John J. Ellis
History of Montana,by Joaquin Miller, 1894
USGENWEB Montana Archives
May be copied for non-profit purposes.

John J. Ellis, one of the County Commissioners of Cascade 
County and a Montana pioneer of 1864, now residing at Great 
Falls, is a native of Illinois, born in Summer Hill, February 
5, 1846.

He comes of English ancestors who settled in America previous 
to the Revolution. Daniel Ellis, his father, was born in 
Massachusetts in the year 1800. He married Jane Hazelton, 
a native of England in 1834. After his marriage he 
emigrated to the then new State of Illinois, took up 
land from the Government and improved the same and made it 
his home for the rest of his life. He died in 1845. 
His good wife survives him and is now eighty years of 
age. John J. was the fourth born in their family of 
seven children. He was reared on their frontier farm, 
having limited opportunities for an education, and 
consequently got what he has learned in the dear 
school of experience.

When he was sixteen years of age, Mr. Ellis started for 
Montana. He drove an ox team across the plains and was 
four months in making the journey to Virginia City, where 
he arrived in the fall of 1864. At first he mined a little, 
but soon engaged in hauling freight between Virginia City 
and Sale Lake and continued in this business for six years, 
during this time visiting nearly every mining camp in the 
Territory and camping out most of the time. A part of his 
time he had Government contracts, taking supplies to Fort 
Shaw. 

In 1880 he retired from freighting and turned his attention 
to stock-raising in the Sun River country. He has since been 
largely engaged in raising cattle and sheep at which he has 
been very successful, having owned as high as 2,000 head of 
cattle and 12,000 sheep. He has been the owner of about 
3,000 acres of land besides considerable real estate in 
Great Falls and has built in Great Falls a very fine 
brick residence, which he and his family occupy. He is 
also a stockholder in the Montana Brewing Company, of 
which he is president. This company have a large and 
valuable plant, are running night and day and make a 
choice article of beer, for which they have a ready 
sale. Mr. Ellis was one of the organizers and is a 
director of the Cascade Bank.

Mr. Ellis was married in 1869 to Ida A. Sykes, a native of 
Missouri, and the daughter of Mr. H.E. Sykes, a Montana 
pioneer. Mr. and Mrs. Ellis have three children, all born 
in Montana: Charles J., Alice A., and Laura E.

USGenWeb Project NOTICE: 
In keeping with our policy of providing free information on 
the internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as
long as this message remains on all copied 
material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in 
any format forprofit, nor for commercial presentation by any other organization. 

Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for 
purposes other than as stated above, must obtain express writtenpermission from the author, or the submitter and from 
the listed USGenWeb Project archivist.