John & Louisa Ellis Family; One of Norwood’s Most Prominent Families

John Ellis (1820-1899)

Louisa S. Pond Ellis (1826-1917)

Emma M. Ellis (1850-1901)

 John Ellis was born in South Dedham on February 3, 1820. His parents were Paul and Sally Ellis. He married Louisa Pond, the daughter of Captain Daniel Pond and Catherine Smith Pond of Wrentham. Louisa Pond Ellis had been born on January 18, 1826.

John Ellis was a paper manufacturer like his father and also kept a small farm at the family home on Walpole Street. The Ellis family was one of Norwood’s oldest and most prominent families.

Emma Ellis, the daughter of John and Louisa, was born on August 3, 1850. She never married but lived in the home of her parents caring for her mother until her own death at 50 of uremic gastritis. Two years earlier, on March 12, 1899, John Ellis died from hepatitis. He was 79. His obituary in the Norwood Advertiser and Review noted that he was “a thoroughly honest man, whose word was as good as his note. He was a very quiet person and never mixed much in public affairs.”

Louisa S. Pond Ellis died on August 16, 1917 at 91. The cause of her death was recorded as a cerebral hemorrhage. In her obituary, the Norwood Messenger noted that Louisa was a long-time member of the Universalist Church, “was bright and alert in mind,” although suffering for a number of years from rheumatism. She was deemed a ‘home body,’ her main interest being her home. Her husband, John Ellis, and her daughter, Emma, having predeceased her, she left no immediate descendants. She was survived by a niece, Miss Helen Pond, who lived with her; a nephew, Charles Pond of Norwood, who looked after her affairs, and another nephew, Elbridge Pond of Westwood.

The physician who attended Louisa at the time of her death was Dr. Richard Winslow; the undertaker was John Gillooly; and the clerk who registered her death was James Pendergast – all familiar Norwood names.