{{Short description|American politician (1809–1882)}} '''Ellis Eames''' (alt. Ellis Ames, Ellis Eamut<ref name="Baugh1997">Baugh, Alexander L. "The Hauns Mill Massacre and the Extermination Order of Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs." Religious Studies Center Newsletter 12: 1-5. 1997, p21-30</ref>) (1809 – 1882) was an American politician. He served as the first mayor of Provo, Utah;<ref name="PagesOfHistory">{{cite news |title=Provo: Glimpses from the Pages of History |newspaper=Daily Herald (Utah) |date=5 August 1973}}</ref> he was mayor from 1851 to 1852.<ref name="WalshBunch">{{cite news |last1=Walsh |first1=Tad |title=Provo's wild bunch |url=https://www.deseretnews.com/article/635159591/Provos-wild-bunch.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517023956/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/635159591/Provos-wild-bunch.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 17, 2014 |accessdate=4 June 2018 |newspaper=Deseret News |date=8 November 2005}}</ref>
==Early life== Eames was born in 1809, in Mentor, Ohio. He joined the Church of the Latter Day Saints in Jackson County, Missouri in 1834.<ref name="HistoricalProvo"/> He married Olive Jane Gibbs Eames (1815–1902), born February 13, 1815, in Rutland, Vermont. They married in about 1835.<ref name="Roming"> {{Cite journal |last=Romig |first=Ronald E. |date=2009 |title=The RLDS Church on the Pacific Slope |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23290497 |journal=Journal of Mormon History |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=43–125 |issn=0094-7342}}</ref> That same year, Eames took part in a mission along with Joseph Holbrook and Lyman Gibbs.<ref>Johnson, Pamela Call. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uybFd5006AcC&pg=PA38 Joseph Holbrook, Mormon Pioneer, a Journal: With Commentary on the Winter He Spent with the Ponca Indians]. AuthorHouse, 2013. p38</ref> The couple moved to Haun's Mill in 1837, where they were part of the group of Mormon families living near Haun's Mill in Livingston County, Missouri, site of the 1838, anti-Mormon Haun's Mill massacre. Eames' coat was said to have had a bullet hole shot through it during the massacre, but he, his wife Olive, and their four children all survived.<ref name="WalshBunch"/><ref name=Roming/> While in the area, Eames partnered with Jacob Myers Jr. operating a grist mill upstream of Haun's Mill.<ref>Baugh, Alexander L. "Jacob Hawn and the Hawn’s Mill Massacre: Missouri millwright and Oregon pioneer." ''Mormon Historical Studies'' 11, no. 1 (2010): 1-26.</ref> A collection of his writings from that period was published as ''Reminiscence'' in ''Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'' published October 30, 1838.<ref name="Baugh1997"/>
Eames later resided in Clay County, Missouri and Nauvoo, Illinois.<ref name="HistoricalProvo">{{cite web |title=Eames, Ellis; Provo Mayor 1851-1852 |url=http://www.provolibrary.com/historical-provo-people-places/55625-eames-ellis |website=Historical Provo Project |publisher=Provo Public Library |accessdate=5 June 2018}}</ref>
==Utah== Eames was initially part of Brigham Young's 1847 pioneer company, but due to illness was sent back to Winter Quarters, Nebraska.<ref>Jenson, Andrew. [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20696826/ Day By Day with the Utah Pioneers]. ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' (Salt Lake City, Utah) 18 Apr 1934, page 3, accessed via Newspapers.com {{open access}}</ref> He subsequently arrived in Utah by 1849.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Matthew McBride |editor2=James Goldberg |authorlink= |title=Revelations in Context: The Stories behind the Sections of the Doctrine and Covenants |year=2017 |publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |location= |pages=337 |quote= | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wRI4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT337 |isbn=9781465118851 }}</ref>
Ellis, Olive and their children were living in Utah in 1850, when Ellis married a second wife, Sarah Haskell, and was listed in the United States census as a "fiddler".<ref name=Roming/> He was mayor of Provo from 1851 to 1852.<ref name=Roming/><ref name="WalshBunch"/>
==Later life and death== Eames moved to San Bernardino, California in 1854, where he became district attorney.<ref name="WalshBunch"/> When the Latter-day Saints there were called back to Utah Territory in 1857 due to the Utah War, Eames and Olive remained in San Bernardino, while Sarah and her children returned to Utah.<ref name="WalshBunch"/> Eames remained in contact with members of Brigham Young's army.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20696766/a_mormon_threat_fayetteville_observer/ A Mormon Threat]. Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, Tennessee) 14 Jan 1858, page 2, accessed via Newspapers.com {{open access}}</ref> Olive joined the Reorganization in 1864 with Ellis following in 1870.<ref name=Roming/>
In 1896, Olive wrote an account of the Haun's Mill Massacre that was published in the History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.<ref name=Roming/> Eames died in 1882, and is buried at Pioneer Memorial Cemetery in San Bernardino.<ref>[http://www.provolibrary.com/historical-provo-people-places/55625-eames-ellis Provo Library]; [http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/CA/SB-buried.html Cemeteries and Memorial Sites of Politicians in San Bernardino County] at The Political Graveyard</ref> In 1954, a photo of Eames was discovered and added to Provo's gallery of mayors.<ref name="LongLost">[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20696572/ Long Lost Portrait of Provo's First Mayor Discovered]. The Daily Herald (Provo, Utah) 6 Jan 1954, page 6, accessed via Newspapers.com {{open access}}</ref>
==References== ;Citations {{reflist}}
== External links == *[http://provohistory.pbworks.com/Ellis+Eames+(1809-1822) bio from database on Provo History]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eames, Ellis}} Category:1809 births Category:1882 deaths Category:19th-century mayors of places in Utah Category:Converts to Mormonism Category:Mormon pioneers Category:Mayors of Provo, Utah Category:Former Latter Day Saints