Am.  Jour.  Pham.  \ 
Mar.,  1875.  I 
Obituaries. 
OBITUARIES. 
MEMOIR  OF  CHARLES  ELLIS. 
{Read  at  the  Qua7-te?-iy  Meeting  Decembe?-  2StJi,  1S74.) 
Charles  Ellis  was  born  at  Mimcy,  Lycoming  county,  Pennsylvania,  First 
month  31st,  1800.  His  father,  William  Ellis,  had  emigrated  from  Wales,  and 
formed  one  of  the  noble  band  of  men  who  had  given  up  the  comforts  of  civiliza- 
tion, the  ties  of  kinship  and  friendship  in  their  own  country,  to  endure  privation, 
toil  and  hardship  in  the  forests  of  ours,  for  the  sake  of  preserving  a  conscience  void 
of  offence  against  God.  He  belonged  to  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  his  wife,  Mercy 
Ellis,  was  one  of  the  most  widely-known  and  highly-esteemed  preachers  among 
them. 
William  Ellis  possessed  himself  of  large  tracts  of  land  in  Lycoming  county  when 
but  sparsely  settled,  and,  by  well-directed  industry  and  the  exercise  of  the  manly 
qualities  which  vi^ere  characteristic  of  the  Welsh  Friends,  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  the  wilderness  gradually  disappear  to  make  way  for  the  thrifty  farm-house 
and  village  ;  and  the  flourishing  condition  of  this  portion  of  the  State  is  directly 
traceable  to  the  influence  of  such  worthy  pioneers. 
Charles  was  the  fifth  son  in  the  family,  which  consisted  of  eleven  children,  and 
his  father's  death  occurring  when  he  was  but  six  years  of  age,  left  the  responsibility 
of  rearing  this  household  with  his  mother,  who  proved  well  fitted  for  the  labor  of 
training  them  in  the  paths  of  rectitude  and  wisdom. 
His  love  for  truth,  his  watchful  care  to  avoid  injuring  any  of  his  fellows,  either 
by  word  or  act,  and  the  gentleness  which  so  characterized  and  ennobled  the  man 
in  his  mature  life,  no  doubt  received  its  first  impulse  as  he  listened  to  the  teachings 
and  profited  by  the  example  of  this  faithful  parent.  Foreseeing  the  necessity  of  a 
better  education  for  them  than  could  be  afforded  in  the  common  schools  of  this 
thinly-settled  neighborhood,  she  employed  a  competent  teacher  to  instruct  them. 
Thus,  from  his  sixth  to  his  fifteenth  year,  he  was  carefully  taught  at  home,  and 
when  he  arrived  at  the  latter  age,  he  was  prepared  to  enter  a  school  at  Manhattan- 
ville.  New  York,  where  he  received  an  excellent  education,  which  still  further  fitted 
him  for  the  duties  of  the  active  life  which  was  to  follow.  On  leaving  school  in 
1817,  he  came  to  Philadelphia,  and  choosing  the  profession  of  pharmacy  as  afford- 
ing the  best  outlet  for  the  exercise  of  the  tastes  with  which  he  had  been  endowed, 
he  had  the  good  fortune  to  obtain  a  position  as  an  apprentice  in  the  shop  of  Eliza- 
beth Marshall,  to  learn  the  "  art  and  mystery  of  the  apothecary."  This  establish- 
ment was  on  Chestnut  street  between  Second  and  Third  streets,  and  was  in  the  full  tide 
of  prosperity  under  the  skillful  management  of  the  talented  daughter  of  Charles  Mar- 
shall (the  first  President  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy).  The  store  had 
earned  an  enviable  reputation  througli  the  exertions  of  its  founder,  Christopher  Mar- 
shall, who  carried  on  the  business,  during  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  with  credit 
and  success,  and  on  his  son  Charles  attaining  his  majority,  he  was  admitted  into 
partnership  with  his  father  and  elder  brother,  and  subsequently,  on  their  retirement, 
succeeded  to  the  proprietorship.  Charles  Marshall  was  well  qualified  to  conduct 
the  apothecary  business  as  It  was  carried  on  at  this  time,  for  it  was  necessary  then 
