My Genealogy Hound

Henry L. Elcan, a native of Alabama, was born on October 24, 1834, being a son of Spencer W. and Martha Peyton Tabb (Bolling) Elcan. The former died when Henry was an infant, and his mother moved to Memphis, Tenn., when he was four years old, where she was married to R. W. Clements, a native of Scotland, who came to the United States when a boy. Mr. Clements died in 1873, and Mrs. Clements departed this life in Memphis, in 1878, of yellow fever. Both were members of the Methodist Church. Martha Bolling, the mother of Maj. H. L. Elcan, is a descendant of Robert Bolling, of “Bolling Hall,” Yorkshire, England. He arrived in Virginia October 2, 1660, and married Jane, daughter of Thomas Rolfe, and granddaughter of Pocahontas, and lived at “Kippax,” Prince George County. This family married and intermarried with the Peytons, Tabbs, Skipwiths, Kennons, Lees, Randolphs, Nelsons, Blands, Beverlys and Mumfords, all of whom are of royal English descent. Henry L. had four sisters: Mrs. Gen. M. J. Wright (of Memphis), Mrs. Judge George West (of Little Rock), Mrs. Bettie Gibbs (of New Orleans) and Junius, all of whom are deceased. During the war Mr. Elcan enlisted in the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Tennessee Infantry, in Company A, and was made brigadier-quartermaster in Wright’s brigade. He served in the battles of Belmont, Chickamauga, and a number of others, and at the surrender at Grenada, Miss. After the war he returned to Memphis, and engaged in farming until 1885, then moving to Arkansas and locating at Brownsville, where he has a good farm well under cultivation. Maj. Elcan was married in 1865, to Mary Kennon, who was born in Kentucky, in 1844. They are the parents of six children: Spencer, Maude (who is teaching school at Little Rock), Henry, Junius, Marcus and Kennon (deceased). Mrs. Elcan is a member of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Elcan is a strong Democrat, and a leading farmer of his township. Mrs. Mary K. Elcan, wife of Maj. Henry Elcan, is the daughter of Dr. Richard Kennon, United States hospital surgeon. Both of Mrs. Elcan’s maternal ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence—Thomas Nelson and William Kennon. They fought with Washington, and were members of the First Congress, then called the Virginia Assembly. Mrs. Elcan’s mother is Rosalie Nelson, daughter of Dr. Hugh Nelson, who served as hospital surgeon through the War of 1812.