Robert Stephen Ellis, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Frances Ball Turner, Dec. 1997

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Source: History of Louisiana by Chambers
Vol. II, pg. 164

Hon. Robert Stephen Ellis.  Not only distinguished in the law himself, but
coming from a particularly illustrious judicial ancestry Judge Robert
Stephen Ellis, of Amite, judge of the Twenty-fifth Judicial District of
Louisiana, until 1924, when he retired, bears a name that has been an
honored one in this state for generations past.

Judge Ellis was born near Amite, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, June 20,
1871, sixth in a family of eight children born to Judge Thomas C.W. and
Martina Virginia (Hamilton) Ellis.  His paternal grandfather, Judge
Ezekiel Park Ellis, was born in 1807, in Washington Parish, Louisiana, to
which section his English ancestors had come from Virginia shortly after
the close of the Revolutionary war.  Judge Ezekiel Ellis while a resident
of Covington, Louisiana, was clerk of the court of St. Tammany Parish for a
number of years and was a member of the State Senate, afterward moving to
Clinton, Louisiana, where he practiced law until about 1859, when he came
to near Amite.  In a short time he was called to the bench as judge of the
Sixth Judicial District, in which office he served until 1867, when he
returned to the practice of law and the care of his plantation.  He married
Tabitha Emily Warner, who was born in 1810 in Washington Parish, and died
near Amite in 1888, having survived Judge Ellis for four years.  Her
father, Hon. Thomas Cargil Warner, was a territorial judge of Louisiana.
He was born in Ireland, came to Washington Parish, Louisiana in early
manhood, became an extensive planter and man of influence and public
repute.  He was a veteran of the War of 1812.

Thomas C. W. Ellis, father of Judge Ellis of Amite, was born at Covington,
Louisiana, November 26, 1836, and died near Amite August 4, 1919, a man of
marked distinction all his life.  Liberally educated, graduating first from
Centenary College, Jackson, Louisiana, he was also one of the early
graduates of what is now Tulane University, New Orleans, where he won his
degree of Bachelor of Laws.  In 1859, he engaged in the practice of law at
Amite, removing in 1876 to New Orleans, in the meanwhile having served in
the Confederate army through the war between the states, with the rank of
captain.  Subsequently he served one term as district attorney of the old
Sixth Judicial District, representing St. Helena, Washington, St. Tammany
and Livingston parishes, and one term as state senator, representing the
same parishes, and for the last thirty years of his life, to its close, was
judge of the Civil District Court, Parish of Orleans.  In other relations
of life he was equally true and steadfast, a member of the Masonic
fraternity and from youth upward of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Judge Thomas C.W. Ellis was united in marriage with Martina Virginia
Hamilton, who was born in 1843, in Alabama, and died in the summer home of
the family near Amite in 1890.  She was a daughter of Judge William
Hamilton, of the Alabama Circuit Court, a native and lifelong resident of
that state.  He married Mrs. Maria (Andrews) Burris of Alabama.  The
following children were born to Judge Thomas Ellis and his wife:  Ezekiel
Park, who died in infancy; Emily Maria, who died in infancy; Sarah
Virginia, who resides at Amite; John H., who was a well known physician an
vital statistician connected with the Louisiana State Board of Health, and
died in office in 1920 at New Orleans; Thomas C. W., Jr., physician and
surgeon, resides on the old family homestead near Amite; Robert Stephen;
Olivia J., the wife of C. Bullitt Grant, who is with the Bemis Bag Company
at New Orleans; and Martina Virginia, who resides near Amite.

Robert Stephen Ellis had in boyhood both private and public school
instruction in Tangipahoa Parish and at New Orleans.  He attended Centenary
College through his junior year and then entered Tulane University,
graduating from the law department in the class of 1894, with the degree of
Bachelor of Laws.  He is a member of the Kappa Sigma Greek letter
fraternity, in which he was active during college days.  After leaving the
university he engaged in the practice of law at New Orleans for two years,
then came to Amite and continued private practice until 1900, when he was
elected, on the democratic ticket, district attorney of the Twenty-fifth
Judicial District, comprising the parishes of St. Helena, Livingston and
Tangipahoa, an office he filled two terms or eight years.  In 1908 he was
first elected judge of the Twenty-fifth Judicial District and served four
terms in this high office.

Judge Ellis married at Amite, June 17, 1896, Miss Maud S. Addison, an
accomplished lady, a graduate of the celebrated Loquet Leroy Institute at
New Orleans, and a daughter of the late Henry S. and May (Dunbar) Addison,
of New Orleans, where Mr. Addison was formerly a cotton broker and coal
merchant.  The children of Judge and Mrs. Ellis have been:  Martina
Virginia Hamilton, who is an instructor in the Hammond High School, was
graduated from the Newcomb College, New Orleans, in the class of 1920 and
is an honorary member of the Phi Beta Kappa college fraternity.  Robert
Stephen graduated in the class of 1924 at the Louisiana State University
and is practicing law with his father, under the firm name of Ellis &
Ellis, of Amite, Louisiana.  He is a veteran of the World war, having
received his training at Camp Martin, New Orleans. Lloyd Addison is now
taking a course in civil engineering at the Louisiana State University.
Maud Addison is a member of the senior class, Newcomb College; Mary Eloise
is a member of the senior class, Amity High School; Sarah died at the age
of ten years. Lillian Emerson at the age of two years, and Tommie at the
age of eight months; and May Elizabeth, who attends school at Amite.  Judge
Ellis as a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which he is
a steward.  The family home is a commodious residence with ten acres of
surrounding land northeast of Amite but within the corporate limits, and he
owns also 170 acres of valuable farm land one-half mile north of Arcola,
Tangipahoa Parish, and thirty acres situated two and a half miles northeast
of Amite, on the bank of the Tangipahoa River.

During the World war Judge Ellis was chairman of the Legal Advisory Board
of Tangipahoa Parish.  He has always been public spirited, giving
encouragement to local enterprises of substantial character, is vice
president of the Fluker Realty Company, Fluker, Louisiana, and is president
of the Amite City Gravel & Sand Company.  He is a member of Amite City
Lodge No. 175, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is a past master; St.
Helena Chapter No. 43, Royal Arch Masons, of which he is a past high
priest; and Kenneth Commandery No. 9, Knights Templar, Hammond, Louisiana.
Other organizations with which he is identified are Dixie Camp No. 119,
Sons of Confederate Veterans; the Ku Klux Klan; and he is an ex-officio
member of the Louisiana State Bar Association.

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