This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: BLACKWELL - STURETEVAN Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/UEB.2ACE/467 Message Board Post: From webpage: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~judysstuff/jasper/jasbios05.htm ELLIS BLACKWELL Is a native of Maine. His father’s name was also Ellis Blackwell, and his mother’s name, before marriage, was Jedidah Sturtevant. Her father, Lott Sturtevant, was from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and was a soldier in the revolutionary war. After the revolution was over he emigrated to Maine, and settled in the heavy timber in the vicinity of Waterville, when that part of the country was unsettled. The subject of this sketch was born in Somerset county, Maine, on the 20th of July, 1829. Remaining at home till he was twenty-two years of age he then (in the year 1851) emigrated to Illinois, and settled in Henry county. He was at that time without capital, and on reaching Illinois he only had ten dollars in his possession, which sum was soon expended in purchasing necessaries. He worked on a farm at twelve dollars per month, saved his money, and with it purchased land warrants with which he entered 240 acres of land. After improving forty acres he sold his tract, and bought another 240 acres, all of which he improved, put up good buildings, and lived there till 1867. December 23, 1858, he married Maria E. Gibbs, born in the state of New York. In 1867 he emigrated to Jasper county, Missouri, and bought for cash 1100 acres of land in one body in Madison township. Of this he has disposed of all but 480 acres, 440 of which are embraced in his home farm, four miles northeast of Carthage. He has been quite largely engaged in farming and stock raising. A view of his farm and residence appears elsewhere. In politics he is a republican. Up to 1860 he took but little interest in politics but that year voted for Lincoln, and has ever since supported the principles of the republican party.