Charles Ellis (1818-1896)
Mary S. Day Ellis (1817-1886)
Elba Josephine Ellis (1847-1853)
Charles Ellis Bissell (1885-1886)
Eldon Wilfred Rhoades (1876-1877)
Charles Ellis was born on February 22, 1818 to Paul and Sarah (Sally) Dudley Ellis. Paul Ellis owned the Ellis Wrapping Paper Mill at Ellis Pond, off today’s Walpole Street, in South Dedham. According to historian Bryant Tolles, the mill was founded by Isaac Ellis and Joseph Day in 1832 and the pond may well have been created, by a well-placed dam on Hawes Brook, to support the business. Within two years, both Ellis and Day had departed and the mill passed to Paul Ellis. He continued the manufacture of paper and trunk board on that site. Charles Ellis followed in his father’s footsteps and was identified as a paper maker or paper manufacturer in every U.S. Census until 1880 when his occupation was listed as a “retired paper maker.”
On January 12, 1842, Charles Ellis married Mary S. Day in Walpole. Mary had been born on August 23, 1817. Charles and Mary had three daughters: Elba Josephine, Ann Lelia, and Elba Marian.
Their eldest daughter, Elba Josephine, was born on November 4, 1847. She died on January 6, 1853, just over five years old. The cause of her death was recorded as “dropsy.” An old medical term for swelling or edema, dropsy was often due to congestive heart failure. Two years later, Charles and Mary had a third daughter and named her Elba Marian.
Mary Day Ellis died on March 14, 1886. She was survived by her husband, Charles, who died on August 6, 1896 in Walpole. Their names, along with that of daughter Elba Josephine, are engraved on their stone at Old Parish Cemetery. Two other names are engraved on the Ellis stone as well: Eldon Wilfred Rhoades and Charles Ellis Bissell, grandsons of Charles and Mary Ellis.
Ann Lelia Ellis married Charles J. Rhoades in April of 1873. On December 17, 1876, the couple had a son Eldon Wilfred Ellis. Almost 7 months later, the child died of cholera infantum on July 13, 1877. Charles Ellis Bissell, the son of Elba Marian Ellis and her husband, Samuel Bissell, was born on October 1, 1885; he died on August 13, 1886 of meningitis.
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