When he died in 1900, Charles Ellis Jr. was eulogized as “true to all of his duties, loyal to all his traditions, a Virginian of Virginians,” who “spent a useful life in the city of his birth, and died respected of all and beloved by his kinsmen.” While much about Ellis is unknown, his formative years as a student at the University of Virginia are well preserved in his private diaries. Although Ellis wrote in January 1836 that his diary was “penned for no eyes but my own and intended to reveal and keep alive many events which may happen during the course of my life,” his diary offers posterity unique insight into Ellis’ private self, his student experience, and the early history of the University of Virginia.[1]

Born in Richmond, Virginia on March 28, 1817, Ellis was the third of eight children. Although Ellis’ father, Charles Sr., hailed from Amherst County, he came to Richmond in 1795 to open a tobacco and mercantile firm. As the firm prospered Ellis entered into a partnership with John Allan. As a result of the two men’s business partnership and friendship Ellis’ three sons: Thomas Harding, James Nimmo, and Charles Junior grew up close friends with Allan’s foster son, Edgar. That same foster son later briefly attended the University of Virginia with Thomas Ellis and achieved immense literary fame under his better-known name, Edgar Allan Poe.[2]

Ellis began his formal education at the Llangollen School in Spotsylvania County. At the age of seventeen he relocated to Charlottesville and enrolled as a student at the University of Virginia. At the time Thomas Jefferson’s University was celebrating its tenth anniversary in 1835 and had educated several classes of talented graduates, among them Ellis’ oldest brother, Thomas Harding Ellis.[3]

Thomas Ellis’ experiences profoundly influenced his younger brother’s time at the University of Virginia. The elder Ellis composed an explicit list of social and academic instructions for Charles to follow at the University entitled, “Directions for C.E.” These “directions” included instructions as to where on the Lawn to secure a room, with which Charlottesville families Ellis ought to become acquainted, and advice as to which courses the younger Ellis ought to “take tickets” in.  These directions were by no means Thomas Ellis’ only brotherly advice to Charles as the two brothers continued to correspond regularly throughout Charles Ellis’ time as a student.[4]

Thomas Ellis’ first instruction to his younger brother recommended that he “endeavor to get a room on the western lawn from 39 upwards, if possible in Mrs. Gray’s district.” In addition to geographic significance and proximity to other students, stores, and classrooms, the location of one’s room determined at which hotel a student was to take his meals. In accord with Thomas’ instructions, Charles secured a “dormitory” on the western side of the Lawn in Room 37 and took his meals at the hotel of Madame Gray.[5]

Many of Charles Ellis’ friendships at the University emanated from the location of this room. He became close friends with the two students who resided on each side of his room: Albert Pleasants and William “Billy” Stanard. However, Ellis also formed close friendships with many students who lived elsewhere on the Lawn. Some of these friends frequently mentioned in Ellis’ diary include: Monroe Kelly, Kit Harris, Theodosius Alston, David Johnson, Richard B. Hobson, William M. Harrison, O. Nash Ogden, Archibald Cary, Peter Carr, Benjamin Burwell, John Woods, James L. Cabell, Louis T. Wigfall, Charles Cocke, Charles S. Lewis, and Thomas Newton Jr. [6]

Thomas Ellis’ second instruction to his brother urged him to “matriculate and take the tickets of mathematics ancient languages and modern languages” taught by professors Charles Bonnycastle, Gessener Harrison, and George Walter Blaetterman respectively. Ellis’ account of his first session at the University describes taking exactly these three lectures, studying Latin and Spanish as his ancient and modern languages. In the next sessions, Ellis studied French with Professor Blaetterman, Natural Philosophy with Professor Rogers, and an additional course in mathematics with Professor Bonnycastle who he occasionally refers to as “Old X+Y”. A few afternoons a week Ellis also attended a Political Economy lecture taught by Professor George Tucker. Of these courses and instructors, Ellis especially disliked mathematics and French. He derided French history as “perpetual and troublesome,” and attended Bonnycastle’s lectures so infrequently that he feared he would earn “a lazy ticket” and be subject to discipline by the faculty. By the conclusion of his studies at the University of Virginia in July 1836, Ellis earned diplomas in Spanish, French, and Latin. Perhaps because his attendance never improved, or due to genuine lack of aptitude, the diploma in mathematics eluded Ellis.[7]

Per University protocol, Ellis’ days as a student began at dawn. The ringing of a bell roused the students from sleep and signaled that they should progress to breakfast at their assigned hotels before a second bell rang. Despite this rigorous schedule, Charles Ellis often found it very difficult to awaken on time and commonly arrived at breakfast with little time to spare. This early morning tardiness often provoked the ire of the University janitor. In Ellis’ first few months at school, morning tardiness became so common among the students that the faculty posted a notice on the Rotunda threatening to suspend any late-rising student for two weeks. Ellis thought this policy was too extreme, likening it to “raising a storm to drown a feather.” To Ellis’ way of thinking the policy treated University students as “a parcel of children” who were “driven out of their beds at the beck and nod of…the faculty, many of whom do not rise till nine or ten o’clock.” Although Ellis was never suspended for late-rising or any other offense, his diary attests that it remained a problem for the remainder of his time at the University.[8]  

A partial explanation for Ellis’ failure to conform to the University schedule is thought to be that the poor quality of food served to students left them little motivation to rise in time to eat breakfast. Ronald B. Head speculates that food quality was especially poor for University students at the time given the expense of procuring and providing it for so many students when University policy held that “the monthly lodging charge could not exceed ten dollars per student.” Ellis’ own dislike of the University menu is well documented in his diary where he derisively refers to most breakfasts as “mush.” On one occasion Ellis complains about being served “a breakfast at which any negro in my Father’s house would grumble” and resignedly declares, “college is no place for learning the gastronomic art.”  Ellis’ dislike of Madame Gray’s provisions was by no means singular. In January 1836 the shared dissatisfaction of Ellis’ peers led them to craft a petition formally complaining about the quality of the food, which was then submitted to the faculty. The ever-cautious Ellis feared that the petition would only worsen the situation by angering Madame Gray and declined to sign it. Instead, Ellis continued to privately complain in his diary and even wrote a humorous poem about the food’s poor quality. Ultimately Ellis’ fears about the petition proved justified and the faculty conducted an inquiry into the veracity of the student’s claims. Although the University promised to improve the food quality as best it could, Ellis continued to complain about food quality throughout his diary.[9]

After attending these mandatory albeit unsatisfactory breakfasts, students were allowed a brief amount of time to themselves before classes began. Charles Ellis and his friends usually spent this time visiting with friends, completing short errands to nearby merchants, tidying their rooms, preparing for lectures, or mending clothes. The latter of these was required to maintain adherence to the University uniform of the time.[10]

After this break, classes began for students. A typical school day for Ellis consisted of three classes taught without interruption from roughly nine in the morning to half past twelve in the afternoon. Ellis often complained in his diary of the difficulty of remaining awake and attentive for such a long stretch of uninterrupted time. As such, Ellis’ happiness when one or more of his professors cancelled his lectures was unabashed. Still Ellis attended the majority of his lectures with regular frequency and seems to have worked relatively dutifully on reading and completing the required assignments for his courses, especially as exam dates neared. Nevertheless, even the threat of an examination was not dire enough to marshal Ellis’ undivided concentration on his studies. As Ellis himself admits, he could “always find something to turn me away from attending to preparing for my examinations.”[11]

Once lectures concluded, the midday meal, dinner, was served. After dinner if a student’s classes were finished for the day, his time was his own. Ellis spent his afternoons engaged in a wide variety of pastimes. Which particular pastime he pursued often depended on the weather, the invitations of friends and townspeople in Charlottesville, the proximity to an upcoming exam, and the constraints of his own frequently poor health. On some afternoons Ellis spent the entire afternoon reading for leisure. Ellis read voraciously and diversely ranging from poetry to the Koran to John Daly Burk’s History of Virginia, all of which he borrowed from the 7000-volume University library. Ellis also read newspapers from Richmond, personal correspondence, and popular magazines such as the Mirror, the Virginia Literary Museum, the Southern Literary Messenger, and his personal favorite, The Knickerbocker.  Although Ellis was an undeniably avid reader he was also quick to put any volume aside at the offer of an invitation to walk to Charlottesville and browse bookstores, taverns, the homes of local townspeople, or nearby scenery as all of these activities offered respite from the confines of his room, which he often derisively referred to as “my ten foot box.”[12]

In Charlottesville Ellis primarily interacted with two different socioeconomic groups of local citizens. The first group described by Ellis was that of the “mechanics” that the students employed as tailors and repairmen. Ellis refers to these people as “ragamuffins” and notes several occasions in which townspeople and students interacted violently. Ellis characterized this animosity as a misunderstanding on the part of the townspeople speculating that “the ignorant countrymen…imagine us cannibals or something worse.” Despite this prejudice, Ellis frequently visited Charlottesville shops and employed mechanics for various services. Ellis paid to have his textbooks bound at McKennie’s bookstore and also shopped there for books to read for pleasure.  Although some trips to Charlottesville left Ellis dejectedly remarking, “there is nothing in Charlottesville worth buying,” on other occasions his “curse” of “the mania for buying books” caused him to amass extravagant bills at McKennie’s store. Other Charlottesville establishments Ellis frequented include Marshall’s store, where Ellis bought boots, and both Weideymeyer’s and Field and Goss’ store for alcohol and superior “snacks” to those offered at Madame Gray’s.[13]

Ellis also describes Charlottesville’s wealthier citizenry, and he and other students frequently socialized and visited with this group. Some of these visits occurred in conjunction with routine trips “downtown” to complete errands or attend church services. On other occasions, Ellis and his companions left the University for the express purpose of paying nightly visits to the homes of various Charlottesville unmarried ladies and school girls. Although Ellis enjoyed these visits immensely he noted that “visiting the fair sex too much” contributed to his “lazy habits” and “neglected study.”  James L. Cabell and Charles Cocke frequently accompanied Ellis on these visits. Ellis’ diary provides the most detailed commentary on his visits to the house of Dr. Carter whose two daughters, Lucy and Mary, were of special interest to Ellis. Of these two belles, Lucy was Charles Ellis’ clear favorite; enough so that he was often distraught when he paid a visit and found her absent. Other ladies Charles Ellis visited include: Elizabeth ‘Bet’ Conway, Willie Timberlake, and the daughters of University professors.  Ellis also visited the married women who ran Charlottesville boardinghouses such as Mrs. Brockenborough and Old Betsy Franklin.[14]

There were also plenty of amusements for the students at the University itself. One such amusement was the formation of a military company by Ellis, Pleasants, and several other classmates. Ellis was first appointed 3^rd Lieutenant in the Company and avidly participated in its drills on the Lawn and the meetings of its officers. Captain Partridge led the company in drill and lectured the students about tactics and national defense. Although the Company was initially unarmed, the students relentlessly petitioned the Governor of Virginia to send arms to Charlottesville. The petition must have been persuasive because arms arrived after a few months. When the Company was not drilling, Ellis further indulged his militaristic interests by taking fencing lessons from a Corsican instructor named Alexander A. Penci in what Ellis termed the “Academic Hall,” now assumed to be Hotel F. Many of Ellis’ comrades in the Company also served on Ball Managers committees with Ellis, which planned formal balls that were held at the University or in Charlottesville hotels. These events usually included dinner and dancing and were attended by students, faculty, local ladies, and acquaintances from other universities.[15]

On many Saturday evenings, Ellis and many of his fellow students attended meetings of the Jefferson Society. The Jefferson Society, a literary and debating society in existence since 1825, convened weekly in Hotel C on the West Range and hosted debates and discussions of social, moral, and political issues of the day. Ellis noted that the topics of these debates ranged from the character of a fellow member, to the selection of speakers for Jefferson’s or Washington’s Birthday celebrations, to internal improvements, Jackson’s efforts to expunge his censure, and the constitutionality of the existence of West Point. These debates and the discussions they provoked often resonated with Ellis enough to be remarked upon in detail, not only in his diary but also in his correspondence with his brothers.[16]

Ellis was frequently afflicted by bouts of indigestion, heartburn, and other ailments. His self-prescribed remedy for these maladies usually involved invigorating walks throughout the Charlottesville countryside, down the colonnades of the Lawn, and in inclement weather, pacing in his room. Often these walks were social occasions for Ellis and his classmates and involved walking to see views of Charlottesville from above at Carter’s Mountain, “Observatory Mountain,” and the Ragged Mountains. Another trip brought Ellis, several students, and some local ladies from Charlottesville by carriage to the ruins of Monticello. In winter months when snow precluded visiting many of these destinations, Ellis and his classmates ice skated nearby and organized snowball fights between the Eastern and Western dormitories on the Lawn.[17]

Though much of Ellis’ diary simply recounts ordinary days he spent at the University he also mentions several extraordinary happenings at the University. One such event occurred on November 10, 1836 when Vice President Martin Van Buren visited the University. Van Buren was evidently so unpopular with the students that his arrival at the University was met with hissing. Ellis also described finding the former Governor of Virginia, James Barbour, speaking in a Charlottesville tavern about the need for a bank to be built in Charlottesville and criticizing President Jackson’s destruction of the Second Bank of the United States. In addition, Ellis described the buzz of excitement on May 10, 1835, as news spread of a duel to be held between Hamer of Mississippi and Louis T. Wigfall of South Carolina over the affections of a Charlottesville lady named Mary Ann Leiper. Though the faculty involved local sheriffs to preclude the duel from occurring, Ellis and other students enjoyed the frenzy it generated.[18]

The private nature of Ellis’ diary allowed him to divulge his private musings, anxieties, and opinions in its pages. This commentary reveals Charles Ellis Jr. to have been a conscientious individual, concerned with propriety and behaving in a gentlemanly manner. Ellis also placed great importance on following the advice of his mother and father. To that end, Ellis was critical of the wild behavior of many of his classmates. To Ellis’ way of thinking, to behave similarly would jeopardize the sacrifice his parents made to send him to the University of Virginia and fall short of their expectations for his academic performance and conduct. Although Ellis’ commitment to his studies wavered at times and was often forsaken when an offer to partake in a more enjoyable activity arose, he refused to drink to excess at any of the “frolics” organized by the students, and refused to play cards during the academic term because being caught doing so would likely result in suspension by the faculty.[19]

At its most private, Ellis’ diary exposes his insecurities and worries about his future. Especially when Ellis first arrived at the University, he used the pages of his diary to confide his concerns about beginning college and his reminiscences about the simplicity of his boyhood in Richmond and his student days at Llangollen. The exact source of Ellis’ anxiety is difficult to pinpoint. On the one hand, Ellis seemed to relish the newfound freedom afforded to students at the University. At the same time, however, the accompanying responsibility and the recognition that independence and adulthood was only a few years away seemed to intimidate Ellis. This conflict is illustrated by his characterization of his matriculation at the University as the beginning of “a course whose termination no one can pretend to foretell.” Another source of anxiety may have been Ellis’ insecurity about his own abilities in comparison to those of “the many young men who are collected here.” Evaluating his merits against those of his peers caused Ellis to worry that he had “too little ambition to strive to be the greatest and too much to suffer to be among the lowest.” Despite these anxieties Ellis was impressed by the University of Virginia and reverently admired the legacy of Thomas Jefferson, its founder. Ellis specifically commended the “appropriateness of the University’s being placed in light of the residence of the greatest and purest patriot of America” with the intent of stimulating “ambitious minds and growing talents of many a future statesman and perhaps hero of their country.”[20]

Although Ellis did not write of his own future plans or ambitions directly within the diary, he did describe with particular passion his desire to elevate Virginia as a state, and Richmond as its finest city, soon to become “the London of America.” Ellis fervently hoped that “some second Walter Scott, some American Milton…might arise in Virginia,” whose literary fame would make Virginia’s name known for posterity. Although Ellis did not consider himself to be a literary genius, he mentioned a childhood ambition to accrue “a sham of literary fame.”[21]

As a piece of 19^th century history, Ellis’ diary is significant for several reasons. First, it can be considered an intimate portrait of the prejudices and opinions of Ellis as an individual and offers a sense as to what ideas and concerns affected Ellis’ generation and peers. Ellis’ diary mentions “the French bill,” a provision included in an 1831 Treaty with France that “concerned payments due U.S. citizens by the French government,” several times. In addition to feeling strongly about this issue, Ellis was distrustful of foreigners. When his fencing instructor, Alexander A. Penci, loses the cigars and case Ellis lent him, Ellis remarked, “thus much for these low foreigners” and bid them all “au revoir.” Ellis’ domestic prejudices are also noted in his diary. During the 1835 Christmas recess an uncle’s poor health requires Ellis to remain in Charlottesville rather than return to Richmond. To escape the boredom of the empty University, Ellis and several companions spend the holidays at nearby Coley’s tavern. Here the students met a man from New York and engaged in a heated debate over abolitionism.[22]

From Ellis’ opinions, descriptions of student life, and accounts of events that occurred during his attendance at the University, much can be gleaned about the early academic culture of the University of Virginia. For example, Ellis was personally ambivalent about religion. He rarely attended services and impugned the credentials and speaking style of Ryland, the pastor at student services. Contemporary historians of the University’s history corroborate Ellis’ ambivalence as part of a larger trend among many students of the era. On the one hand this ambivalence is unsurprising given that Jefferson deliberately founded the University as a secular institution. Thus it could be surmised that the students’ ambivalence toward religion stemmed from lofty recognition of the importance of religious freedom, or a general skepticism about the tenets of organized religion itself. However, a more likely explanation based on Ellis’ record seems to be that the students simply chose not to attend services when they preferred to use the time for other activities. Interestingly enough Ellis’ religious ambivalence dissipated quickly when the opportunity to go to services in Charlottesville permitted time to visit local ladies afterward.[23]

 During Ellis’ time at the University, the faculty sought to increase the presence of religion among the students and announced on Easter Sunday 1835 their intention of raising $20,000 to build a church for students to attend. The funding was never obtained but the faculty’s concern for the students’ faith continued. In the decade and a half after Ellis attended the University, the wild behavior of the students and the absence of religion at the University led John Hartwell Cocke, an influential member of the Board of Visitors, to form the “Sons of Temperance” at the University. This organization was intended both to discourage drinking among the students and to promote religion.[24]

Ellis’ diary also depicts the first glimmers of the concept of ‘student self-governance’ that continues to undergird the University’s student experience nearly two centuries later. Shortly after Ellis matriculated at the University, the faculty passed a resolution decreeing that it would select the top orator and essayist from the students to perform at University functions. Dissatisfied with this policy’s exclusion of student opinion, on March 17, 1835, the students held a meeting nullifying this resolution and demanding a voice in the election of these student leaders. As a result of this dissension, a compromise was reached four days later in which the faculty and students agreed that the students would be able to cast votes for which students received these honors. An additional area in which students exercised considerable autonomy at the University was through trials held and attended by University students for students charged with committing offenses at the University. These trials, which were presided over by law students, adjudicated and meted out punishments for offenses including duels and other crimes. Both examples reveal that University students of Ellis’ day both held and felt entitled to considerable autonomy.[25]

Although Charles Ellis never attained “the sham of literary fame” which was his childhood ambition, the lessons told by his diary and personal correspondence from his time as a student at the University of Virginia have exceptional historical value. Additionally, Ellis’ writings offer insight into his personality, character, opinions, and strengths, and show early evidence of the consequential man he would become. Ellis summarizes his student experience best at the conclusion of his first session at the University. Admitting that “altho’ I have not come up to what I ought and should have done, yet I do not look back upon it with the same regret that I do of many of the years passed before entering here.” Ellis continued noting, “it does seem to me that I have learnt much which may be useful to me in future life, but it equally appears that that knowledge is only to be gained by an equal decrease [of] quiet happiness.” To this dilemma, Ellis argues that he “questions whether happiness is not better than the highest success.”[26]

Ultimately Ellis would also attain something of “the highest success.” After concluding his studies at the University of Virginia, Ellis returned to Richmond where he first worked under his father at Ellis and Allan. After his father’s death, Charles and Thomas Ellis opened a store on E Street specializing in “dry goods, hardware, and cutlery.” After proving successful in this venture, Ellis served from 1860 to 1870 as the President of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad Company. During the Civil War, Ellis’ love for military maneuvers and early skills learned from his Company days at the University of Virginia facilitated his rise to the rank of Colonel in the Confederate military. In this post Ellis was well-known for his contributions as a supply and transportation officer. He retired from business in 1870 and divided his time between his home in Richmond and a resort in Bath County, Virginia called “Healing Springs” which Ellis frequented to relieve his ailments. Ellis died unmarried on July 21, 1900.[27]

See also: Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, A Notable Alumnus (1820-1890)