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- Jacob Eller Sr.'s will names Jacob Jr. as his eldest son. According to J.G. Eller (in an address to the Eller Family Association, Portland, Oregon, 1993), "Jacob Eller, Jr. was the eldest son of immigrant Jacob Eller Sr. and Maria Eve Goettge, born in either Pennsylvania or Rowan Co., NC. Their descendants escaped the genealogical entanglements with other siblings and cousins who remained in Rowan County, because Jacob Jr. and his family left Rowan County, NC, soon after his marriage, for Sullivan County (now in TN) on the western frontier of North Carolina in the Holston River Valley. Seperating the various family lines, among the Ellers of Rowan County, NC, is a task which researchers are finding very complex." Janie Eller Porter (in the EFC, Vol.2#1, p.4) says Jacob and his father-in-law Adam Biffle enter land grants on 29 Jul 1779 on the South Side of the Holston River in present Sullivan County, TN. Ms. Porter says that there were unfriendly Indians in the area. She also says that Jacob Eller became close friends with John Sevier, who later became the first Governor of Tennessee. Before the 1790 census, Adam Biffle and his sons left Tennessee and returned to an area that became Buncombe County, NC. By 1800, Jacob and his family joined them. Jacob put his land in the name of his 13 year old son. In the early 1800's, Jacob and Mary seperated, apparently several times. In the December 1806 seperation, obtained by Mary from the NC General Assembly, she stated that Jacob deserted her, but returned two times to take whatever she had saved for her family. Where did Jacob go? Ms. Porter offers one speculation, that he married a Elizabeth Winterbower on 18 Nov 1809 in Jefferson County, TN. And Jacob's Grandson, Jacob Eller of Macon Co., TN writes in the Goodspeed Histories of Tennessee, "My Mother's father was with General Jackson in the Indian War and participated in the famous fight at Horse Shoe Bend, where he was killed." In "Our Eller Roots," by W.G & N.T. Eller (1994, Eller Chronicles VIII-4, Nov), it is reported that Jake Eller lived to be 108 years old.
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