Born in 1823 A native of Columbus, Georgia, Elliott attended the public schools and studied law.Mathew Brady photographed their younger son, William Sells Elliott, on the front porch of the house.Elliott was briefly a circuit judge of the Sixth Judicial District of Arkansas from October 2, 1865, to September 15, 1866.In this time period, the family lost two daughters, Belle and Emmaline Elliott to yellow fever on the same day.During Reconstruction, the U.S. Representative James M. Hinds was assassinated on October 22, 1868, by George A. Clark, a member of the Ku Klux Klan and the secretary of the Democratic Committee of Monroe County, Arkansas.