Herbert Marion Elliott
"The Children's Friend" would be a title which would more nearly signify the relations of Mr. Elliott to the community of his home children than any other which might be discovered. Mr. Elliott professionally is a lawyer, has been identified with the bar for thirty years, twenty years of which have been spent in Marion. Though successful as a lawyer, his name and career will be longest appreciated and honored not so much for his prominence in the courts and business affairs as for his thoroughly disinterested and efficient service in the realm of practical philanthropy. The city of Marion is fortunate in the possession of such a man. The upbuilding of a wholesome city is not due to the industries alone, nor to the banks alone, nor to the varied mercantile enterprises, but to the composite activities which are always found associated in any large center of population. Among these varied human activities, certainly the work of the philanthropist must appear larger and more important with every passing decade, and it is with such work that Mr. Elliott's name should be prominently identified in the history of Grant County.
Herbert Marion Elliott was born at Holly, Michigan, September 15, 1853. His parents were Marcus Delos and Emily A. (Seely) Elliott, the father a native of New York and his mother also from the same State. The father, who was a farmer, served as a member of the Michigan Legislature in 1877078 from Oakland County. During the civil war he had been Captain of Company H, and artillery company of the Eighth Michigan Battery Light Artillery. After the war he continued as a farmer and in several minor offices of trust and responsibility in Michigan until his death which came to him September 5, 1905. The mother passed away in March, 1895. The Marion lawyer is the oldest of four children, the others being Addie E. Zellner, of Fenton, Michigan; George M., of Tacoma, Washington; and John D., of Minneapolis. After the death of his first wife the father married Louise Piatt, and their one child is Marian H. Elliott of Holly, Michigan. The parents also had a foster-daughter, Mrs. Cora Bell Howes, now of Los Angeles, California.
Mr. H. M. Elliott was reared on a farm and from an early age learned to depend upon his own efforts for his promotion in life. At Holly he attained a common school education and also attended the high school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His career began as a school teacher, a vocation which he followed for nine years. Subsequently he engaged in farming in Oakland County, and continued that in connection with his teaching until he was twenty-seven years of age, teaching during the winter season and carrying on farm operations during the summer. On leaving the farm he engaged in the drug business first at Holly, then at Davisburg and then at Detroit. He was in this line of business for about four years, until about 12882. During the years while he was at St. Johns, and was admitted to the bar on January 4, 1884, at St. Johns, Michigan. Immediately afterwards he began private practice at AuSable and Oscoda, Michigan. In 1890 he opened an office in Detroit, and conducted the law business at Oscoda and Detroit until April, 1893, at which time he moved his home to Marion, Indiana, which has since been his permanent home.
On September 4, 1878, Mr. Elliott married Miss Ella E. McLean of Clio, Michigan. Mrs. Elliott was born in Genesee County, Michigan. Their two children are Harry McLean, now of Los Angeles, and Merle Dee, at home. During his residence in Michigan, Mr. Elliott served as Prosecuting attorney of Iosco County two terms, and was Circuit Court Commissioner for two terms for the same county. For two terms at Oscoda he was Secretary of the Board of Education.
Since coming to Marion Mr. Elliott's connections with public and benevolent enterprise have been almost too numerous to mention. He has for two and a half years been Secretary of the Marion Federation of Charities; for four years was probation officer for Grant County; for six years was President of the Board of Children's Guardians; and is now Secretary of the Grant County Hospital Association. He helped organize the Marion Law Institute, a corporation which now owns the bar library valued at $5,000 and Mr. Elliott was its first librarian. He was for five years President of the Y. M. C. A. and was chairman of the building committee until after the plans for the present building had been adopted. He was also President of the Building Committee which financed and built the Presbyterian Church at Marion, easily the finest church edifice in this city. For thirteen years Mr. Elliott was in partnership with his brother George Elliott in the law business at Marion, and during that time they organized and established the Marion Planing Mill Company, and the Marion Insurance Exchange. The latter has since gone into what is known as the Marion Title & Loan Company. The brothers also organized a number of other enterprises, which, during the past two decades have been important in the aggregate commercial activities of this city. Fraternally Mr. Elliott is affiliated with the Masonic Order, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church, having been superintendent of the Sunday School for eight years and a member of the Session for twelve years. In politics he is a Progressive Republican, but in later years has taken no prominent part in political affairs. Child saving and home finding for waifs have constituted a large part of Mr. Elliott's benevolent work during recent years. He has without any ostentation and on his private initiative found homes for more than fifty children, and these benevolences have been performed without any supervision from any of the public charities. As a result of his efforts in this direction some of the children for whom he has provided comfortable homes will eventually inherit from five to twenty thousand dollars each from their foster parents. It is in no idle spirit nor from an abnormal trait of character that Mr. Elliott has engaged in his philanthropic work of child saving. He is a broad-minded man in every respect, is devoted to the cause of social amelioration in all its aspects and from a busy professional career has devoted all the time and means that he could spare for the practical work of child philanthropy. As Secretary of Federation of Charities, he was the first man in Indiana to adopt the plan of using the vacant logs in a city for raising crops by and for the poor. Mr. Elliott is a recognized authority in his branch of philanthropy and has written a great deal concerning progressive charities and uplift work in general. One special article on the workings of jail prisoners for the benefit of their families was heavily indorsed at a recent session of the National Prison Reform Board.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.