Posey County, Indiana - Biographical sketches, 1913 (part 7 of 7)

Elisha E. Ellis, a successful and popular educator of Posey county, was born on his father's farm on January 13, 1862, a son of John D. and Harriett (Russell) Ellis, both of whom were natives of Posey county. Prof. Ellis received his preliminary educational discipline in the Farmersville schools, later in Mt. Vernon, and completed a two-years course in Purdue University. On completion of his education, he engaged in teaching, and at the time of his death, which occurred February 24, 1910, he was principal of the Griffin schools. As a teacher he was recognized as one of the most able in the county, and his death cut short a career which promised rapid advancement in the educational field. He was a member of the IMasonic order, the Red Men, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Ellis married, on September 2, 1891, Mrs. Vina K. Barter, nee Kittle, a daughter of William and Gilliah (Kivett) Kittle.

William Edward Hastings, M. D., a leading physician of Mt. Vernon, was born in Point township, Posey county, Indiana, .August 10, 1867, son of William Thomas and Jane (Booth) Hastings, the former born in Delaware and the latter in Posey county. William T. Hastings came to Posey county with his parents when he was a small boy, and they settled in Point township somewhere between the years 1830 and 1835.

Grandfather Hastings was of English descent, and was born in Delaware. Grandfather Thomas Booth was born in Posey county, and made his home in Point township, where he died early in life. His father was a pioneer settler in the county. The father of Dr. William E. was a farmer in Point township and died at the age of fifty-five. His wife died at the age of seventy. They had four children who lived to maturity: Thomas, died in 1886, at the age of twenty-eight; David died in 1887, aged twenty-two; William and Ida are still living. Ida married Charles F. Engler, of Mt. Vernon. William E. Hastings was reared on his father's farm and acquired his early education in the country schools. Later he was a student in DePauw University, at Greencastle, Ind., and entered the medical department of Washington University at St. Louis in 1893, graduating with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1897. He spent three years as interne and superintendent of a hospital and came to Mt. Vernon in 1900. Dr. Hastings is interested in farming and has 1,000 acres of land in Point township. He is a breeder of and dealer in cattle and mules, of which he raises a large number. In 1895 he married Anna Bell, a native of Ireland, and she died November 6, 1910, leaving two children, David and Anna.