William Turner Ellis, Sr. (1826-1913), was one of the first merchants in Marysville and the father of one of its most important mayors, W. T. Ellis, Jr.
Born in 1826 to a slaveowning family on a large plantation near what is now Baltimore, Maryland, Ellis moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to complete his education. In 1852 he came to California because of the Gold Rush. Finding himself unsuccessful at gold mining, he took a job as head clerk for John C. Fall & Company, a general merchandising firm in Marysville. The company building was located on the bank of the Yuba River, in a spot that is now under the levee at the eastern edge of Beckwourth Riverfront Park Complex, at approximately the corner of 1st and Willow Streets. In 1857, Ellis bought the company from John C. Fall.
In 1859, Lizzie Huntington arrived in Marysville, having moved from Ohio as well, accompanied by three sisters and a brother. She and W. T. Ellis, Sr., soon met, and in 1860 they were married. A daughter was born to them in 1861. The Flood of 1862 drove Ellis to buy a new store building on higher ground, on 1st Street between D and High Streets (across from where the Bok Kai Temple now stands), and in 1863, Ellis purchased a two-story brick home at the northwest corner of 8th and D Streets, which became the family home for the next 57 years. The Ellises' second child, W. T. Ellis, Jr., was born in 1866, and their last child, a daughter named Hope, was born in 1871.
Lizzie's sister Sarah lived with the couple and helped them raise their children. From 1864 until the end of Ellis's life, the family also employed a Chinese cook, Yuen Yeck Bow, whom they called "Jack." In addition, from about 1866 to 1879, they were assisted by a Nisenan girl named Rose, who had been stolen from her parents by two gold miners who intended to force her to serve as a nursemaid for the children of one of them. Instead, the miners ended up losing all their gold dust to gambling, and sold Rose to W. T. Ellis, Sr., for $500 in an attempt to recoup their profits. Rose was forced to live with and work for the Ellis family until she died of tuberculosis, 13 years after she had been "purchased."
Despite the family's obvious exploitation of Rose and, during the senior W. T. Ellis's Maryland childhood, of African-American slaves, W. T. Ellis, Jr., recounted in his autobiography that his father strictly forbade him to participate in the harrassment of Chinese immigrants which became common as soon as the immigrants completed their dangerous and much-needed work building the railroads:
| [T]he Dennis Kearney riots commenced to take place with the slogan, "The Chinese must go, Denis Kearney says so." This agitation started in San Francisco and spread all over the State to a large extent. The poor inoffensive Chinese had a hard time of it; small boys, influenced by the attitude of their parents in many cases, would steal and scatter vegetables and laundry which the Chinese might be carrying in two large baskets, suspended on each end of a long flexible flattened pole, the latter swung across one shoulder; the loads which were carried with a swinging motion in this way were remarkable. Other "amusements" of the boys would be to watch a chance to tie two Chinese queues (called pigtails) together when unsuspected; another amusement of the boys was to throw stones at the Chinese and, if at times a rock "landed" properly,the Chinaman knew he had no redress. My father cautioned me never to do this, but one day I was playing marbles with several boys near our home when a Chinaman happened by; the other boys commenced to throw rocks at him which all missed; on the spur of the moment, to show the other boys that they were poor marksmen, I threw a rock which struck the Chinaman on the side of his cheek. This Chinaman had more spunk than others of his race and started after me; I ran across the street to our home and dashed in the back door, the Chinaman following me right into the house; unfortunately for me, father happened to be home; he asked the Chinaman what was the matter and when he obtained the information, he gave the Chinaman a dollar and asked him to wait while he proceeded to place me across his knees and warm the bosom of my trousers in such an effective manner that, for several days afterwards, I would have preferred to have taken my meals off the mantelpiece in place of sitting in a chair. That cured me from "shieing" rocks at any Chinese. |
Ellis was elected Yuba County Treasurer in 1875 and served two terms in that position. He later served as a member of the Marysville City Council. With Norman Dunning Rideout and others, he owned a line of steamers traveling between San Francisco and Marysville.
In 1878, his wife Lizzie died. Her sister Sarah became the second wife of W. T. Ellis, Sr., in 1886. They remained married until Ellis's death in 1913, at the age of 87.
Links
Memories: My Seventy-Two Years in the Romantic County of Yuba, California, by W. T. Ellis (Jr.)
