Thomas Ely

"COUNTIES OF MORGAN, MONROE & BROWN, INDIANA. HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL." CHARLES BLANCHARD, EDITOR. CHICAGO: F. A. BATTEY & CO. PUBLISHERS. 1884. F. A. BATTEY. F. W. TEPPLE

THOMAS ELY is the tenth of twelve children born to David and Sarah (Claypool) Ely, natives of Virginia, and of German and English descent. Thomas Ely was born in Lee County, Va., January 2, 1826; in 1837, he came with his parents to Hendricks County, this State, where his father died in 1845; he came with his mother to this county, in 1847, and located in Brown Township, but a short time afterward came to this township, and here his mother departed this life, in 1857. Mr. Ely has cleared from the forest a fine farm of 135 acres, which is well tilled and equipped, and stock- ed with horses, cattle, hogs and sheep. December 28, 1848, he married Martha J., daughter of Calton and Nancy (Jones) Grisham, and a native of Morgan County. The children born to this union are Reuben, Elizabeth, Benjamin F. and Drusilla. Mr. Ely is a Democrat, and was once elected Justice of the Peace of Madison Township, but delicned the office; he is an advocate of temperance and an Odd Fellow, and he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.