Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

2898 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSinvolved up to February, 1865, when he was captured by the enemy, duringthe spirited combat at the time of the fall of Fort Fisher near Wilmington,North Carolina. At Fort Delaware he was thereafter held in duress as aprisoner of war until the close of the long and weary conflict. He was releasedin June, 1865, and then returned to Aiken, South Carolina, where he engagedin teaching school and where he simultaneously devoted himself to the studyof law, with characteristic receptiveness and ambition, so that he made rapidand substantial progress in his assimilation of the principles and science ofjurisprudence and after a few years proved himself eligible for and wasadmitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of South Carolina. He continued,however, his pedagogic services until 1870, in the meanwhile handling alsosuch minor law business as came to him.After severing his association with the work of a school teacher Judge Elliscame to Georgia and established his residence in the City of Atlanta, where,as a means to an end, that of making provision for himself and fortifyinghimself adequately for the practice of his profession, he gave two years toservice in the local newspaper field, within this time having been in the reportorialand editorial service of the three leading Atlanta papers in turn theIntelligencer, the Constitution and the Herald. In this way he somewhataugmented his financial resources, and upon leaving the field of practicaljournalism he resumed the practice of his profession. His ability and closeapplication soon enabled him to develop a substantial law business, and finallyGovernor Colquitt conferred upon him appointment to the office of solicitorof the City Court of Atlanta. He filled this position with marked ability andto the distinct advancement of his professional reputation, but he declinedreappointment, in order to resume the general practice of law. In 1886 thejudge was associated in practice with Judge Newman, but this partnershipwas dissolved in 1887, when Judge Newman was appointed to the bench ofthe United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. JudgeEllis then formed a partnership alliance with James R. Gray, who is still oneof the distinguished members of the Atlanta bar, and this association proveda most gracious and effective one, the firm having built up a large and representative law business which extended into the various courts of the state,including the Federal tribunals.In 1884-85 Judge Ellis represented Fulton County in the State Legislature, in which he made an admirable record, both in the deliberations of thelower house and those of the various committees to which he was assigned,among the more important being the general judiciary committee, and thecommittees on corporations, military, education, and manufacturers. He waschairman of the committee on internal improvements and vice chairman ofthe committee on corporations. He was the author of the bill the enactmentof which effected the creation of the Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit, andwas specially active in devising and formulating plans by which to renderfeasible the erection of the new state capitol.The public services of Judge Ellis have also touched the municipal government of Atlanta. In 1878 he was a member of the city council and wasplaced at the head of the legal department of the same, besides which JndgeNewman served simultaneously as city attorney, so that they were associatedin the formulating of much of the legislation that has conserved the prosperous condition of the city at the present time.By the bar of Fulton County and that of the state in general it was recognized as a consistent and well-merited honor when Judge Ellis was appointedto the bench of the Superior Courts of the Atlanta Circuit, in July, 1907, andhis able judicial services have fully justified the preferment thus accorded,the while they have demonstrated also that he is to be always rememberedas one of the representative jurists of the state of his adoption. He hasshown marked ability in the despatching of the business of the court, is