Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Edward Carpenter Ellet Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

EDWARD CARPENTER ELLET

(Transcribed by Peggy Luce)

Edward Carpenter Ellet, Civil War veteran with the rank of lieutenant and given special recognition by Congress, when only seventeen years of age, for gallantry under fire; a pioneer citizen of Butler County and owner of the first hardware store in El Dorado; associate founder of the city’s first privately owned bank; leading spirit in that group of men who obtained the first railroad service for the community; and otherwise prominent in business, social and political affairs, was born September 17, 1845, in Bunker Hill, Macoupin County, Illinois. He lived in El Dorado for 34 years, 1869 to 1903, then removed to Seattle, Washington, thence to Mayfield, now Palo Alto, California, where he died October 21, 1922.

Edward Carpenter Ellet was the eldest son of the famous Civil War hero, Gen. Alfred W. Ellet (see sketch on preceding pages). He attended school in the vicinity of his home, but quit when the war broke out and enlisted, July 15, 1861, then in his fifteenth year, upon President Lincoln’s first call for 75,000 volunteers. He was mustered into service ten days later in Company F, Seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, being the first one of six members of the Ellet family to enter the war, in which they were destined to make a chapter of glorious history. His regiment was mobilized, with others, and placed under the command of Gen. Benjamin E. Prentiss. Orders were immediately given to attack the Confederates at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and the army was enroute when young Ellet was transferred, upon request of his father, who had enlisted a few days previous at St. Louis, remained with this regiment seeing active fighting at Pea Ridge and other important engagements in Missouri and Arkansas, until the War department ordered Capt. Alfred W. Ellet to report to Col. Charles Ellet, Jr., a brother, at New Albany, Indiana, and who had just been assigned the emergency organization and command of the Mississippi River Ram Fleet. He sailed with the Ram Fleet to Port Pillow, then undergoing its fifty-two days of terrific bombardment and he became one of the small party, who, about one week after arrival, planted the Stars and Stripes on that historic Confederate fort.

The operations of the Ram Fleet at Memphis, Tenn., and later at Vicksburg, are briefly outlined in the sketch of Gen. Alfred W. Ellet. Its magnificent history centers largely around the gallantry of the Ellet family – fathers, sons and brothers – for no less than six Ellets were members of that famous organization. The group included Col. Charles Ellet, Jr., originator and organizer of the fleet; Capt. Alfred W. Ellet, brother of Colonel Ellet and who succeeded to the command of the fleet upon his death and to be promoted almost immediately to Brigadier-General; Col. John A. Ellet and Lieut. Richard S. Ellet, brothers and nephews of Charles and Alfred W. Ellet; Charles River Ellet, son of Col. Charles Ellet, Jr., and Edward C. Ellet, subject of this sketch. Edward C., though only a boy of sixteen, dared the gravest dangers and distinguished himself with such heroic gallantry on various occasions during the epochal Memphis-Vicksburg campaign, that he especially was cited by Congress for bravery under fire and promoted to a Second-Lieutenancy. No careful inquiry into the fact has been made, but it is highly probably that he holds the distinction of being the only youth ever promoted by special act of the American Congress.

At Memphis, June 6, 1862, where the Confederate fleet was destroyed and where Col. Charles Ellet, Jr., received mortal wounds, Edward C. Ellet acted as a sharp shooter on the Flagship Queen of the West, in command of his father. He was one of the four men, who, following the fall of the city, pushed through the surging, raging mob on the streets to the post office building and there, while stoned, and at times, fired upon by the embittered populace, tore down the Confederate flag and placed Old Glory on the staff instead. They returned, without escort, safely to the Union boats. At Vicksburg, when his father, Col. A. W. Ellet, then in command of the fleet, asked for volunteers to undertake the hazardous journey through the Confederate lines to deliver a message to Admiral Farragut, whose fleet was mobilized south of the city, the youthful Edward promptly volunteered, with three others, and was commissioned to make the journey. They succeeded in evading the Confederates, but were arrested at Admiral Porter’s command, suspected of being spies, when they resolutely refused to deliver the message to Porter because they had been instructed to deliver it to Farragut in person. He also was one of the first to volunteer to man the Queen of the West, the ram selected by General Ellet, and which he personally commanded, to attack the famous Confederate Gunboat Ram, Arkansas, which had fought her way through Farragut’s combined fleets and had docked under the protecting land batteries of Vicksburg. This expedition also was successful and is one of the most brilliant in the long list of achievements of Amercia’s earliest Marines. As a climax to his gallantry at Memphis and Vicksburg, he was aboard the Switzerland in the final and almost disastrous engagement in which the Steam Ram Lancaster was sunk. He was appointed special messenger to take to Washington captured Confederate currency of a denominational value of $1,800,000. He carried this in two satchels which he delivered to Secretary Stanton. While in Stanton’s office President Lincoln entered and later was followed by Secretary Chase, of the Treasury department, and General Halleck, chief of staff. Young Ellet was introduced to each of them; received their compliments for his valor in service and also was given a three-day pass, permitting him to visit about the city, when then was under military rule. Sawyer, the historian, says that “upon Lieutenant Ellet’s honorable discharge, Major D. S. Tallerday, commanding the Marine Regiment at Vicksburg, on January 9, 1865, wrote underneath the precious document an unsolicited note of high acknowledgment, reading: “I have known Lieutenant Ellet for the last two years. As an officer, he is ever ready to do his whole duty; he is brave to a fault; while as a gentleman, he is unexceptionable.”

After the war, Lieut. Edward C. Ellet was appointed Military constable of Yazoo county, Mississippi, and was in charge of a Union company to enforce a law and order during the Reconstruction period. Later he leased a cotton plantation in the South, but contracted yellow fever and upon recovery accompanied a troop of soldiers on an Indian expedition as far West as Fort Bozeman, Montana. In 1867, he left the troops and returned home, floating down the Missouri River in a skiff, through hostile Indian territory and passing great herds of buffalo. He spent the next year and a half at Pana, Illinois, buying grain; then removed to El Dorado in 1869. He entered the hardware business here. In the early 1880’s, he joined with Nathan Frank Frazier and founded the Bank of El Dorado, the first privately owned bank in Butler County. This later was sold and shortly afterwards, the Exchange Bank was purchased which, in time, absorbed the Bank of El Dorado and the combined institutions, became known as the Merchants Bank, and, finally, the Farmers & Merchants. He acted, at times, as cashier and president of these institutions. In 1884, he left his business interests in charge of his father, Gen. Ellet, and his personal friend of long standing N. F. Frazier, and accepted the appointment of Indian agent, with headquarters at Winnemucca, Nevada. He remained there only a year, returning to El Dorado and resuming his banking activities. He continued in this capacity until 1903, when he sold his interests to Ray E. Frazier, son-in-law, and the son of N. F. Frazier, and moved to Seattle, Washington, where he served as special agent of the United States general landoffice until 1908 when he resigned and went to Mayfield, California, where, in association with his son, Charles Ellet, he purchased the old Mayfield bank & Trust company, he becoming its president and his son, cashier. In 1918, he retired, leaving the managements of the bank to his son, Charles, who reorganized it as the Stranford Bank of Palo Alto and Mayfield, California, with himself as cashier and his brother, Alfred W. Ellet, at the time deputy bank commissioner of Kansas, as vice president.

This, in merest outline, is the distinguished business career of Edward Carpenter Ellet. He did not neglect the duties which every prosperous man owes to his community. Mr. Ellet was the first to realize necessity for adequate transportation for El Dorado and it was through his efforts that the old Florence, El Dorado & Walnut Valley Railraod, now a part of the Santa Fe system, was built through here in 1883. He was secretary of the road until it was absorbed by the Santa Fe. He believed in progress and was among the first to urge a good roads system and adequate street and water improvements for El Dorado. No movement, regardless of the personal sacrifice and financial support, failed to secure his co-operation. He had a genius for politics which he played as a hobby, and was a leader in the Republican party in Kansas and in the nation, receiving worthwhile distinctions because of his notable services. Gov. W. E. Stanley, in March, 1902, appointed him as a member of the board of directors of the State Prison for a term of three years and, at the first subsequent meeting, he was chosen as president. He also was named as the Kansas delegate to the national Prison Association convention at Philadelphia in September 1902, and took active part in its proceedings. Shortly afterwards, he was specially commissioned to Yucatan, Mexico, to purchase sisal for the state. While there, he was entertained by the Governor and his staff and shown other curteous considerations.

On October 20, 1870, Mr. Ellet was united marriage to Miss Frances Webster VanDorn of Bunker Hill, Illinois, who was the first bride to be brought to El Dorado.