My previous looks at Elrod were here, here and here as a background character in posts about his second wife and their two daughters. This one is about John himself. As before, Guylaine Petrin is "on the ground" in Ontario with her research skills and curiosity the driving force behind digging up a past I'm sure Elrod hoped was buried!
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| J T Elrod's signature, 1818, Upper Canada |
The family of Thomas and Eve Elrod moved to Adams County, Ohio, at some point during John's childhood, probably around 1803 when a schism formed in the Baptist church about attitudes towards slavery: Thomas was opposed and his brother Robert was not, so one family left Kentucky and the other remained -- at least for the time being (some family trees show that Robert died in Ohio). Adams County was substantially bigger in those days than it is today, encompassing most of central and south-central Ohio, and it was in Adams County, on 28 December 1810, that John Elrod and Lydia Collier were granted a marriage licence. It was also where they married on 3 January 1811. (There are lots of Colliers in Adams County, but I don't know to which family Lydia belonged.) Since Elrod was described in later records as a physician and surgeon, it can be assumed that he spent at least some time in the early 19th century attending university.
He also became a Mason, which, as Guylaine rightly points out, is probably why he never changed his name as his Masonic membership gave him an entry into whichever society he happened to find himself. On 1 September 1814 John T. Elrod, having been initiated an Entered Apprentice, passed to the degree of Fellow Craft, and the next day was raised a Master Mason at the Mount Zion Lodge No. 9 in Clinton Township, Ohio in modern-day Knox County, located next to Richland (now Ashland) County -- where one John T. Elrod had purchased on credit land formerly owned by the Virginia Military District School.
Fast-forward not quite two years and, on 13 November 1815, at Markham Township, Home District, Upper Canada (north of modern-day Toronto), a John Elrod, formerly of General Harrison's Army during the War of 1812 and a "practitioner in physic" was recorded as an alien living in the township. On 8 February 1816 he married the widowed Elizabeth Sanders (née McLaney), stepdaughter of John Dennis, a Loyalist and prominent citizen. The records of St John (Masonic) Lodge in York show that John T. Elrod was a member during the period 1800-1825, but does not give his initiation date (which is in the Ohio records) nor when he left. On 21 April 1818 he took the Oath of Loyalty to the King, his good character testified to by his stepfather-in-law, John Dennis.
Elrod's second wife Elizabeth owned land both in her own right as the daughter of a Loyalist, as well as the land which had belonged to her late husband. Her land was on Lot 31, Concession 1 of Markham. On 8 January 1819, John Toledo Elrod mortgaged 10 acres of Elizabeth's land to George Crookshanks. During the same year, back in Ohio, public notice was given throughout the autumn that various lands in Mansfield, Richland County (mentioned above) were being sold by public auction due to non-payment of debt. Included within the public notice was land on the Northwest Quarter of the Virginia Military District School Lands in Richland County, Section 12, Township 21, Range 16, owned by a James T. Elrod. Only on the final public notice, on 19 November 1819, was this name amended to John T. Elrod. It was stated that the sale would not take place if the owner should pay the arrears and costs due, but this never happened as Elrod was nowhere near Ohio: he was still in York where, on 3 November 1821 he signed a deed of bargain and sale of Lot 31 to D'Arcy Boulton the Younger of the Town of York (Toronto).
(Just a couple of personal events here, largely as an excuse to insert an image.) In between these various land transactions he was a witness to the 11 April 1820 marriage of John Cheyne and Elizabeth Mason at Toronto Township, and became the father of Catharine Elizabeth (~1819) and Mary Ann (29 July 1820, according to her tombstone and this sampler from 1831 supports an 1820 birthdate):
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| 1831 sampler in which Mary Ann Elrod states that she was in the 12th year of her age (i.e., she was 11). |
In 1822 Elrod was sued by George Crookshanks (to whom he had mortgaged 10 acres of land). He lost the lawsuit and the land was due to be seized by the Sheriff. On 20 March 1823 John "Tolito" Elrod witnessed the marriage of David Parsills and Mary Burns of Markham, the last known sighting of John north of the border, and then all hell broke loose:
- On 17 April 1823, the first ad appeared in the Upper Canada Gazette announcing the Sheriff's Sale for part of Lot 31 in Markham for the debt of John T. Elrod.
Upper Canada GazetteYork U.C., Thursday, April 17, 1823Vol 11, No. XVISHEIFF’S [sic] SALE.Home District, to wit: BY virtue of writ a of Fieri Facias, issued out of His Majesty’s Court of His Bench, and directed to the Sheriff of the Home District, against the Lands and Tenements of John T. Elrod, of the suit of George Crookshanks, I have seized and taken in execution ten acres of Land, being the south west corner of Lot No. 31 east side of Yonge Street in the First Concession of the Township of Markham. There is a good Dwelling House and Out Houses on the premises: the fee simple of which, together with the late estate, of the remainder of the said Lot. No. 31, on which are a large Dwelling House, Brewery, Distillery, &c &c. All of which property will be sold by Public Auction on Monday the twenty-sixth day of May, 1823, at the Market House in the Town of York, at noon.SAMUEL RIDOUT,Sheriff H.D. [Home District]By Geo. Playter,Deputy Sheriff, H.D.Sheriff’s Office, York,24th Nov. 1822.N.B. Any Peron or Persons having any Claim on the above Property, by Mortgage or otherwise, are requested to give notice thereof, to the said Sheriff, previous to the day of Sale, S.R.
- During the Trinity Term (June-July), Elizabeth sued the Sheriff, George Playter, for trying to seize her land, and the details of the trial appear to have something to do with trying to prevent someone from leaving the province. A Robert "Emerod" appeared as a witness -- on affidavit as he was about to leave the province. Those details of this trial which have survived suggests that Elizabeth was trying to prove that her land could not be taken because she was not legally married to John Elrod, only she did not yet have the necessary proof. (There was a Robert Elrod living in the Town of York, who might have been this witness; if a relative, he could well have detailed information about John Elrod's first marriage.) Elizabeth's stepfather had someone dispatched to Ohio to investigate further.
- During the Michaelmas Term (October-December) a second trial was held during which evidence of Lydia Collier's existence must have been received, as on 16 December 1823 Elizabeth Elrod successfully petitioned the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada to restore her previous surname of Sanders, her husband having been revealed as a bigamist.
- In 1824 a writ of exigi facias was issued indicting Elrod for bigamy, which was a legal bar to his being able to profit from outlawry: Elrod had been declared an outlaw, suggesting that he had fled the country. The writ was issued to all county courts in Upper Canada where it was read three times: he had no hope of returning to Upper Canada.
Five years later, on 11 March 1829, a John T. Elrod married Rachael House in Warren County, Mississippi. Two weeks later he was expelled from the Franklin (Masonic) Lodge No. 10 in Vicksburg, Warren County. The Grand Lodge of Mississippi has done some searching and found that John was not listed as a member in 1827, and that the lodge did not submit a report to the Grand Lodge in 1828; by 1829 he was a member and then reported as expelled. (The Franklin Lodge No. 10 ceased to exist after 2 January 1837 and there are no further records.)
Nearly a year after his expulsion, Elrod appealed against the decision to expel him from the Masons. The minutes read:
The Committee on Complaints and Appeals made the following report on the appeal of J.T. Elrod:
Upon the petition of John T. Elrod, praying a redress of his grievances, the Committee on Complaints and Appeals make the following report:
That they have carefully examined the documents accompanying the appeal of John T. Elrod from the decision of Franklin Lodge, No. 10, and are of opinion that said Elrod is entitled to redress from this Grand Lodge; they therefore offer the following resolutions:
1st. Resolved, That for the commission of such offences as only offend against the decency of society, the punishments ought, in the first place, to be reprimands or definite suspensions, and that they ought not to amount to expulsion, unless in the last resort.
2d. Resolved, That the charge brought against John T. Elrod, being an offence only against the decency of society, was such an one as did not merit, in the first instance, so severe a punishment as that of explusion.
3d. Resolved, That whereas said Elrod did make atonement and satisfaction for the injury done, as far as was in his power, before his trial and condemnation, therefore the sentence of expulsion, as pronounced against him by Franklin Lodge, No. 10, is hereby commuted and changed to suspension for the space of twelve months from the day of his trial next ensuing.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
Daniel Greenleaf,
Andrew L. Wills,
Committee.
Which, on motion, was read and laid on the table.
J.B. Morgan presented the petition of Thomas Massey, praying an appeal from the decision of Lafayette Lodge, No. 12, suspending him from the benefits of Masonry, which, on motion, was referred to the Committee on Complaints and Appeals.
The report of the committee on the appeal of J.T. Elrod was then taken up, and, on motion of Thomas P. Falconer, all the resolutions appended to said report were stricken out. The report as amended was then agreed to.
On motion of D.S. Walker, the MˆWˆ Grand Lodge proceeded to hear the appeal of J.T. Elrod from the sentence of Franklin Lodge, No. 10.
Whereupon, being admitted into the Lodge, the charge and specifications against him were read, to which he pleaded not guilty. The accused, after being heard in his defence, retired.
Upon debate of the matter, the said John T. Elrod was unanimously found guilty of the charge and specifications exhibited against him.
On motion of J.M. Henderson, it was resolved that
Whereas, John T. Elrod having been expelled from the benefits of Masonry by Franklin Lodge, No. 10, on the 29th of March, 1829; and
Whereas, Said expulsion is deemed a punishment greater than in the opinion of this Grand Lodge the ancient usages of the Order would justify; therefore,
Resolved, That said punishment be commuted and changed to an indefinite suspension at the will and pleasure of this Grand Lodge.”
So basically he was found guilty of an offence "against the decency of society" just over two weeks after he'd married for the third time. Was it because Lydia Collier was still alive in Ohio and Elizabeth Sanders still alive in York?
The last known sighting of John Toledo Elrod was on the 1830 US Census of Warren County, Mississippi:
1830 US Census
Page:198; NARA Roll: M19-71; Family History Film: 0014839.
Head of Household: John T ELROD
Free White Persons - Males 20 thru 29: 2
Free White Persons - Males 30 thru 39: 1
Free White Persons - Males - 40 thru 49: 1
Free White Persons - Females - 30 thru 39: 1
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49: 5
Total Free White Persons: 5
Total - All Persons (Free White, Slaves, Free Colored): 5
Is Rachael the female in the house and who might the others be? So far it has proven impossible to find out what happened next. The Local History Librarian at the Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library has not been able to find any mention of John T. Elrod, even as far back as the 1820s and 1830s, and so it does not appear that he remained long in the area. Guylaine thought she spotted Elrod in the 1840 census farther along the Mississippi River in Louisiana, but I've not been able to find the record. The Masonic Burial Registers show no burial of a John Elrod in Mississippi.
What happened to Elizabeth has been discussed in my earliest blog about this family. What happened to Lydia Collier is unknown. A Lydia Ellrod (which would have been her married name) married a John Collier on 14 December 1821 in Adams County, Ohio, which could have been the abandoned Lydia marrying a cousin, or could be someone else entirely. Wives could not petition for divorce in Ohio until 1824.
I'm afraid John's story must end here for the time being. For someone who had tried to flee a first marriage and debts in Ohio, he certainly left a lot of records. The legal and Masonic records are interesting, but I'd also like to find out more about his other two wives and whether or not Catharine Elizabeth Elrod and Mary Ann Elrod had any half-siblings. Maybe one day I'll be able to post another update on this family.
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