James Ellis, Go West, Young Man!

U.S. # 68 10 cent Washington on July 22, 1864 international cover from Chenoa, IL to Upper Shubenacadie, NS. Addressed to James Ellis Esqr, Upper Schubenacadia, Nova Scotia. Concentric circle cancellation, CHENOA, ILL, JUL 22, and red 10 PAID oval on front. Backstamps H(alifax) NS, JY 29 1864, and SHUBENACADIE NS, JU 30 year illegible.

James Duncan Ellis was a 47-year old farmer in Chenoa, Illinois when he wrote this letter to his cousin, also named James Ellis, a 49-year old farmer in Upper Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia.

The town of Chenoa had been laid out just eight years earlier in 1856 by Matthew T. Scott, Jr., from Kentucky, at the location where it was projected that the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad would intersect with the existing Chicago, Alton, and St. Louis Railroad. Scott promoted this location as being advantageous for the shipment of crops. At the time of its founding, the land was unbroken prairie. By 1864, the land was divided up into mostly 80 acre plots, one of which would have been purchased by James Ellis. A U.S. Post Office was established at Chenoa in May of 1856. A competing town called East Chenoa was platted nearby. The two towns combined in 1864, and this merged town was incorporated as Chenoa five years later.

James Duncan Ellis was born September 24, 1819 in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia. James immigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio at age 18 with his parents. He married Margaret M. Wroe on March 5, 1847 in Jacksonville, Scott County, Illinois. The family was farming in Bethel, Morgan, County, Illinois in the 1860 census, where the value of his real estate is a considerable $4000. James and Margaret moved to Chenoa Township in 1863. James died March 29, 1886 in Chenoa, Illinois. He was the son of Thomas James Ellis (1780-1862) and Susan Currie (1798-1838) and grandson of immigrant ancestor James Ellis (1725, Ballymena, Antrim, Ireland - 1820 Shubenacadie) and Sarah Maria Curry (1729 Ireland - 1820 Shubenacadie).

Among the 21 households in the Township of Chenoa in the 1865 census of McLean County, Illinois is that of James Ellis, head of a household of 11: 5 males and 6 females.

The 1870 federal census of Chenoa, Illinois lists Ellis, James, 57, farmer, born in Nova Scotia, with his wife, Margaret. 41, born in Tennessee, and children, Andrew, 22, Sarah, 21, William, 20, John D., 18, James D., 16, Fannie, 14, Jessie, 7, Ellen, 8, Laura, 3, and newborn Samuel, all born in Illinois.

Descendants of James Ellis still live in Chenoa.

Chenoa, IL 1869

The letter's recipient, James Ellis, was born 1916 in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia. He married the young Miss Margaret Elizabeth Etter of Shubenacadie on November 20, 1863, in the Presbyterian Church in Windsor, Hants, Nova Scotia

Hutchinson's Nova Scotia Directory, for 1864/65 for Shubenacadie has Ellis, James, J(ustice of the) P(eace), farmer.

1871 census Shubenacadie, Ellis, James, 55, Irish Presbyterian, farmer, married, Margaret E. Ellis, 22, German, Catherine Ellis, 76, widowed, Robert Ellis, 29, farm laborer, single.

A.F. Church Map of Hants County 1871.showing the farm of J. Ellis

Plan of Thomas Ellis & Sons according to Divisions agreed on Shubenacadie Colchester Co. 2 May 1812