Information Sheet

 

 

R         Ellis family.

251                  Ellis and Ranney families, papers, 1787‑1948.

                                    Ten folders, photocopies; one roll microfilm.

 

 

 

This collection includes correspondence, business records, and legal papers, and genealogi­cal information pertaining to two early families of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.  The Ellis family came from Georgia about 1805; the Ranneys from Indiana about 1825.  Other names rep­resented in the collection are Beckham, Cobb, Giboney, Ogle, Waters, and Wathen (Warthen‑Worthan).

 

The Ellis and Ranney families collection contains many items dating to the territorial and early statehood periods of southeastern Missouri.  Family members were prominent in the Cape Girardeau area as town founders, businessmen, and government officials. Their papers represent several members of each family, the principal lines being those of Charles G. Ellis    (     ‑ca. 1830), and Robert G. Ranney (1849‑1916).  The lines were joined through marriages with the Wathen family.

 

Charles G. Ellis came to southeastern Missouri about 1805 from Columbia County, Geor­gia.  His brothers Erasmus, a physician, and Solomon, an attorney, came with him or joined him shortly thereafter.  Quickly influential, Charles was appointed co‑assessor of the Cape Girardeau District with Abraham Byrd.  He was among the first to purchase lots when Cape Girardeau was platted in 1806, and was instrumental in its incorporation in 1808.  Ellis was one of several commission­ers appointed in 1818 to preside over the dispersal of the large estate of Louis Lorim­ier.  Also a pros­perous businessman, he began with the establishment of a mercantile op­eration with Garah Davis and William Ogle around 1808, and was an organizer and first presi­dent of the Cape Gi­rardeau Mill Company, established in 1826.  For many years he operated a well‑regarded hotel in the city, after­wards the site of the Cape Girardeau Acad­emy, founded in 1843.

 

Charles’s son, Alfred Pinkney Ellis (died ca.1841), was a county constable and leading mer­chant in Cape Girardeau.  His home, known as the Ellis‑Wathan‑Ranney home, stood until 1958 as a good example of the homes built by families prospering from the Mississippi River steam­boat trade prior to the Civil War.  Alfred’s daughter, Maria R. Ellis (1822‑1902), married Ig­natius R. Wathen in 1837.  A native of Kentucky, Wathen moved to Missouri in 1834.  He suc­ceeded to the management of the large Ellis estate after his marriage to Maria Ellis and the death of her father.  Wathen was president of the Cape Girardeau branch of the State Bank from 1853 to 1857.

 

Ignatius and Maria Wathen had four children who lived to adulthood.  Of these, Emma Agnes Wathen (1861‑1916) provided the link between the Ellis and Ranney families through her mar­riage in 1894 to Robert Giboney Ranney (1849‑1916).  The latter was the son of William Ca­ton Ranney and Elizabeth Giboney.  William C. Ranney (1815‑1898) was a na­tive of New York, whose family came to Cape Girardeau in 1825 via Jefferson­ville, Ind. Reading law under his brother, Solomon Ranney, he was admitted to the Mis­souri Bar in 1840. After private practice, he was named first judge of the Cape Girardeau Court of Com­mon Pleas, then was elected to the Missouri Senate in 1871.

 

Robert G. Ranney followed his father in the study of law. He began a practice with Louis Houck in 1875, an association which lasted until Houck undertook his railroad en­ter­prises in 1880.  He also served as judge of the Court of Common Pleas, being elected for the first of two terms in 1908.  He died and was buried in Cape Girardeau in 1916.

 

The Ellis‑Ranney papers represent many individuals and touch on a number of topics. They are arranged in groups of correspondence, personal papers, business records and re­ceipts, legal documents, and genealogical data.  Three early account ledgers are available on microfilm.  Reg­is­ters of the material and a surname index are available for the collec­tion.

 

The largest and earliest group of papers is the family correspondence. The earliest items are letters between members of the Beckham and Cobb families of Kentucky and Georgia.  There are also several early letters to Charles G. Ellis from his brother, Allen Ellis, written from New Ma­drid, Ste. Genevieve, and New Orleans.  Ranney family members first ap­pear in the correspon­dence in 1814, in letters between Elizabeth Ranney in New York and her sister in Massachusetts.

 

The papers continue through 1860, when a thirty‑year gap occurs to 1890.  Apparently a sig­nificant portion of the collection has been lost.  Later correspondence, 1890‑1948, in­cludes let­ters between Robert G. Ranney and Emma Wathen before their marriage in 1893, and data from ge­ne­alogists concerning the Ranney, Wathen, and Cobb families.

 

The earliest business records in the collection are several items concerning transac­tions of Edward Wathan in Kentucky in the late eight­eenth century.  There are also several pieces con­cern­ing business deal­ings of William Ogle in Virginia and Maryland.  Ogle, later a business partner of Charles G. Ellis and Garah Davis in Cape Girardeau, attained noto­riety in Missouri by provoking a duel with court clerk Joseph McFerron in 1807.  The dis­pute brought the Ellis‑Davis‑Ogle partner­ship to an abrupt end when Ogle fell dead with McFerron’s bullet in his brain.  Ellis evi­dently in­herited Ogle’s financial records, which in­cluded his account of fees col­lected for John Ritchie, col­lector of Carroll or Frederick counties, Maryland, 1794‑1795.  This volume is available on micro­film, as are two ac­count ledgers attributed to the store of Alfred P. Ellis at Cape Girardeau.  Begin­ning in 1808, the accounts were probably those of Charles G. El­lis, assumed by his son at a later date.  Other business papers in the collection are a list of town lots in Cape Girardeau owned by Alfred Ellis, circa 1825; minutes of meetings of the directors of the Cape Gi­rardeau Mill Company, 1825‑1826; and a draft of a petition to establish a branch of the State Bank in Cape Girardeau, 1838.

 

Legal papers in the collection include documents from the estates of William Beck­ham, Charles and Alfred Ellis, Thomas Waters, and Maria Wathen.  Land transfer papers evi­dence the family connections with the Waters and Giboney lines.  There are several items con­cerning slave transfers among the Ellises, 1805‑1819.  One by Erasmus Ellis in 1809 engen­dered a suit by credi­tors attempting to attach the slaves in debt proceedings. Miscel­laneous business papers in­clude an inventory of goods belonging to the firm of Frisel & Daugherty, Jackson, Missouri, a quit-claim deed to the Iron Mountain Tract, 1839, and a “List of Hands” pre­pared for the over­seer of the Jackson‑Greenville road in 1840.

 

Genealogical materials comprise the remainder of the collection. There are news­paper clip­pings and obituaries, notes on the Wathan‑Waters family connections and excerpts from Middle­town Upper Houses (New York: Grafton Press, 1908), con­taining the Ranney genealogy.

 

 

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