BIO: JAMES ELLIOTT, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson
OCRed by Judy Banja
Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.
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>From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 421-424
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NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios:
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JAMES ELLIOTT. On April 3, 1801, James and Nancy (Kelly) Elliott and their
only child, a son, intending to leave for
422 CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
America, were dismissed as members in good standing from the associate
congregation of Scorvah, North Ireland. They landed at Wilmington, Del.,
where their son, who had died on the voyage, was buried.
Journeying from there to Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, they settled in
the locality now known as "The Pines," in Dickinson township, where they
purchased a farm. On Jan. 26, 1822, James Elliott leased from the estate of
the Hon. Thomas Duncan, deceased, the place known as the "Smokeytown Farm,"
and moved to it in the following April. In March, 1833, he purchased this
farm and lived upon it until his death, which occurred Aug. 24, 1849, at the
age of seventy years. In 1837 the present mansion house was erected, and the
same year the Cumberland Valley railroad was built through the farm.
James Elliott was survived by five daughters, Margaret Stephens, Nancy
Kirkpatrick, Sarah Kirkpatrick, Eliza McCleary and Mary Ann White; and one
son, John Elliott, who was born Sept. 8, 1804, and named after the boy who
died on the ocean.
Upon the death of the father, the farm, through inheritance and purchase,
descended to the only son, John Elliott, the father of the subject of this
sketch. On Jan to, 1854, John Elliott was married to Mrs. Maria Kirkpatrick,
the widow of Isaac Kirkpatrick, who was drowned in the Juniata river at
Millerstown in January, 1848. Mrs. Elliott's maiden name was Stroop, and she
was a granddaughter of George Stroop, a former sheriff of Cumberland county.
George Stroop and his sons assisted in the erection of Perry county, and, it
is supposed, were largely instrumental in giving it its name. His dwelling
house standing at Alinda, is one of the most commodious country residences in
Perry county, and stillbelongs to relatives of the family. The Stroops are
intermarried with the Holmans and Sheibleys, and their family history is a
part of the history of Perry county. To John and Maria Elliott were born two
children, Clara, now the wife of A. S. Montgomery, of Big Spring, Cumberland
county; and James Elliott. John Elliott died at the old home Aug. 20, 1864,
aged sixty years; and Maria Elliott died at the same place April 25, 1893,
aged seventy-two years.
James Elliott was born in the old homestead July 7, 1857, and remained
there attending the public schools of Plainfield until his fifteenth year.
After two years of preliminary study he entered Dickinson College, at
Carlisle, from which institution, in 1878, he graduated in the classical
course with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then entered the civil engineering
department of LaFayette College, and graduated from it in 1879 as civil
engineer. His two classmates at LaFayette were G. W. Snow, since United
States Surveyor General of Utah; and Hidatake Taro Yegawa, a Japanese, who
was one of his country's plenipotentiaries at the conclusion of peace between
Japan and China in 1895. After teaching a term in the classical academy at
Stewartstown, Pa., he turned his course westward, and after a long journey
which included a trip of 225 miles by wagon, he reached Buffalo in northern
Wyoming. After clerking in Yrabing Brothers' general store for six months, he
here opened the first school of that section. He was induced to do so under
the promise of aid from the school authorities of Carbon county, which county
then embraced that part of the territory. The promised aid failed to
materialize, and the school was closed, but soon thereafter every store,
hotel, road ranch and stopping place was supplied with petitions, prepared by
CUMBERLAND COUNTY 423
Elliott, for signatures praying the governor of Wyoming for the erection of a
new county separate and apart from Carbon. Two previous efforts for a new
county had failed, but this one carried with a rush and the new county of
Johnson, with Buffalo as the county seat, was established. Upon the
organization of the new county, he was nominated for superintendant of county
schools, but his youthful appearance was against him, and he failed to be
elected by the narrow majority of forty-four votes. Going to Utah in 1881 he
became assistant engineer on construction on the SanPete Valley railroad.
Upon the completion of that road he was employed on the Oregon Short Line,
then being built across the sands and lava rock of southern Idaho. Next he
was employed as an assistant engineer on the Walla Walla & Pendleton Branch
of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company's lines; also on the Colfax &
Moscow branch and the Grand Ronde Valley and North Powder extensions, both on
location and construction; and later in the Portland offices of the O. R. & N.
and N. P. R. R. Companies. In 1885, owing to the impending failure of Henry
Villard, and the curtailment of work on the Northern Pacific and allied
railroad enterprises, he returned to Pennsylvania, where he for some time
assisted in surveying and mapping a line of railroad between Newville and
Landisburg, which, however, was never completed. Having come in possession of
the old homestead, and desiring to give up the roving life of a civil
engineer, he entered the grain business in a warehouse which had been built
by his father on the east end of the farm about the year 1851, at a station
on the Cumberland Valley railroad then known as Good Hope. Here he opened a
grain, coal and forwarding business, and in 1886 was appointed freight agent
for the Cumberland Valley Railroad Company. On Dec. 26, 1888, the name of the
station was changed to Elliott. In the year 1889 he rented the ware house to
Thomas R. Burgner, and accepted the chief engineership of the Perry county
railroad, and his energy played an important part in pushing that enterprise
to its completion. After its completion he acted for one year as its
superintendent and chief engineer.
On March 12, 1891, James Elliott was married to Miss Bertie F. Fredericks,
a daughter of Joel F. and Eleanor (Eagle) Fredericks, of New Bloomfield. Joel
F. Fredericks was captain of Company F, 133d P. V. I., in the War of the
Rebellion. His wife, Eleanor (Eagle) McFredericks, was a granddaughter of
Francis McCown, one of the first settlers in Perry county, whose home, one
mile east of New Bloomfield, is now owned by Oliver Rice. Mrs. Elliott is a
lady who is much interested in music and art, and previous to her marriage
took a prominent part in all musical entertainments in New Bloomfield.
In February, 1889, Mr. Elliott purchased from the estate of John F.
Lindsey, deceased, the large stone mill situated on the Conedoguinet creek a
mile due north of Elliottson. This he, in 1891, changed into a rollermill,
and associating with him Thomas R. Burgner has since been operating it under
the firm name of Burgner & Elliott. He also the same year resumed the grain
and forwarding business at Elliott Station, and has continued in it ever
since. Passenger train service, which had been discontinued at that point
about ten years before, was re-opened, and in March, 1895, the Adams Express
Company also opened an office. In 1896 the name of Elliott Station was
changed to Elliottson to conform with the name of the post office, which was
established there Jan. 15, 1896.
424 CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Elliottson has grown into quite a town, and has a population of
about one hundred and twenty-five. It was largely built by James Elliott,
lies in the most beautiful part of the Cumberland Valley, four miles west
from Carlisle, and numbers among its industries the Elliott flouring mills,
the Bricker lime kilns, the Brehm carriage shops, and extensive green houses
of George W. Bear. The Burns Academy, a classical school famous in the
antebellum days, which flourished here while the place was known as Good
Hope, passed out of the Burns name in 1864, part of the buildings burned down
in 1890, and nearly all that the fire spared have since been removed. The
property is now owned by Mrs. Rheta Carl. Among the older generation in
Cumberland county are yet persons who treasure with the hallowed
recollections of their youth the name and associations of the Burns Academy.
Mr. Elliott still resides in the old home in which he was born. The only
junior member of his family is Frederick Snow Elliott, named after his
father's classmate in LaFayette College.
Very meager data exist relative to the Elliott family previous to their
emigration to America, but from what is at hand we gather that James Elliott
had two brothers, Thomas and Moses. Thomas retained the old homestead in
Ireland, and his granddaughter, Elizabeth A. Elliott, is living upon it at
the present clay. Moses left two sons, Alexander, who moved to Campville,
Conn.; and James, who settled at Osgood, Ontario, at which places their
descendants continue to live.