WASHINGTON COUNTY, TN - BIOGRAPHIES - Capt. W. E. McElwee Biographical Sketch
From Goodspeed's History of Roane County, TN
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Capt. W. E. McElwee, attorney, ore miner and farmer, was born in 1837, in 
Roane County, where he has since lived. He received a good common-school 
education, and was thrown upon his own resources when eighteen years old. He 
began poor, and what he is now worth was accumulated by his own industry and 
good management. He first worked in a foundry for three years, then worked at 
cabinet work two years, then enlisted in Com- pany I, Twenty-sixth Tenneseee 
Infantry (Confederate States Army) in July 1861, as a pri- vate. In December, 
1861, he was elected second lieutenant, and, immediately after the battle of 
Murfreesboro, was promoted to the captaincy of his company for his bravery and 
efficiency as an officer, and was placed on a committee to examine and 
determine upon the competency of officers, in which capacity he served until 
after the battle of Chicka- mauga, when he was placed in command of an 
engineer corps, and assigned to duty as corps engineer of Hood's corps, which 
position he held until the close of the war. He was surrendered at Greensboro, 
N. C., with Gen. Johnston's army. He then came home and worked as a mechanic 
two years, when he acted as civil engineer for "The Roane Iron Company," for 
the following six years, when he engaged in mining iron ore, which, in 
connection with farming, he has since followed. He was married, in 1868, to 
Miss Martha R. Brown, a daughter of William V. Brown, of Roane County. Three 
children were born to this union: 
Franklin, and two that died in infancy. Mrs. McElwee died in 1872. Mr. McElwee 
is a Democrat in politics, but cast his first presidential ballot for Bell and 
Everett. He is the youngest of four children of William and Lucinda (Eblen) 
McElwee. The father was born and raised in Roane County, near Loudon County, 
and the mother was born in Loudon County, Va., and when seven years old was 
brought to Tennessee. William McElwee was the first white child known to have 
been born in Roane County. He was one of sixteen children of James McElwee, a 
native of Charlotte, N. C., and immigrated to Tennessee when Daniel Boone came 
west the second time. He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and 
served in Sevier's regiment during the battle at King's Mountain. William 
McElwee was of Scotch-Irish, and Mrs. McElwee of German descent. James McElwee 
married on the Watauga River, in Virginia, and was among the first settlers at 
Knoxville. He first settled five miles below Knoxville, and was the first man 
to go to the rescue when the Cavett family was massacred. He served in all the 
expeditions made against the Indians during the frontier time of East 
Tennessee, and died in Roane County. William McElwee served under Gen. Jackson 
in his Indian campaigns, and also served in the war of 1812. W. E. McElwee 
participated in forty-two battles during the late war, and was wounded three 
different times.