My Genealogy Hound

A. C. Elliff was born February 2, 1857, in Lawrence County, Mo., and is a son of Constant P. and Mary J. (Potter) Elliff. Constant P. Elliff was born in Tennessee, and Mary J. Potter was born in Virginia. They were married in Middle Tennessee in 1840, and remained there until the spring of 1851, when they moved to Lawrence County, Mo. There they purchased eighty acres of partially improved land, on which they resided until the fall of 1863, when they removed to Kansas, but after the Civil War was over, during which he was enlisted in the United States service, and was honorably discharged in consequence of disability received in actual service, they returned to Lawrence County, Mo., remaining until 1866, when they sold their farm and came to McDonald County. Here they purchased 120 acres of land in Pineville Township, on which Mrs. Elliff still resides. Mrs. Elliff is a devout Christian, as was also her husband. She is a member of the Baptist Church; he was a member of the Methodist Protestant Church, because it opposed secret organizations. Mr. Elliff took an active part in politics, although he could neither read nor write. He voted for Henry Clay, John C. Fremont, A. Lincoln, U. S. Grant and James B. Weaver for the presidency. He succeeded in giving his children a good common school education, and died in February, 1882, a friend of liberty and free schools, in whose interest he had spent his life. They were the parents of thirteen children, of whom four died in infancy. The others are Rowan Krespach, O. C. Elliff, M. G. Elliff, Sarah Hire, J. L. Elliff, A. C. Elliff, Miriam Weaver (deceased), J. D. Elliff and D. S. Elliff. A. C. Elliff spent his early days on his parents’ farm, attending school in winter and assisting with the farm work in summer. When seventeen years of age he began teaching school in his home district, after which he attended school at the Neosho Seminary, and later at Drury College, Springfield, Mo. He was licensed to preach by the Beaver Springs Baptist Church in 1879, but he is known best to the public as a teacher, having taught thirty-one terms of school, twelve of which have been taught in succession at Erie. In 1883 he was elected school commissioner of McDonald County, which office he held for two years. He is at present (1888) principal of the public school in Pineville, the county seat, of McDonald County. Politically he is inde­pendent. He was married August 20, 1882, to Miss Emma Morgans, who was born February 5, 1861, in Jay County, Ind. She is the daughter of Ephraim and Margaret (Lewis) Morgans, also natives of Indiana, who removed to McDonald County, Mo., in 1867.