Seth Hocket Ellis ~ Founder of the Ohio Grange

Seth Hocket Ellis (1830-1904) was born at Martinsville in Clinton County, Ohio on January 3rd, 1830 and in 1847 came to Springboro, Ohio and then married on August 21, 1851, Miss Rebecca Tressler (1833-1908). From 1851-1852 he was a schoolteacher. He began farming in 1865 at Salem Farm, just a few miles southeast of Springboro.

In 1899 S. H. Ellis was a candidate for governor of Ohio by the Union Reform Party and he ran as their candidate for President of the United States in 1900. He was also on the Managing Board of Trustees of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station at Wooster, Ohio, a member of the State Board of Agriculture and Vice-President of the Farmers’ Cooperative Harvesting Machine Co. in Springfield.

The Ellis’ rented their farm outside of Springboro and moved to a house in Waynesville in February of 1899 (Miami- Gazette, February 15, 1899). Seth H. Ellis was an Orthodox Quaker minister, but when residing in Waynesville he also attended the Waynesville Methodist Episcopal Church. Even so, he was co-presider at the 1903 Centennial Celebration of the founding of Miami Monthly Meeting. He died on June 23rd, 1904 from a fall from a cherry tree. Seth H. Ellis, Rebecca Jane T. Ellis and Isadora are buried in Miami Cemetery, Corwin, Ohio (Section M).

Seth H. Ellis was also the first Ohio State Grange Master and was the founder of the Grange (The Patrons of Husbandry) in Ohio (see Miami-Gazette, June 29th, 1904 for an extensive obituary). He and his wife, Rebecca Jane Tressler, the daughter of Jacob Tressler and Sarah Null, had eight children:

• one that died in infancy
• Mrs. Evangeline Sumers of Lawrence, TX.
• Charles Ellis, V. S.
• Idella (Della) Foster (wife of Eugene H. Foster), Glendale, Ohio
• Luella McClure of Springboro
• J. Tressler Ellis, M.D. of Waynesville
• Ruth Anna Janney of Waynesville
• Dora Ellis (Isadora).

Four of his children attended Miami Valley College: Isadora, J. Tressler, Idella and Ruth Anna.