Losing his mother by death when he was but three years old and his father when he was fourteen, the lessons of adversity came early to Bert Ellis, one of the substantial and progressive farmers and stock men of Garfield county, this state, whose pleasantly located ranch on Main creek is one of the attractive rural homes in that portion of the state. Mr. Ellis was born in 1856 in Moultrie county, Illinois, and is the son of Walker and Hannah (Carter) Ellis, the former a native of Illinois and the latter of Indiana. The father was a veteran of the Civil war. He moved his family to Texas in 1858 and settled on a ranch there. The next year his wife died, and he passed away in 1870. They were the parents of three children, Bert being the second born. He remained in Texas making his home with his father until the death of that estimable gentleman, when the youth, then fourteen years of age, returned to Illinois to live with an uncle with whom he found a home until he was twenty. He then went to work for himself on a farm in the neighborhood of his uncle’s place, and after working there for a year moved to Kansas. Here he remained three years engaged in various occupations, then came to Colorado, and locating at Denver, went to work for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. While in the employ of this company he learned telegraphy, but he never had occasion to use the art as a means of making a living. He moved from Denver to Glenwood and there passed three years profitably employed at his trade as a carpenter, at which he had previously acquired facility. At the end of the period named he moved to a ranch near Rifle, and a short time afterward to the one on which he now lives, settling there with his family in 1889. He has devoted his time and energies wholly to general farming and raising stock, and has made a gratifying success of his business. He takes a very active interest in school matters, serving as president of his district. Mr. Ellis was united in marriage with Miss Flora Crann in 1889. They have one daughter, Lucinda.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.