of J. Y. Gladney of Rayville; Ada, wife of Dr. C.C. Jones, a dentist at Monroe; Anna, now deceased; W. L. Jones, a grocer at Rayville, and after her death her husband married her sister, Mary; Julia, who is the wife of Wallace Atkinson, Jr., of Summit, Mississippi. The only son , C. J. Ellis, Jr., graduated from the high school at Rayville, attended the Staunton Military Institute at Staunton, Virginia, graduated from the University of the South at Kewanee, Tennessee, and took his law degree at Tulane, University. He has since been associated in practice with his father. He was elected district attorney but resigned that office to volunteer for service in the World war, receiving his training in and around Washington, and was at the port of embarkation scheduled for overseas when the armistice was signed. In 1924 he was elected district attorney and is now serving in this office. C. J. Ellis, Jr., married Miss Innes Morris, daughter of P. S. Morris, who for a number of years had carge of the Standard Oil business in Louisiana.