A few weeks ago, I was toasting the last episode of the television series “Justified,” based on characters by the crime writer Elmore Leonard. The hero is a federal marshal, Raylan Givens, and in the seven year run of the show, he became my favorite TV tough guy.

Not John C. Elliott, but Timothy Olyphant, who played U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in the recently-completed series “Justified,” based on characters created by Elmore Leonard. FX Network promotional photo.

A day or two later, I was looking something up in Stephen D. Cone’s Biographical and Historical Sketches: A Narrative of Hamilton and Its Residents (1896) , and stumbled upon a passage reminding me that Hamilton had its own tough guy marshal back in the day, a slave chaser named John C. Elliott.

His earliest claim to fame was as the man who most likely killed the founding Mormon prophet Joseph Smith while his tribe was making its way West. Having been expelled from Ohio and Missouri, the Mormons founded the city of Nauvoo in Illinois in 1839. By 1844, the city had grown to over 15,000, bigger than Chicago at the time, and Smith’s popularity was such that he decided to make a run for the Presidency of the United States.

It’s not clear from Cone and other sources how Elliott got called into service. Some Mormon lore attributes the murder of Joseph Smith to the Masons. According to Junius and Joseph by Robert S. Wicks and Fred R. Foister, a book regarding Smith’s presidential aspirations and assassination, Elliott spent the early 1840s as a woodcutter, clearing land between Hamilton and Cincinnati. He helped Jacob Burnet, a U.S. Senator and prominent Mason, in a land dispute and was thus owed a favor. In 1843, he went to Warsaw, Illinois, near Nauvoo, posing as a school teacher but working undercover for the U.S. Marshal Service.

Another Masonic connection could be that William Chittendon, who was among a group of militiamen to assail the jail that held Joseph Smith that fateful night. Chittendon was from Oxford and his father, Abraham, was the founding master of the Oxford Masonic Lodge. He and Elliott were about the same age. But true to the oath of silence sworn by the assailants, Chittendon mentioned no names.

Cone said that “a secret national call was made for men in the adjoining states to come forward and expel the Mormons,” which may support the Masonic theory, and John C. Elliott of Hamilton answered the call.

Cone described Elliott as “bold, courageous and brave, a man perfectly devoid of fear.” Before he left for Illinois, he visited Rossville’s ax-maker William C. Stephenson, who lived on Boudinot Street, now Park Avenue, to borrow a rifle made by Jacob Neinmeyer of Trenton.”

“Interior of Carthage Jail” by C.C.A. Christensen, Brigham Young University Museum of Art, public domain

The Nauvoo Neighbor, cited by Wick and Foister, said that when he arrived in Nauvoo, Elliot “looked to be a man of some twenty six or eight years; nearly five feet eight inches tall; stoutly built and athletic. He had on a jeans coat with large pearl buttons, which was untied at the upper part of his breast in a careless manner. The pants … were considerably tattered. This dress was covered by an overcoat, cut from a green Mackinaw blanket. When he doffed his white nutria hat, it disclosed a prominent forehead and a rather disordered head of black hair. His countenance was dark; his eyes were hazel and sunk to a considerable depth in his head, over which jutted out his heavy dark eyebrows, which a continual scowl knit closely together, giving him at once a savage and heartless look… he flourished a pearl-handled dirk knife, which he plied with considerable dexterity in the cavity of his ample mouth, which filled the office of a toothpick.”

Before the raid on the jail, Elliott ran into some trouble trying to serve a warrant on a man named Avery and was arrested, charged with kidnapping. He escaped custody and was apparently not pursued.

Cone wrote, “On his arrival he found that Joe and Hyrum Smith and members of the Nauvoo council had been committed to jail on the charge of treason. The jail was a large two-story stone building, a portion of which was occupied by the jailer, and the remainder of the interior, consisting of cells for the confinement of prisoners and one large room. The Smiths were confined in the cells, but were finally transferred to the large room. Governor Ford ordered a guard placed around the jail for protection of the prisoners.

Carthage Jail today, Deseret News, Creative Commons

“The Carthage Grays, a military company one hundred strong, was stationed in the court house square for the purpose of repelling an attack on the jail and the prisoners confined therein. The conspirators, who numbered two hundred brave and determined men, communicated with the Carthage Grays, and it was arranged that the jail guard should have their guns charged with blank cartridges and fire at the attacking party as it neared the jail.

“For his cool and daring bravery, John C. Elliott was selected as one of the advance assailants. The attacking party came up and scaled the picket fence around the jail; were fired upon by the guard, which was immediately overpowered, and the assailants opened the jail. The jail door was battered down, and as it burst open, Joe Smith shot three of his assailants. At this time a number of shots were fired into the room, Smith attempted to escape by jumping from the second story window and fell against the curb of an old fashioned well. The fall stunned him; he was unable to rise, and while in a sitting position, the conspirators dispatched him with four rifle balls through the body. The rifle that John C. Elliott carried ran forty-four to the pound, which was the largest bore in the attacking party. Upon examination of Smith’s body, it was found that John C. Elliot had fired the fatal shot.

“After the assassination of Joe Smith the excitement at Nauvoo was at fever heat. John C. Elliott and his confederates in the shooting were arrested. Nauvoo was not deemed a safe place for their incarceration, owing to the bitter Mormon feeling against the Gentiles. Accordingly, they were spirited to Jacksonville, where they were liberated by a mob. No effort was ever made to apprehend them, and John C. Elliott returned to Hamilton, where he played an important part in the drama of passing events. He was a terror to evil doers, and in the performance of his duties as United States Marshal and City marshal of Hamilton made enemies by the score, and enemies of a most dangerous class.”

Elliott went on to be a slave chaser, and suffered many close calls and even assassination attempts. One of his more famous cases was that of the escaped salve Addison White, detailed in an article “The Rescue Case of 1857” in the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, (January 1907).

Addison White portrait wikipedia.org, Creative Commons

Elliott and his posse tracked White to a house in Mechanicsburg, Ohio. The escapee hid in the attic, accessible by one small hole in the ceiling in the room below. Since his escape, he had learned how to shoot a pistol, and sat in the attic with his gun pointed at the entrance. Undaunted, Marshall Elliott climbed the ladder and poked his head through the opening. Fortunately, he held his rifle in front of him, and White’s bullet glanced off its barrel and grazed Elliott’s cheek and took a small piece of his ear.

By that time, the people of Mechanicsburg gathered outside the house, vastly outnumbering the federal posse, and the arrest of Addison White was abandoned for a time. Before the issue was settled, Elliott faced charges of assault with intent to kill against a county sheriff, but the charges were eventually dropped.

On another occasion, he chased a runaway slave to the house of a Cincinnati newspaper editor. That man, too, barricaded himself inside. Elliott managed to gain admission through a transom, but received two good stab wounds from the slave’s Spanish dirk. They were serious wounds, but Elliott recovered.

He also served as Hamilton’s town marshal in the days before there was a proper police department, and when the Civil War broke out, Elliott enlisted in Company F, Third Ohio. It was during this service that the marshal reached a rather inauspicious end.

“While his company was encamped near Tuscumbia, Ala., in the fall of 1864,” Cone wrote, “he was engaged in a friendly wrestling match with one of his comrades. He was thrown violently to the ground, rupturing a blood vessel and dying almost instantly.”

By Richard N. Piland

It was surprising to learn recently that there was an earlier Butler County Historical Society.  On June 14, 1901, a call was issued to people interested in forming a historical society to attend a June 18 meeting held at the county courthouse.  At that first meeting officers and directors were elected and several committees were formed to develop a constitution, secure meeting space and lobby for the support of county commissioners.

Officers elected to serve through January 1, 1902 included Constantine Markt, president; Alston Ellis, 1st vice president; Dan Millikin, 2nd vice-president; William C. Miller, treasurer; Bert S. Bartlow, recording secretary; and  Stephen D. Cone, historian and corresponding secretary.  The nine directors elected were Allen Andrews, Homer Gard, Richard Brown, Herbert E. Twitchell, W. H. Harr, W. L. Tobey, L. E. Grennan, R. W. McFarland and Riley Shepherd.  At the next meeting on July 3, the group voted to adopt the constitution and by-laws as prepared by Riley Shepherd, Bert Bartlow and Allen Andrews.

The six men who signed the Articles of Incorporation for the society on July 6 were Alston Ellis, Samuel L. Rose, Stephen D. Cone, Bert S. Bartlow, William C. Miller, and Constantine Markt.  Herbert E. Twitchell also signed the documents, but his name was crossed off for some unknown reason.  The six incorporators appeared before H. H. Haines, a Butler County notary public, to affirm their signatures.  John L. Hoffman Jr., Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, witnessed the documents on October 15, 1901, and the articles were filed with the Ohio Secretary of State on November 26, 1902.

The Articles of Incorporation stated the following as the purpose of the organization:  This society is formed for the purpose of promoting a knowledge of history, archeology, and kindred subjects of Butler County by establishing and maintaining a library of books, manuscripts, maps, charts, etc., properly pertaining thereto; a museum of  prehistoric and pioneer relics and natural or other curiosities or specimens of art or nature promotive of the object of the association.  Said library and museum to be open to the public at stated periods under the direction of the society, by courses of lectures and publication of papers and documents touching the subject so specified with power to receive and hold gifts and donations for the benefit of such society.

Unfortunately, the only other meeting of the society found during my research was a short session held on July 27, 1901 during an excessive heat wave with temperatures as high as 107˚.  The group indicated there would be a  program of historical papers presented at the society’s next meeting, however my reading of the Daily Republican News, the Daily Democrat, and the weekly Hamilton Telegraph papers published from June 1, 1901 through March 1, 1902, did not locate when or even if the meeting took place.  There are no other records about the organization, when, if ever, it held other meetings or what, if anything, it accomplished.  The only record relating to this first Butler County Historical Society held by the Ohio Secretary of State notes that the organization was canceled for lack of a statement of continued existence on March 31, 1963, some 29 years after our current society began meeting in 1934 (our date of incorporation was December 22, 1948).

The six men who formed the first Butler County Historical Society were community leaders of such stature that it is surprising the organization was not continued.  Here is a brief portrait of each of the initial founders of that first BCHS.

Alston Ellis (1847-1920) was born in Covington, Kentucky.  He taught for a year before moving to Ohio to attend Miami University.  Ellis served as superintendent of the  Hamilton public schools for 13 years during two terms, from 1871 to 1879 and again from 1887 to 1892.  Between his two appointments in Hamilton, he headed the Sandusky, Ohio  public schools.  He left his Hamilton position in 1892 to become president of Colorado State Agricultural College in Fort Collins, serving there until 1899.  He returned to Ohio and  assumed the presidency of Ohio University in Athens from 1901 until his death in 1920.  Ellis earned bachelor’s (1867) and master’s (1872) degrees at Miami University, and doctor of  philosophy degrees from the College of Wooster (1879) and Ohio State University (1888), as well as a doctor of laws degree from Ohio State (1890).

Samuel L. Rose (1865-1903), seen at the left, was another academically- oriented man.  He was born in Union Township and graduated from Lebanon Normal University.  Prior to serving as principal of Hamilton’s Fourth Ward School from 1889 to 1894, Rose had worked as a teacher at the Oak Hill School, was appointed deputy treasurer for the Butler County clerk of courts, and served one year as the principal of the Venice (Ross) School.  He resigned his position in the Hamilton schools in 1894  to become editor and business manager of the Hamilton Daily Democrat newspaper but returned to the district to serve as district superintendent from 1895 until his death in 1903 from what the doctor called “brain exhaustion.”  Rose was credited with  creating a better high school curriculum that allowed students to take either a classical or scientific business course of study.

Stephen D. Cone (1840-1922) attended the Nathan Furman School at Third and Dayton streets and then the Hamilton public schools.  He started a career in journalism by becoming an apprentice at the Hamilton Intelligencer newspaper in 1859.  After serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, Cone became the business manager of the  Butler County Democrat in 1876 and wrote a series of 17 articles for the paper on “The Early Condition of This Valley.”  He operated a printing office in Hamilton from 1879 to 1884.  From 1885 to 1891 he was editor of the Oxford Citizen and during 1886 to 1889 served on the Oxford Board of Education.  Cone also served a two year term from 1889 to 1891 on the Oxford Town Council.  He was one of the primary organizers of the  Butler County Centennial held in 1903.  Cone wrote the two-volume History of Hamilton (1791-1902) and was one of the editors and writers of the Centennial History of Butler County (1905).

Bert S. Bartlow (1869-1919) was born in Franklin County, Indiana.  In 1888 he entered Miami University where he edited and served as the business manager of the Miami Student newspaper from 1891 to 1893.  Bartlow earned a Bachelor or Arts degree in Political Science in 1894.  He was a clerk of the Deputy State Supervisors of Elections for 1894 to 1898 and represented Butler County in the Ohio Legislature during 18981901.  While in Columbus, he worked successfully to get the general assembly to enact the creation of the Hamilton Soldiers, Sailors and Pioneers Monument Committee in 1898.  Bartlow was an editor of the Butler County Press and the Hamilton Evening Sun and worked to organize the Butler County Centennial of 1903.  He was also one of the editors and writers of the Centennial History of Butler County (1905).

Constantine Markt (1832-1909) was born in the Kingdom of Württemberg, Germany.  He graduated from the Eclectic Medical College in Cincinnati in 1858 and immediately established a practice in Hamilton.  He was a successful physician who served as president of the Ohio Medical Association and was an active member of the Butler County Medical Society.  His medical practice was so consuming that he decided to purchase a drugstore on Third Street in 1869 and maintained his city  practice but curtailed his service to rural areas.  He served on the Soldiers, Sailors and Pioneers’ Monument Committee in 1897 and worked to organize the Butler County Centennial celebration of 1903.  He served ten years as secretary for the Lane Free Library Board of Trustees.  His wife, Josephine Carpenter Markt, was a founder and charter member of the Children’s Home for many years.  His daughter Addie was the wife of Edward Sohngen, a popular Hamilton merchant.

William C. Miller (1847-1905) was also born in the Kingdom of  Württemberg, Germany.  He attended Hamilton’s public schools and graduated from the Miami Medical College in Cincinnati in 1877.  Miller returned to Hamilton in 1879 and purchased a drugstore on the southwest corner of Main and B streets from  Barton S. James.  He was a member of the Butler County Medical Society and a  trustee of the Lane Free Library Board from 1892 to 1899.  Miller was one of the first to suggest having a centennial celebration for Hamilton in 1891.  He also worked to organize the Butler County Centennial of 1903.  Miller’s first wife was Erin A. Corwin, daughter of pioneer Jesse Corwin , and his second wife was Mary Symmes Hunter, a niece of President William Henry Harrison and a granddaughter of Celadon Symmes, who was a nephew of John Cleves Symmes, the man who made the “Miami Purchase.”