Biography of John L. Ellison - Summers Co. WV The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 629 JOHN L. ELLISON, is one of the progressive and suc- cessful merchants of Summers County, his well equipped general store being at Avis, a tributary town to Hinton, the judicial center of the county. Mr. Ellison was born at the family home at Ellison Post Office, in Jumping Branch District, Summers County, and the date of his nativity was September 23, 1875. He is a son of Lorenzo D. and Mary Jane (Wills) Ellison, and is a descendant of Joseph Ellison, who, in company with a brother, came from England to America about 1780 and became one of the early settlers in what is now Monroe County, West Virginia. He was captured by Indians and taken to Flat Top, but contrived to escape, this capture having been made in one of the last raids made by the Indians in this section. The Ellison family has been actively concerned in social and industrial development and progress in Monroe, Summers and Randolph counties, and the family name has been honored in the annals of West Virginia since the early pioneer period. Lorenzo D. Ellison was born in Jumping Branch Dis- trict, Summers County, February 22, 1858, and he is now engaged in the mercantile business at Avis. His father, John F. Ellison, likewise was born and reared in Summers County, where his death occurred July 27, 1899, he having been a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war. His father, John Franklin Ellison, was born in 1790, and died in 1877, he having been a son of Joseph, the founder of the family in the frontier wilds of what is now West Virginia. The grandfather of the subject of this review had become a man of substantial wealth prior to the Civil war, but depredations made by Confederate soldiers, combined with other war depressions entailed to him large property and financial losses. Lorenzo D. Ellison conducted for two years a general store in Jumping Branch District, and February 5, 1907, he became associated with his son John L. in the same line of enterprise at Avis, his interest in the business having been sold to his son John L. in 1911, and he later having engaged in business at this place, where he still conducts a general store. He has served as a mem- ber of the City Council of Avis, and is one of the influential citizens of this place. The marriage of Lorenzo D. Ellison and Miss Mary Jane Wills, daughter of Lee Wills, was solemnized November 4, 1874, and of the eight sons and two daughters of this union all are living except one son. John L., the immediate subject of this sketch, is the eldest of the number; W. L. is chief clerk for the Loup Creek Coal Company at Page; W. H. is associated with his father in the mercantile business at Avis; C. E. is a resident of Avis and is a carpenter by trade and vocation; R. L. and Edward M. are in the employ of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company, as is also Fred, who is a conductor, his twin brother, Lonnie B., having died at the age of eight years; Viola is the wife of D. L. Lane, of Avis; and Anna is the wife of Clay Shipp, who, like Mr. Lane, is in the service of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. John L. Ellison so profited by the advantages of the public schools of his native county that he made himself eligible for pedagogic service. For five years he was num- bered among the successful teachers in the rural schools of Summers County, at a salary of twenty-five dollars a month, and in the meanwhile he continued his association with farm enterprise. He gave five years to successful work as a traveling portrait salesman, and he then established him- self in the general merchandise business at Avis, where he has built up a substantial and prosperous enterprise, based on fair and honorable dealings and effective service to an appreciative patronage. He has served as a member of the Republican County Committee, a member of the City Council of Avis, and has been influential in the local councils and work of his party since his early youth. In 1920 he was appointed a member of the Board of Equaliza- tion for Summers County for a term of six years, and he is serving also as a notary public. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Missionary Baptist Church. May 27, 1894, recorded the marriage of Mr. Ellison and Miss Rosa E. Lilly, daughter of Samuel and Anna Lilly. She was born November 20, 1875, and her death occurred August 16, 1901. Of this union were born four children: William C., now a conductor on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, with residence at Avis, was for fifteen months in active service with the American Expeditionary Forces in France in the World war, he having been assigned to the medical department of the Sixth Division; Clara Mabel died at the age of ten years; Mina Claire is the wife of Frank A. Spades, a conductor on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and they reside in the City of Charleston; and Ola likewise is a conductor for that railroad, with residence at Russell, Kentucky. On the 17th of April, 1912, Mr. Ellison wedded Miss Stella Barker, who was born in Summers County on the 17th of April, 1882. Mrs. Ellison is a daughter of John W. and Mary Malissa (Meadows) Barker. His father, who had been a prosperous farmer and also engaged in the jewelry business, was a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, at the time of his death, March 7, 1911, his widow being now at the old homestead in Summers County. The Barker family was founded in Virginia in the Colonial period, and representatives of the same were pioneers in what is now West Virginia. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Ellison had been for five years a popular teacher in the schools of Summers County. Mr. and Mrs. Ellison have two children, John O. and Mary Pauline, aged respectively eight and six years, in 1922. 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