Eldon C. "Tootie" Ellis ~ The Ellis, Curtis, Sellers, and Simpson Families

September 14, 1917 ~ September 13, 2002

"Tootie" Ellis was the only son of Carrington (known as "Toot") and Ethel McKnight Ellis who lived first in Waynesville, Ohio and then in Crosswick. "Tootie" was a member of the 1935 graduating class of Waynesville High School. Tootie was a high school track star and he was the first inductee into the Waynesville High School Hall of Fame. He worked for the Fairley Hardware Store in Waynesville for about 32 years. He also worked for Don Ellis at the Ellis Super Value grocery store for many many years. Tootie founded "Ellis Fibre Glass Race Car Bodies and Specialities" that was located in Lebanon, Ohio. He specialized in midget, three-quarter and micro cars.

Tootie's great grandfather, Patrick Henry Ellis and his grandmother Adeline Henry were free African-American who lived near Lynchburg, Virginia.

Tootie's father Carrington Patrick was the son of Gladman Henry Ellis (1856-1934) and Martha Jane Sellers, a daughter of Jacob and Laura Williams Sellers. Gladman was born February 8, 1856 near Lynchburg, Va. He came to Ohio at the age of 18 months with his parents Patrick Henry Ellis and Adeline Henry Ellis in 1857. They came to Ohio via the train. Patrick Henry Ellis was a painter by trade. The Ellis' settled on a 63 acre farm in the Crosswick community one mile north of Waynesville on Bellbrook Road. In 1860, 45 African-Americans lived in Crosswick. The community was large enough at the end of 1859 to establish the "Crosswick Colored School".

Patrick and Adeline Ellis had three children: Anna (who married James Fletcher), Gladman, and Patrick. Anna and her husband James Fletcher and their two children Adaline and Almanza lived with Patrick and Adeline Ellis. See, Federal Census1880; Wayne, Warren, Ohio; Roll: T9_1075; Enumeration District: 79; Image: 0397.

Gladman Ellis went to the one-room school house for African-Americans in Crosswick. The Curtis family also went to school there:

• "Simms" Curtis, who was married to Letitia Sellars, and,
• Gladman Ellis, who was married to Martha Jane Sellers. Martha was born January 15, 1859 in Raleigh, North Carolina. When she was one year old she came with her parents to Ohio (1860) and settled near New Burlington. She is the daughter of Jacob Sellers (1817-1881) and Laura Williams Sellers (1831-1918), as are Letitia and Eunice.

lived in the Crosswick area.

• Charles Curtis, who was married to Eunice Sellers

lived between Harveysburg and Wilmington.

Tootie's parents, Carrington and Ethel McKnight Ellis first lived on a farm that is now part of the village of Waynesville. The land they had was the block between North and Chapmans Streets and Fifth Street and Dayton Road. Then in the early 1920s, the Carrington Ellis family moved to Crosswick. Besides raising their son Tootie and their daughter Frieda M. Ellis Miller, Carrington and Ethel also raised three foster children from Shawen Acres orphanage in Dayton, Ohio.

An old tobacco barn which was located behind the Waynesville High School on Dayton Road (see picture above) was originally owned by "Simms" Curtis, a great uncle of Tootie. Patrick and Carrington Ellis raised tobacco and it was stored in this barn. The barn was sold and moved into town. It was first used to house the mules that drove the "school hacks". When buses replaced the hacks, the barn was once again moved, now behind the high school, and used as a garage. Eventually, the old barn was remodeled inside and became the gymnasium for the high school.

Ethel McKnight Ellis, Tootie's mother, was born at New Burlington, Ohio on April 4, 1895, the daughter of John McKnight and Melissa Simpson McKnight. Ethel's grandparents were Joseph McCoy Simpson (1840-1913) and Amanda Gilson Simpson (1845-1923) from Cumberland, Guernsey Co., Ohio. Joseph was a soldier with the 27th U. S. Colored Troops during the Civil War.

Joseph and Amanda Simpson moved to Warren County, Ohio from Guernsey Co. to a place named "Brimstone Hollow". It was known as Canbytown, too. It was a mill town on Caesar's Creek not far north of Harveysburg. The location is now underwater, under Caesar's Creek Lake. Crosswick, Canbytown, and Harveysburg were three African-American communities in the immediate area around Waynesville. They were within a few miles of each other (see map below).

Thank you to local historian Dorothy Carter for sharing her knowledge about Tootie and all the families mentioned in this article.

The Old Waynesville Union Schoolhouse

The 1891 Union Schoolhouse
(The second Union Schoolhouse on this site.)
Corner of Miami and Fourth Streets

The Waynesville Brewery

The Old Distillery ~ Brewery
Corner of Franklin and North Main Street

Underneath this exterior is a log house built about 1801.

Roadside Advertising Near Waynesville about 1910

Near Waynesville ~ ca. 1905-1910

LOCAL BUSINESSES:

Roy Iron's Real Estate ~ The following is taken from the Souvenir and Home Coming Edition of the Miami Gazette dated December 1905, p. 2:

"LEROY IRONS, GENERAL INSURANCE, REAL ESTATE AND LOANS ~ Leroy Irons, with offices in the Stoops Building, carries on an extensive insurance business, in his special lines of fire and cyclone insurance. Mr. Irons represents some of the strongest insurance companies in the world, in fact he has made it a point to represent none but first class companies that will settle all losses promptly and satisfactorily. Mr. Irons gives personal attention to all business in this line that comes to him, and always makes the best possible rates to customers consistent with issuing to them insurance that will insure. He has given special attention to farm insurance, and has the exclusive agency for the largest company in the world, interested in insuring farm property, 'The Home Insurance Co., of New York.' Other companies represented, all of which are strong and thoroughly reliable, are: The Aetna, National of Hartford, Norwich Union, Fire Association of Philadelphia, North British and Merchantile and Queen.

Mr. Irons is a genial, pleasant gentleman and has a wide acquaintance, both of which facts have no doubt contributed largely to his success in business. Also real estate; and loans negotiated. Valley 'Phone 77."

The following obituary for Leroy Iron was found in a local scrapbook. Unfortunately, the hand written date on the obituary is not clear ~ 12-13- ?. The other surrounding obituaries in the scrapbook are dated in the 1950s. The obituary has probably been clipped from the Western Star newspaper of Lebanon:

"Funeral services for Leroy Irons, 80, who died Monday afternoon at his home in Clyde, will be held Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the Fiser Funeral Home in Clyde with burial in that city. Mr. Irons was a former resident of Lebanon. He is survived by his wife, Lena, a sister, Mrs. Ruth Brown of St. Louis, Mo., and a nephew, Albert Reed of Miamisburg."

Barnhart's for Shoes ~ The following is taken from the Souvenir and Home Coming Edition of the Miami Gazette dated October 1906, p. 46:

"An exclusive shoe store is something of a novelty in a town of less than a thousand inhabitants. Waynesville, however, can boast not only of an exclusive shoe store, but of a thoroughly up-to-date and successful line ~ Barnhart's Exclusive Shoe Store, located in the Aman Block. E. V. Barnhart (Ephraim V.), proprietor of the store, has been in the shoe business since he was a boy and understands the shoe trade form beginning to end. Like a number of other successful Waynesville boys, Mr. Barnhart gained his first knowledge of the shoe business back in the days when S. D. Everly kept a clothing and shoe store in Waynesville. After graduating at the local High School, Mr. Barnhart went to Dayton where he secured a through business training at the well known Miami Commercial College. From there he went into one of the leading shoe stores of Dayton and later on was connected with a prominent firm in the same line at Denver, Colorado. Afterwards Mr. Barnhart finished off his education in the shoe business by going on the road as a traveling salesman, giving up that position to open his store at Waynesville, five or six years ago. Mr. Barnhart handles everything in the way of footwear, but nothing else. At this store everything from an ordinary plow shoe to the highest quality of ladies' or gentleman's fine shoes may be had. His stock is very large and carefully selected, and in addition to the foregoing a full line of rubbers and rubber boots is carried . . . Mr. Barnhart takes foremost rank among the progressive business men of the community. He is a careful reader of the leading trade journals in his line, believes in modern methods of stock keeping and store arrangement, has attractive window displays, and fresh, crisp advertisements in the newspapers."

Ephraim V. Barnhart (February 27, 1873- December 6, 1946) was first married to Lou Marie Barnett Barnhart (1872-1929), the daughter of Charles Warren Barnett (1847-1920) and Emma Barnett (1849-1942) of Waynesville. According to the Federal Censuses of 1900, 1910, and 1920, the Barnharts lived with Lou Marie's parents. They are buried together in Section M of Miami Cemetery in Corwin.

E. V. Barnhart's obituary is in the Miami-Gazette dated December 12, 1846:

"E. V. Barnhart Called Friday ~ Ephraim V. Barnhart, aged 74, passed away at his home in Waynesville on Friday evening at 7:30 o'clock after an illness of about six months. More familiarly known as E. V., Mr. Barnhart had operated a shoe store here for many years prior to the 1920s in a location now occupied by Smith's Tea Room. He then went to Cincinnati where he was connected with the income tax department for several years as an accountant, later returning to Waynesville shere he has resided since. He was a member of St. Mary's Episcopal church, The Masonic Lodge, and Clerk of the Wayne Township School Board.

He is survived by his wife, Catherine, a brother Lyall of Oklahoma City, Okla., and a sister Mrs. R. W. Stultz of Winter Park, Fla. Funeral services were conducted at the McClure Funeral Home, Monday at 2:00 P.M. with Rev. Ralph Parks of Dayton and Samuel N. Keys, Lay reader-in-charge of St. Mary's Church officiating. Burial was made in Miami cemetery."

Madden's lumber Yard ~ The following is taken from the Souvenir and Home Coming Edition of the Miami Gazette dated October 1906, p. 69:

"W. H. MADDEN & CO., DEALERS IN LUMBER ~ During the year and a half in which the firm of W. H. Madden & Co. has been in business at Corwin they have built up a substantial trade in lumber and allied lines. The firm of Madden & Co. is not new to the lumber business as the gentlemen who compose the company have had a wide experience in all the various branches of the lumber industry. Madden & Co. have for a number of years been in business at Clarksville and the growth of their trade led them to establish a lumber yard and sales office at Corwin.

The advantages which come from buying in large quantities for two lumber yards are evident and the special low prices which they obtain in this way allows them to give their customers greater value for less money than would b e possible otherwise. The firm's headquarters in Corwin are located int he large building just north of the Post Office belonging to the H. Kilbon estate, and is in charge of W. H. Madden, who has proven himself a most capable and honorable business man. Pine lumber, lath, shingles, flooring, siding, doors, glazed sash, mouldings and the celebrated Napoleon elastic plaster are in stock at all times. A cordial invitation is extended to all who may be in need of anything in this line to call."

Rogers & Son ~