Elliot H. Collins
Elliot H. Collins is of English ancestry. His grandfather, John Collins, was born in Maryland in 1754. His wife was Sallie Henthorn He had three sons and four daughters. In 1800, he brought his family to Washington County, Ohio. His son, Henry, was born in 1779, and married Frances Ewart. who was born in County Armagh, Ireland. Our subject was their eldest son, born in Grandview Township in Washington County, April 23, 1812. He married Elizabeth Rinard, March 19, 1835. They reared a family of one son and three daughters, Lycurgus Benton Allen, Cleopatra Minerva, Elizabeth Rebecca and Roxana Samantha. His wife died October 6, 1854, and on March 28, 1858, he married Nancy McKay. She was born in West Virginia, January 15, 1824. Of Mrs. Collins' children, Cleopatra Minerva married William Wikoff, and resides in McLean County, Illinois; Elizabeth Rebecca died August 24, 1868, at the age of twenty-seven years; Roxana Samantha married Joseph Nagel, and resides in Morris County, Kansas. His son lives in Wellington, Kansas, and is a farmer.
Mr. Collins came to Adams County in 1850, and located first in Monroe Township and afterwards in the Irish Bottoms, where he now resides. He was a man of great public spirit, and was always in the front of any movement for the public good. He has been a Justice of the Peace for forty-nine years, his first commission being signed by Governor Vance, March 31, 1838. In that time, he never committed a person to jail, never had an appeal taken from any decision of his, never had a case from his docket taken up on error, never had a bond he took forfeited. He has married over seven hundred couples and always presented the bride with the wedding fee the groom gave him, He has often gone twenty miles to perform a marriage ceremony and has had parties come twenty-five miles to him to be married. He has married more than fifty couples at night at his own home. He had an arrangement with the County Judge of Lewis County, Ky., to obtain licenses and has married more than fifty couples from Kentucky. He has often performed three marriages in one day, and it was a common thing for two couples to come together to get married. Of the years he was Justice of the Peace, twelve years were in Washington County, six in Monroe Township, in Adams County, and the remaining eighteen in Green Township, Adams County. He has been a Democrat all his life, never missed a political convention when he could get to it, never missed an election and never scratched a ticket. He is a member of the Christian Union Church on Beasley's Fork. He is one of the best farmers in the Irish Bottoms, where he lives in ease and comfort. He is a good friend, a kind neighbor, and a citizen proud of his country. He and his wife are enjoying the days of their old age. For his years, he has the most powerful lungs and a remarkable constitution. He bears up under the infirmities of age, though they were but temporary, and when he is called, he will answer "ready," and go, ready to give an account of the deeds done in the body. No man enjoys the company of his friends better than he, and no one is ever happier to have them visit him. Since the preparation of this sketch his wife died in December, 1899.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900