Nearly thirty years of consecutive identification with the post office service in Indianapolis represents the exceptional record of David M. Elliott, and it is doubtful if there is another man in the service as thoroughly familiar with the same as he is or possessed of more intimate knowledge of the city in the matter of postal ramifications. He has won advancement through able and faithful service and is now incumbent of the dual office of finance clerk and second assistant postmaster. It is needless to say that he is an official of the most sterling characteristics and that he is held in high regard by all who know him, being one of the well known and popular executives identified with the local postal service.

David McClure Elliott is a scion of one of the old and honored families of Indiana, of which state he is a native son. He was born on a farm in Monroe Township, Jefferson County, this state, on the 2nd of October, 1849, and is the son of Anthony and Elizabeth (Craig) Elliott, both of whom were born in Ohio, where the respective families were founded in pioneer days.

Robert Elliott, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this review, was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on the 15th of September, 1784, and died in Jefferson County, Indiana, June 26, 1872. He came to Indiana soon after the close of the war of 1812, prior to the admission of the state to the Union, having served as a valiant and loyal soldier in the second conflict with England. He became one of the early settlers of Jefferson County, where he established one of the first tanneries in the state, having been a tanner by trade. His mother’s maiden name was Jennie McClure and that of his wife Mary Logan, and their relatives have made the names of McClure and Logan prominent in the early history of Jefferson County and the City of Madison.

Anthony Logan Elliott, the father of the subject of this sketch, was the eldest of a family of six children, who all settled on farms in Jefferson County, but he died in his prime, leaving a widow and seven children, of whom David, seven years old, was the youngest and so broken in health that his early death seemed certain. He is now, however, the only survivor, but has had to use crutches since childhood. The last of those six robust brothers and sisters passed away in 1903, the lives of the brothers no doubt being greatly shortened by soldier’s hardships during four years of the Civil War.

David’s poor health as a boy prevented any steady attendance at school but at the age of 20 he was teaching. His mother died before he reached his majority. During the last few years of her life Mr. Elliott had a step-father, Rev. Wm. Wallace, of whom he speaks in the highest terms.

Mr. Elliott spent a year or two of the early seventies in the south, teaching and doing bookkeeping in Alabama and speaks with some pride of the fact that although but twenty-three years old he was inspector of his precinct in that state at Grant’s second election in 1872.

Returning later to Indiana, he served two terms as trustee of his native township, and in 1880 was nominated for county recorder, but a decision of the supreme court having incidentally deferred recorders’ elections for two years, Mr. Elliott came to Indianapolis in May, 1881, and took service under Postmaster Wildman (a relative), and has served under nine postmasters, working his way up from the lower grades and reaching his present important position many years ago.

Mr. Elliott is a stanch Republican and a member of the Marion Club, but has a host of friends in all parties.

David McClure Elliott and Miss Martha Pressly were married in May, 1891, she being a native of Kosciusko County, Indiana, and the youngest daughter of Dr. Samuel Pressly, who was in his day a prominent physician of northern Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Elliott have no children of their own, but their home is kept lively by numerous nieces and nephews, as Mr. Elliott has been guardian for several families of orphans. Their home is at 2241 Talbott avenue, and both are active members of First United Presbyterian Church.

Submitted by Ken Hixon. David McClure Elliott is the youngest brother of Mr. Hixon’s 2nd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Elliott Weir. Anthony Logan Elliott is Mr. Hixon's 3rd great-grandfather. Robert Elliott is his 4th great-grandfather.