Polk County, Missouri Biographies - John B. ELLIS, Rev.
History Of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade And Barton Counties, 
Missouri  1889, published by Goodspeed, Pgs. 682, 683
Polk County Biographies Section

    Rev. John B. Ellis, president of Morrisville College, was born
in Robertson County, Tenn., February 14, 1848, where he was reared
and received his early education.  After leaving the public schools
he attended Calender's High School, of Sumner County, Tenn., then 
taught two years, and then spent two years in Union College of West
Tennessee, lacking only four months of graduating as a Ph. B.  He 
again turned his attention to teaching, and in 1875 came to Greene 
County, where he taught several schools.  In 1876 he returned to 
Tennessee, and married Miss Eliza T. Matthews, a native of Sumner 
County, Tenn., after which he returned to Missouri and joined the 
Southwest Missouri Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, and was actively engaged in his ministerial duties until 
1886, filling positions at Neosho, Marshfield, Westport, etc.  He 
was presiding elder of Springfield District from 1883 to 1886, 
when he was elected president of Morrisville College.  Mrs. Ellis
is also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.  In 
their family are five children: Mattielou, Rebecca M., John A.,
Lida L. and William P.  Prof. Ellis is a member of the Masonic 
order, and a prominent man in the county.  His parents, Green D.
and Rebecca (Deal) Ellis, were both natives of Davidson County, 
Tenn.  The great-grandfather Ellis was an Englishman, who came
to this country at an early day, settling in North Carolina, and
from there the younger members of the family found their way to 
Tennessee.  The father of our subject was born in 1803, and the 
mother in 1816.  After growing up, they were married in Davidson 
County, Tenn., in 1835, and for a livelihood the father followed 
farming, though he taught school in early life.  Both he and wife 
were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.  In their 
family were nine children, seven sons and two daughters.  He died 
in 1879, and she in 1887.  He was a Whig in politics.
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