There are several roads into Missouri from Pea Ridge, busy ones like Arkansas highways 265, 94 and 72 to U.S. Highway 62.

And then there are the less refined routes, where some of the most interesting tales of local history hide. One such route will take you by a spot known as Ellis Crossing. If you head north on Twelve Corners Road a mile and a half then go left on London Road, after about two and a half miles you will cross into Missouri and come to a bridge over Big Sugar Creek. And though this location has been known as Ellis Crossing for more than 100 years, there are no signs to point it out once you are there, though a dirt road south of it, which more closely aligns with the original roadway, is marked as Ellis Crossing Road.

Now, to most people, the name Ellis Crossing does not tell much of a story, with a little reasoning you could correctly surmise that the location was where a family named Ellis lived and that it was a popular place to cross the creek.

And while that is accurate, it leaves out a much more interesting story of war, family and murder.

Ellis Crossing marks the homestead of Rice Hughes Ellis (1838-1921) and his wife, Elizabeth Ellen Bailey Ellis (1844-1934), my great-great-great grandparents, who were both born and reared in Cooper County in central Missouri. Census records show them living at Ellis Crossing as early as 1900, but a diploma from the old Pea Ridge Normal College for their daughter, my great-great grandmother Izular Ellis Patterson, indicates that they were there before 1896.

The reason why Rice and Elizabeth first moved south and settled on the Missouri and Arkansas state line had been a family mystery, and not a particularly interesting one either. Then, a little over a year and a half ago, a distant cousin who had seen some information I had entered on a genealogy web site e-mailed me about Rice and Elizabeth.

We shared some information and then she asked me if I knew why Rice Ellis had moved away from his home. I told her I did not and so she shared with me the story that has been handed down through her branch of the Ellis family.

According to the story, many Ellis family members were Confederate sympathizers, and while there is no known record that Rice enlisted in the Confederate Army, his brother Issac did. Missouri at this time was internally torn apart by the war, it was a slave state and home to many who wanted to cede from the Union, but at the same time many were intent on remaining in the Union, often resulting in deadly clashes even between neighbors and even family members. In the summer of 1864 Issac had taken leave from the Confederate Army to visit his family.

While home, he was discovered by Union soldiers and hanged, leaving his wife a widow with 11 children. Shortly after this, Rice was in one of the nearby towns and heard some men talking about his brother and one said something along the lines of “Good riddance, one #* less rebel.” Enraged, Rice hit the man, how many times is unknown, but the man died; I think we would consider this manslaughter now. So Rice was arrested and taken to jail. He went to trial and was sentenced, the sentence itself is lost to time, but, the night before the sentence was to be carried out, the sheriff came into the jail and opened Rice’s cell and told him there was a horse out back, to get on it, leave and never come back.

Rice did leave, but he did come back, two years later when on Oct. 9, 1866, he eloped with Elizabeth Bailey. Perhaps he felt that since the war was over he did not need to worry as much about returning or maybe he just came in covertly to claim his sweetheart and leave.

By the 1880 census they were living in Newtonia in Newton County, Mo., with their four children.

Their only son, Theodore, would die of meningitisin Newton County in 1884 at 17. Sometime after that the family moved to the extreme southwest corner of Barry County, right by a low spot on Big Sugar Creek where it was easy to cross in a wagon or a buggy. There they raised their three daughters, Izular, who would marry Leonard Patterson; Alener, who would marry Houston Banks; and Emma, who would marry Dr. Eggleston. And from all three of these daughters would be a multitude of grandchildren, with likely hundreds of descendants living in the areas around Pea Ridge and in McDonald and Barry counties in Missouri today.

Regardless of any violence Rice Ellis had shown in his past, there are no tales in family lore that show he was any type of a repeat offender. In fact, my great-grandfather Cecil Patterson described him as a man who was extremely close and loving toward his family. And, if you need physical proof of the admiration his family showed for him, just visit the little Dent Cemetery in the southeast corner of Mc-Donald County.

Once there, give it a quick scan and when you see the largest and most ornate headstone of them all, you will have found a tribute that could only have been placed there out of deep love and respect. So the next time you want to take a more scenic route into Missouri, head up Landon Road and take a pause as you cross the bridge over Big Sugar Creek and think about the colorful history of the man who gave Ellis Crossing its name.

◊◊◊

Editor’s note: Jeff Billington grew up on the family farm in the Jacket, Mo., community north of Pea Ridge. He currently lives in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Rockville, Md., and works for the National Parks Conservation Association.

He is the son of David Billington of Jacket and Vickie Christman of Seneca, Mo. His late great-grandparents were lifetime Jacket and Pea Ridge area residents Cecil and Pearl Patterson.

Community, Pages 6 on 10/12/2011