Happy Birthday!
JEFFERSON BILL ELLIOTT
BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY
(1831-aft. 1904)
Shelby County, Alabama
Jefferson Bill Elliott was a farmer and leading citizen of Columbiana, Alabama. He was a native of Shelby County, where he was born at Cove on the 17th of February, 1831. His father was Amos Elliott, a Tennesseean, who came to Shelby County in the days of the pioneers. He died in the prime of his manhood in 1842. He was a Jeffersonian Democrat, a thrifty farmer, and a man who left his imprint on the society of his day by reason of his upright character. He married Nancy Hale, daughter of Lindsey Hale and Elizabeth Hale of Talladega County, who died in 1871.
The common schools of his early day furnished Mr. Elliott the education necessary to transact business. It was the days of puncheon seats and slab desks, with plenty of “hickory oil” to make the recitations pass off smoothly. He was reared to the grinding toil of the farm and has never known anything but that during his manhood days. He started out in life with no capital save a will to do. He retired from the active supervision of his farms, of which he owned several. He also owned a number of houses in Columbiana.
The war found Mr. Elliott busy on his farm, but not too busy to lay down the implements of peace to take up those of war. He became a private soldier in Company I of the Eighteenth Alabama Infantry, was with the regiment during the entire period of the war, save some six months when he was unwillingly enjoying the “hospitality” of the Yankees at Rock Island, Ill. Mr. Elliott never cared much for politics, casting his ballot each recurring election most religiously for the nominees of the Democratic party. He and his family were worthy members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and for many years were considered among Shelby’s best citizens.
On the 12th of December, 1855, he was happily married to Elizabeth E. Brazier. Mrs. Elliott’s was also one of the old families in Shelby, her parents, Richard Hamson Brazier and McHulda Catherine Stewart, coming here in 1836. They lived to a green old age, the mother dying in 1885, the father in 1899.
To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Elliott have been born
- Edgar A. Elliott, twin, deceased 1904
- Walter A. Elliott, twin, deceased in 1904;
- Sarah C. Elliott, deceased in 1904;
- Eva A. Elliott,
- Willey S. Elliott ,
- Nancy I Elliott,
- Richard B Elliott,
- Mary E. Elliott,
- Frances M. Elliott
- James A. Elliott.
SOURCES
- Notable Men of Alabama: Personal and Genealogical, Volume 1 edited by Joel Campbell DuBose
