Terry, Elias S.

Born: 1807-XX-XX Charleston, South Carolina

Died: 1891-04-25 Washington, DC

Elias S. Terry was an attorney, state representative, and civil servant. He began studying law in 1828 while living in Virginia, and was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1832. He moved to Princeton, Indiana and practiced law for three years before moving to Washington, Indiana. In March 1838, he married Elizabeth Bucklin Jerauld, with whom he had at least eight children. While in Washington, he won election to the Indiana General Assembly. By 1850, he owned $1,000 in real estate. In 1850, President Millard Fillmore appointed him recorder of the U.S. General Land Office. He gave up his seat in the Indiana Legislature and relocated to Washington, DC, for the position, which he maintained until April 1853, when he moved to Rockville, Indiana and resumed practicing law. In 1857, he was elected to the Indiana Supreme Court but, for political reasons, ultimately did not serve. In June 1858, he moved to Danville, Illinois, where he continued practicing law. By 1860, he owned $10,000 in real estate and another $2,000 in personal property. In 1862, Terry was a delegate to the Illinois constitutional convention.

The Atchison Champion (KS), 28 April 1891, 1:5; The Biographical Encyclopedia of Illinois of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia: Galaxy, 1875), 412; Indiana, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1810-2001, 21 March 1838, (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2014); Lineage Book National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: N.P., 1928), 98:89; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Daviess County, IN, 107; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1851 (Washington, DC: Gideon, 1851), 134; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Danville, Vermilion County, IL, 29; U.S. Census Office, Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Danville, Vermilion County, IL, 9; Gravestone, Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, DC.