Admitted to the Holston Conference 1907.

World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

Name: Joseph Blakemore Ely

Race: White

Birth Date: 6 Nov 1881

Residence Place: Greene, Tennessee, USA

Physical Build: Medium

Height: Short

Hair Color: Light

Eye Color: Light

Relative: Adeline C. Ely

Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014

Name: Joseph Ely

SSN: 409-78-4903

Last Residence:

37801 Maryville, Blount, Tennessee, USA

BORN: 6 Nov 1881

Died: Oct 1975

State (Year) SSN issued: Tennessee (1963)

1900 Staunton City, Virginia

Name: Joseph B Ely

Age: 18

Birth Date: Nov 1881

Birthplace: Virginia

Home in 1900: Staunton Ward 1, Staunton City, Virginia

Ward of City: 1

Sheet Number: 2B

Institution: Virginia School For The Deaf And The Blind

Number of Dwelling in Order of Visitation: 4

Family Number: 1

Race: White

Gender: Male

Relation to Head of House: Student

Marital Status: Single

Father's Birthplace: Virginia

Mother's Birthplace: Virginia

Attended School: 10

Can Read: Yes

Can Write: Yes

Can Speak English: Yes

1940 Hamblen, Tennessee

J B Ely 58 retired minister

Effie Ely 60 wife

Rev. J. B. Ely, senior member of Holston Conference, passed away Oct. 11, 1975, at Maryville, Tennessee. A native of Lee County, Virginia, he joined the Conference in 1906. After thirty-four years, he retired in 1939, and moved to Morristown, where he lived most happily for over thirty years. He entered Asbury Acres in 1970. On Thanksgiving, 1921, he was married to Effie Smith, at Louisville, Tenn. Her poems had brought them together.

Mr. Ely was schooled at Hiwassee and Emory and Henry College. He read slowly, but carefully, and almost continually, when not in his work. He retained what he read in a marvelous way. His library of about three thousand books, was given to Emory and Henry College, at the insistence of President Earl Hunt, to whom he was very close. Handicapped in sight and hearing, yet he was a strong preacher and diligent pastor. Loved greatly by those he shepherded, but outliving most of them, he entered the Spirit World just prior to reaching ninety-four.

He walked on his early circuits. He kept up walking for exercise until near the end. He could never drive a car. He served well at Grundy and Gate City, in Virginia; Harriman, Athens, Greeneville, Anderson St., Rockwood, Lenoir City, and Ducktown, in Tennessee; Davy and Keystone in West Virginia. He was strongest in the pulpit, and dearly loved for his visits in the homes. He was fearless when issues were drawn, making some enemies in supporting Negro rights, opposing the Ku Klux Klan, and championing Prohibition. On these hot questions he would not compromise, nor could he conceal his anger.

To the last his mind was clear and incisive. On the eve of entering the hospital, Sept. 22, 1976 he wrote these lines, suggested by the candle in the chapel:

"Here where this candle burns for one

Whom we on earth no more shall see,

I sit in awe of death so sure,

And muse on our mortality.

Yet not in awe alone I muse:

There's a gladness, too, that one so long

Afflicted is now free from pain—

To her, kind death, could do no wrong.

And I have seen this candle burn

For others so by death set free;

Nor dread I much the unknown day

When this same light shall shine for me.

For friends of other days are gone.

While feebleness of age is here.

Achievement there is none to boast

And old delights no longer cheer.

Will any to this solemn place

In sad reflection then repair?

Ah, well -my loneliness at end—

If none will grieve, I shall not care."

Rev. Jack King made glowing tribute; "No one who has ever been a resident at Asbury Acres made more of an impression on his fellow residents, than did the Rev. Mr. Ely. And, when he died, the comment was heard over and over; 'There is one man we shall surely miss'.

"We are grateful to 'Uncle Joe' for his having remembered Asbury Acres in his will. Having received retirement pay from Holston Conference in excess of thirty years, the bulk of his estate went to the Board of Pensions, in order that other ministers in years to come might receive benefits too."

Funeral was held in Morristown First Church, by his pastor, W. S. Steele, assisted by Jack King, Raymond Hall, and Henry Horton. Interment was at Emory, Va., on a lovely autumn afternoon, with Dr. Steele and Dr. Gibson officiating. His body was laid beside Effie, to whom he was so devoted, and for whom he had mourned most deeply. His epitaph is, "Christian Scholar 70 Years a Member of Holston Conference."

Mrs. Effie Smith Ely was my mother's twin, my first schoolteacher, always my affectionate friend. My debt to Uncle Joe is also immeasurable. Next to my father he was the greatest man in my life. Our relation was as father-son. He lives on in my mind, heart, and life. Modesty veils my true regards. He was gigantic in mind, spirit, insight, and compassion. His diaries reveal that he lived in the Kingdom of God.

Submitted By: Marvin S. Kincheloe – Holston Conference Journal – 1976 – Pages: 184 - 185