monroevillehistorical.org

Roy Chester Elliott (1896-1980)

Descendants of Andrew Elliott (1793-        )

 It is likely that Andrew Elliott first came to Western Pennsylvania about 1830.  In 1845, he bought a farm from the McClelland family on what would become the northern side of Route 22.  Originally this land was part of a Land Grant given by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to Captain James O’Hara in 1789.  (Captain O’Hara was to become General O’Hara, Army Quartermaster, and later a prominent entrepreneur and banker – after whom O’Hara Township was named). 

 From Captain O’Hara the land then passed to George McClelland, and then to Andrew Elliott.  It was the Elliott’s (probably Oliver Elliott) who built the farmhouse on the property, most recently owned by the Wilcox family, and still standing today (2007) as a fine example of a 19^th c. farmhouse.

 The original family property was farmed by one of Andrew’s sons, Oliver (b. 1846), a Civil War veteran.   Another of Andrew’s boys, Arthur B. Elliott (1839-1862), also served in the Civil War. He enlisted as Private with the Union Army on Nov. 1, 1861, and was killed in battle at Malvern Hill, Va., in July 1862. 

 As the years went on, Andrew, and later another son of his, Alexander (1832-1900) would continue to buy parcels of land what would later become Monroeville.  

 Alexander was to marry Mary Clugston (1837-1914) from another of Monroeville’s pioneering families, and he along with his brothers, continued the family farming tradition in the area.

 Alexander Elliott brought property along the Northern Pike where he farmed, and for a time operated a limestone quarry.  Part of this land was to eventually become the Turnpike Gardens housing development.  And in 1905, it was his son, Andrew Jackson Elliott (1866-1955), at one time a Road Supervisor for Patton Township, who bought additional land along Old Wm Penn Highway at the corner of what is now Elliott Road.

 In 1936, his son Roy Chester Elliott (1896-1980), and his wife Abbie (1903-1986) built their family home along Elliott Road.  Later, Roy, along with several relatives, would sell much of the family land to the Sampson Development Company who were planning the University Park housing development.

 The Elliotts were prominent among the pioneering farm families of Monroeville, and some have remained in the area, including Roy Jackson Elliott (b. 1927) who married Alice Smith (b. 1930) and today (2007) lives, in a house they built in 1955,  along the road that bears the family name, over looking Elliott’s Run. Several members of the family are buried in the Cross Roads Cemetery in Monroeville, including Andrew Elliott’s daughter, Nancy E. Elliott (b. 1849).

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Sources:
US Census for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, 1830, 1840, 1850. Courtesy of Judith Welsh.
Elliott Family Records, Courtesy of  Roy Jackson and Alice Smith Elliott, May, 2007.