Biographical Details
Date of Birth: August 10, 1816
Birth Location: N/A
Graduation Year(s): 1837
Degree(s) Earned: Bachelors
Date of Death: October 1842
Death Location: Redbone, MS, USA
Erasmus D. C. McElrath
Life Experience
Erasmus D. C. McElrath came with his brother, Tom, from Warrenton, Mississippi, to the Arkansas Territory. They were among the first to settle the newly created town of Helena. They both came to Bloomington, Indiana, where they were enrolled in Indiana College (now IU). According to their classmate, Richard Holman, they were regarded as country bumpkins and not fitting into “society.” They were not members of either of the two philosophical societies on campus, Athenian and Philomathean, that all other IU students belonged to.
Tom McElrath died of an unknown illness, but Erasmus stayed and graduated in 1837. Holman wrote at the end of 1836, “Poor Tom (McElrath) He is now no more – He died far from Home deprived of the soothing attention of a mother to her dying son.” Erasmus moved back to Mississippi, where he died at age twenty-six.
References
- Findagrave.com
- Hamilton, Holman (1953) An Indiana College Boy in 1836: The Diary of Richard Henry Holman (scholarworks.iu.edu)
- Indiana American 10/13/1837
- peoplelegacy.com
- Wylie