John Barnett ELLIS

The following bio was taken from page 193 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Gloria Riley

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

My great-grandfather, William James Jordan, (pronounced Jurdan) was born December 24, 1975 in Charleston, South Carolina, fought in the War of 1812, and came to Texas in 1821. He settled in what is now Jasper County, Texas, and in 1827 he married Mahulda Isaac. He fought in the Texas Revolution, and in 1844, he settled about twenty miles from the old town of Jasper, Texas and established Jordan’s Ferry on the Jasper side of the Neches River. He and Mahulda had twelve children, my grandfather, Andrew Clistus Jordan, being the seventh of the twelve. Andrew married Sarah Catherine Barnett and they had eight children. Grandfather Jordan served under General Taylor in the Civil War. He served for three years and was in the Battle of Mansfield and other battles.

My grandfather, William Ellis, also served in the Civil War, enlisting at New Orleans on March 13, 1862, as a private in Company G, 5^th Regiment, Louisiana Infantry. He was listed in the hospital in Richmond, Virginia in 1863. After the war, he came to Texas but later moved to Louisiana.

In 1903 when I was almost four years old, my parents, William Wade Ellis and Mary Ann Paralee Jordan, moved by covered wagon from Jasper County to Old Hymer, Louisiana, and my teenage and young adult years were spent helping my dad with the farming and in the timber industry.

On April 13, 1920, I married Pallie Olivia Belvin, and four children were born to us while we lived in Louisiana. In 1937 I moved my family to Texas and was employed in the oilfield until retirement from Texas Eastern Transmission Company in 1965. My wife of fifty-seven years passed away on August 23, 1977.

Our children all finished high school at New London and all married local people. The children are: LaVerne (Mrs. Oscar Poole) of Oil City, Louisiana; Bernice (Mrs. Billy Joe Irwin) of Laneville; Johnny Wayne of Artesia, New Mexico; LaMerle (Mrs. Olen Poole) of New London. We also have ten grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren. Wayne, our son, served in the Navy during World War II and also served during the Korean conflict.

I am a member of the Masonic Lodge, Arp, Texas and of the First Christian Church of Selman City, Texas

Written by J. B. Ellis