Levy/Levi ELLIS

Even though Levi Ellis had three sons and eleven daughters, just six—all girls—lived past twenty years of age. Here is Levi's story, if he could tell it, as imagined by the-great granddaughter of Jennie Ellis Shelden.

Death. I've seen too much of it in my lifetime. And it's never easy, whether it is the death of fellow Union soldiers or the enemy Confederate ones, the death of your brothers and sisters, or the death of your own children and wife. Maybe someday man will conquer disease, but these days, you just expect many of your children will die young. Precious little babies, toddlers just learning to walk, or older sons and daughters. You never know when the grim reaper will call. Flu, measles, smallpox, consumption [tuberculosis], pneumonia, even festering wounds. You can be well one week and dead the next. 

I married Theresa Caldwell "Betsey" Brock when I was 21 and she was about 17 in Fulton County, Illinois, on Feb. 12, 1837. We had nine children but only three lived past childhood. Our first baby born after we moved to Iowa, Elizabeth Theressa born in 1846, also grew to adulthood. Amelda's death is perhaps the saddest of all as she and her mother died within a year of her birth. I had four daughters, ages 10 to 2, so I needed to find a wife. Luckily Elizabeth Hazeltine, age 24, agreed to take on a man of 38 and my brood of girls, and we married on October 9, 1853. We had five children with two living past 19.

I was born on October 24, 1815, in Lebanon, Tennessee. My father Jacob had left South Carolina to join his younger brother Levi Dwire Ellis in Tennessee. Just before I turned three, our two families headed for Springfield, Illinois. [For more on the story, see Memorials #20372858, #133548100, and #133540948.] When I was 16, my older brother Bird was killed in the Black Hawk War. [See Memorial #15361758.] That was the war that opened up Iowa for settlement. In the spring of 1846, I built the first log cabin on one of the new two-acre lots in the town of Delhi, Iowa. 

I hired out as a laborer as did the neighbors when they came. It was a good way to raise money to purchase my own farm. Unfortunately I did not have enough sons to help with farm work. I hired some help when I needed to and the girls helped out as much as they could. With everyone going away to fight in the Civil War, there would be very few people to hire so I decided to sign up and use my wages to support my family.

I left Elizabeth and my seven children and enlisted in the Army on September 23, 1861, and mustered into Company B of the Fourth Regiment, Iowa Calvary, on Nov. 23, 1861, just one month after my 47th birthday. If that seems old, I did fudge a bit on signing up as they were enrolling men from 18 to 45 years. Two months later, I was sent home with measles and reported as deserted Jan. 27, 1862. Luckily I recovered and started feeling like my old self that spring, and baby Hannah joined our family the following year. My Company ended up under the command of Major General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Vicksburg during the summer of 1863. The Confederates surrendered on July 4, 1863, but we lost many men in the process so I may have been lucky not to be with them.

In 1864 the Army wanted me back since they were getting low on troops so I was arrested and returned to service. I finished out my time in Memphis, Tennessee, the same state where I was born, and mustered out January 10, 1865. I joined the others whose terms of service had expired as we did not reenlist like many of our comrades did. We had a week-long trip by steamboat up the Mississippi past St. Louis to Iowa. When those of us from Delaware County arrived in Delhi, we formed up and marched into town. There was Elizabeth with Mary, Elizabeth, Louisa, Eliza, Charles, Ben, and Jennie to greet me. Two years later our final baby, Frances, was born.

[Jennie told her grandson Norris that she recalled seeing her father come marching home from the Civil War. Levi lived until he was 60, dying on Christmas Day, 1875.]

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Levi and Theresa's children who died – Letitia Ann (1839-1839), Harriet Amanda (1840-1842), John W. (1841-1846), Martha Lorena (1848 – 1856), Amelda (1852-1854). Missing from this site Elizabeth Theressa Ellis b. 1846 in Delhi, Iowa. Married Warden White.

Levi Ellis was a resident of Delhi, Delaware County, Iowa, when he enlisted Sept. 23, 1861. He mustered in Co B 4th Iowa Cavalry on Nov. 23, 1861. Ellis was reported "deserted Jan. 27, 1862" but he went home on leave at that time, with measles, and was unable to return when his leave expired. He was, however, arrested and returned to service in 1864. Levi mustered out Jan. 10, 1865 at Memphis, Tennessee, when his term of enlistment expired. ..Courtesy of KWEAVER

m1) 12 Feb. 1837, Fulton Co., IL -- Theresa C. Brock, 9 children. Contributor: Lawton (47359524)