ROBERT L. ELLISON

Was born in Boone County, Missouri, November 19 1831, and is a son of Thomas and Lucinda (Grisson) Ellison. Thomas Ellison was a Virginian by birth, and a tanner by occupation, his father, Lewis Ellison, was one of the pioneer preachers of Kentucky. He died in Murray at the advanced age of ninety years old. Thomas Ellison came to Kentucky when he was a boy, with his father , and after marriage moved to Missouri, but returned to Christian County, Kentucky, where he died, his family removed to Calloway County, Kentucky in 1838. Mrs Ellison married a second husband, a Mr. Atkisson, and moved to Wadesborough, coming finally to Murray in 1846. At sixteen years of age Robert L. Ellison began clerking for D. C. Carlton, receiving the first year his board and $16.00. He then served as deputy circuit and county clerk under his brother, for several years. In 1856 he defeated two opponents for the  office of circuit clerk by handsome majorities, receiving more votes than both, and held the postion until 1862. In the same year the Federal forces arrested him for running for office, took him to Paducah, but released him shortly after, and he returned to his home. At the close of the war, under the firm name of  Ellison, Godwin & Co. , he buit two brick business houses and carried on a grocery in one and a dry goods store in the other. A branch store was established at Crossland, Kentucky, under the firm name of B. Harding & Co. , and for some time a heavy business was done in each of these stores. The one in Murray was sold in 1871, and continued at Crossland, Kentucky, and in 1877, Messrs Ellison and N. Harding established a State Bank in Paris, Tennessee, with Mr Ellison as president. There Mr Ellison built a fine business house and engaged also in the mercantile trade, all of which interests he disposed of preparatory to his departure to Fort Worth, Texas, where in 1883 he secured an interest in a banking institution, which has since been converted into a national bank. He is also extensively interested in a Texas cattle company. He is entireiy a self made man, having started in life without a cent of capital. He has always taken a deep interest in educational matters, and was prominent in the management of the Murray Institute for many years. He is a member of the Masonic order and has taken deep interest in the orphan's home under the auspices of that fraternity, August 7 1853, he married Lucy B. Curd, she  died May 1, 1861, leaving three children, Thomas B. Ellison,   Mary L. Ellison, and Lucy J. Ellison. In 1862 Mr Ellison wedded Miss Thankful Ryan of Murray, they had three children. Alice R. Ellison, Sula P. Ellison and Robert Ellison.