Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

oy, had started to learn the trade of his
ancestors. And he did well as an independent
manufacturer. At the outset the
firm name was George J. Merwin & Company,
but in 1906 the business had grown
so that it then became advisable to seek
corporate powers, which were granted,
the mills being from that time conducted
under the corporate name of the Merwin
Paper Company, the main specialty of
which is a paper used in textile finishing,
and electrical insulation. It must be said
of Mr. Merwin that he is a successful
paper manufacturer, in fact, a man natur-
ally adapted and inclined to that indus-
try, and that fact is made clear by the
development of the mills under his management.
In the Merwin plant he has
successfully developed a high grade
article of paper specialty which, up to a
few years ago, was mainly manufactured
abroad, in England and Germany. The
firm has practically been alone in the de-
velopment, in America, of this grade of
paper. Evidently heredity directed Air.
Merwin back into the occupation for
which he was best suited. Mr. Merwin
has also had to devote some of his time
to the undertaking business established
by his father in 1877. It is the oldest in
the Windsor section, and although Mr.
Merwin does not take active part in its
management, he is partner of the firm of
Merwin & Leek.
Mr. Merwin, since he purchased the
paper plant, has taken no prominent part
in political affairs, as his time has been
primarily devoted to the building up of
his branch of the paper industry, but for
a number of years he served as a mem-
ber of the Republican town committee of
Windsor. Religiously he is a Baptist,
and was a communicant of the Baptist
church of Windsor until its services were
discontinued. Fraternally, he is a Mason,
member of Washington Lodge, No.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
212
70, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons,
of Windsor. He is also a member of the
Windsor Business Men's Association.
On December 28, 1897, Mr. Merwin
married Leliaone Flavia, daughter of
Edward F. and Flavia A. Thrall, of Poquonock.
They have one child, Dorothy
Flavia, born February 5, 1903. Mr. Merwin's
sisters are members of the Daugh-
ters of the American Revolution Society,
and Mr. Merwin, who has hitherto neg-
lected to take that privilege, which is his
birthright, has resolved to make application
forthwith for admittance to member-
ship in the Connecticut Society of the
Sons of the American Revolution.
ELA, Elwood Starr,
Writer, Newspaper Editor, Publisher.
Elwood Starr Ela, the founder and publisher
of the "Manchester Herald," prom-
inent in Connecticut journalistic circles,
and for fourteen years secretary and treas-
urer of the Connecticut Editorial Associa-
tion, was born in Decatur, Illinois, July 2,
1859, but is a descendant of a Colonial New
England family. The progenitor in America
of the Ela family of New England was
Daniel Ela, who came from England to
settle in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in
1656, at the age of twenty-four years. His
descendants spread throughout the New
England States, especially New Hampshire
and Maine, where some of the family
rose to prominence in State and
church affairs, and more than one gave
military service during the Revolution.
Elwood Starr Ela, of Manchester, Con-
necticut, was the son of Rev. Walter Ela,
a well-known divine of the Methodist
Episcopal church, who for more than
fifty years held pastorates in the Southern
New England Conference. The son
was born in Decatur, Illinois, at a time
when his father, young then in the min-