With the first meeting of 2020, the George Clinton Chapter of NSDAR began a new feature — the Patriot Profile. At each upcoming meeting members will learn about a different Revolutionary War Patriot who has a descendant in the George Clinton Chapter.
To give the history of this patriot, this writer has chosen to use the words of his great granddaughter and charter member of George Clinton Chapter, Katharine Strickle Foos (Kitty), as written in her Ellis Family History (which can be found online or a copy is in the Clinton County Genealogical Library):
Abraham (Ellis or Alles as he spelled it) was born at Hanover (then Lancaster County) Sept.27, 1750 … When the war of the Revolution called out the men of the colony, Abraham entered the army of patriots, to defend the country from the oppression of England. …Abraham served through several enlistments, two with Pennsylvania troops and one with those of Virginia.
He was in the battles of Long Island, Germantown, and others, and was with Washington’s troops at Valley Forge and made the perilous crossing of the Delaware River amidst the floating ice Christmas night, 1777.
He witnessed the surrender at Yorktown, and guarded some of the prisoners. At some time during the war he received a severe bayonet wound, and was honorably discharge at the close of the war. In his later life he drew a pension from the Government.
The Ellis brothers moved to Berkeley County, Virginia, in 1789, and there bought farms. Abraham served an enlistment with Virginia troops in 1780, and at the close of the war returned to Pennsylvania and married Katherine Joel. His brother Jacob married Margaret. Taking with them the widowed mother, Margaret Joel, they settled on their farms in Virginia….
The great Northwest Territory was taking steps toward statehood, and lands were being opened in every part inviting settlers. Ohio knocked at the doors of Congress, and was admitted as a State in 1803, being the first one carved out of the Territory…
In the spring of 1806, Abraham Ellis made the journey to Ohio to the lands thrown open for sale. He had sold his farm in Virginia to Frederick Householder… He made the purchase of a large tract of land in the northern part of Clinton County (at that time it was Warren County) near the line of Greene County, on Anderson’s Creek. …The family consisted of himself, his wife and eight children, four sons and four daughters, and his son-in-law Jacob Strickle.
In her book Kitty Foos has given a beautiful and complete description of the land and life in early Clinton County but time does not allow any more of that story to be told here.
This writer would like to end with names of all the members of George Clinton Chapter for whom Abraham Ellis was their patriot.
Listen carefully as there are many family names you will know and I am sure a few of these ladies you may know or have known: Katharine J. Strickle Foos, Maria E. Strickle Brickham, Mary Gans Strickle Farquhar, Elizabeth Ann Strickle Deuell, Elizabeth Farquhar Hanitch, Mary Grace Corbin, Alice Peterson McMillian, Mary Grace Peterson McCann, Lucille Lieurance, Nelle G. McKay, Nelle Bashore Curtis, Mary Louise Curtis Barrett, Louise Lieurance Daniels, Lucille McDonald Moore, Linda Blakely Junker, Bonnie Jean Bashore Inwood, and Susan Gregory Henry.
Today one can find the grave of Abraham Ellis and many of his family members in the Miller Cemetery on Gano Road in Clinton County, Ohio. He has many descendants still living in the county. Could you be descended from this patriot?
