Hood County Vehicle Registrations 1907-1917<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\nEllis also remembers his first elevator ride in a hospital in Fort Worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I was \u2018mad dog\u2019 bit when I was 3,” Ellis remembered. “The rabies vaccine had just been invented and I remember that long needle.” Ellis had the series of 21 serum injections, which were later administered by the Ellis family doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Daddy always said he never paid the doctor for delivering me when I was born,” laughed Ellis. “I cost them $15, but they never paid the doctor!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He lost his “baby” status in the family when he was three and a half years old and his little sister was born. He admits he didn\u2019t take kindly to losing the “closeness” of his mother. When his mother asked him what he thought of his new baby sister, Ellis informed her that he was “going to get a rock and hit her (his sister) in the head!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ellis made a living fighting crime in south central and southwest Texas. He was deputy sheriff for Bexar County\u2014stationed in San Antonio, and was investigator for Balcones Heights. He and his wife Lynn now live in Bandera where Ellis was constable for close to three terms. In his last contested race, Ellis won over three opponents by 64 percent of the votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several organizations have honored Ellis for his bravery and commitment to the citizens of Bexar and Bandera counties. Wife Lynn says there have been numerous lives saved by Ellis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A gentle giant of a man, Ellis stands a sturdy 6 feet tall with soft blue eyes that give just a hint of the no-nonsense standards possessed by Ellis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is a lawman of the old school and doesn\u2019t have much use for the “new methods” of today\u2019s law enforcement officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just a few months before his retirement, Ellis was called to a hostage situation in Bexar County. An armed man held officers at bay, threatening to kill any one who came up to the house with a gun. Ellis calmly walked up to the house, stopping before stepping up on the porch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You don\u2019t push a person all the way,” says Ellis, “so I stopped and asked him to come out and talk to me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two talked awhile and Ellis succeeded in having the man lay his weapon down by saying, “Please don\u2019t point that gun at me, I\u2019m an old man.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ellis told him to put the gun down and come with him, which the man did. However, as the two calmly walked toward Ellis\u2019 squad car, four deputy sheriffs “jumped” the man and took him to the ground before cuffing him. Ellis apologetically looked at the man and shrugged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ellis thinks his approach to upholding the law is much like his grandfather\u2019s was in Hood County over 100 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I never waited for back up,” says Ellis. “I just grabbed my shot gun\u2014that was my back up.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a9 2000 Hood County News and HCN Online Services – All Rights Reserved <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Kathy Smith, Lifestyles Editor Hood County News On-Line Edition – February 16, 2000 Law and HonorBandera constable recalls family life in Hood County William Ellis of Bandera was born in Granbury in 1918. His grandfather, Charles Locklin, was marshal\/jailer … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1726"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5632,"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions\/5632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/granburydepot.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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