Captain H. C. Ellis was born in Sumner County, near Fountain Head, in 1818. He was related to the Gwin family, from which Senator William Gwin was descended. In 1843 he removed to Hartsville, where he engaged in merchandising until the beginning of the Civil War, when he entered the Confederate army as Captain of a company in the Ninth Tennessee Regiment of Cavalry under General John H. Morgan, with whom he served, and was captured on Morgan's Ohio raid, and was in prison with the officers of Morgan's command at Columbus, Ohio. From Columbus he was sent to Fort Delaware, where he was held prisoner until his exchange in 1864, when he rejoined his command and served until paroled in North Carolina after the surrender of General Lee. As a citizen he was public spirited and was foremost in every enterprise for the good of his town and county. He was successful in business and accumulated a considerable fortune, and was at his death on of the wealthiest men in Trousdale County.

Captain Ellis married Miss Josephine Towson, with whom he lived over half a century, and to whom he clung with a beautiful devotion until the last ray of reason was gone. Mrs. Ellis survives her husband and spends much of her time in travel and in visiting her many friends and relatives, ever keeping in mind the sacred memory of her honored and noble husband. Captain Ellis was one of the founders of the first bank in Hartsville, and was its president from its organization in 1884 to his death, October 7, 1903. Captain Ellis left no children.