Theodore Thaddeus Ellis (April 25, 1867 – January 6, 1934) was an American inventor and publisher. He was born in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

to John and Mary Bentley Ellis. He began working in the newspaper industry in his teens as a press room apprentice, becoming a pressman in 1886. The next year he enlisted in the Navy, where he stayed for three years, spending most of that time in the Far East. When he returned to the US he worked for the

Brockton Enterprise ''The Enterprise'' is an afternoon daily newspaper published in Brockton, Massachusetts. It is considered a newspaper of record for Brockton and nearby towns in northern Bristol and Plymouth counties, and southern Norfolk County. The Fuller-Th ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

and the

Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Puli ...

, and in 1900 became press room foreman for The

Worcester Telegram The ''Telegram & Gazette'' (and ''Sunday Telegram'') is the only daily newspaper of Worcester, Massachusetts. The paper, headquartered at 100 Front Street and known locally as ''the Telegram'' or the ''T & G'', offers coverage of all of Worceste ...

. In 1905 he began working on inventions to improve printing press operations. The publisher of the Telegram, Austin P. Cristy, insisted that he either resign or stop dividing his time between his work and his inventing. Ellis resigned, and made enough money from his inventions to purchase the Worcester Telegram from Cristy in 1919 for $1,000,000. His inventions included several press blankets, which he founded the New England Fibre Blanket Company to manufacture; they were distributed through the New England Newspaper Supply Company, which he ran. He also became a textile manufacturer, and founded the New England Woolen Fabric Company. He was chairman of the Royal Worcester Corset Company. At one time he served as the president of the New England Daily Newspaper Association. In about 1912 he married Mary Griffin in Spencer, Massachusetts; they had no children. In 1920 he acquired The Worcester Evening Gazette from George F. Booth, and combined the two papers into Worcester Telegram-Gazette, selling the combined paper, along with The Sunday Telegram, in 1925 to a group including Booth, for about $2,000,000. He remained an honorary member of the International Printing Pressmen's Union, despite becoming a publisher, and gave $100,000 in 1928 to the union's widows and orphans fund. In August 1931, Ellis and

Frank Knox William Franklin Knox (January 1, 1874 – April 28, 1944) was an American politician, newspaper editor and publisher. He was also the Republican vice presidential candidate in 1936, and Secretary of the Navy under Franklin D. Roosevelt duri ...

jointly bought control of the

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...

. Knox became the publisher, and Ellis was vice president. Ellis was an art collector; his collection included the Northbrook Madonna, at that time thought to be by

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual ...

, painted in about 1505. He bought it from the Earl of Northbrook in 1928. He was a director of the

Worcester Art Museum The Worcester Art Museum, also known by its acronym WAM, houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and ranks among th ...

. In 1928 he bought Knollwood, a large estate near Worcester, now in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

. Ellis kept a herd of prize cattle, and in 1931 one of his Guernsey cows, "Green Meadow Lustre", broke the record for the most milk and butterfat produced in a single year by a cow between three-and-a-half and four years of age. Ellis died of a heart attack on January 6, 1934, while in London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Theodore Thaddeus 1867 births 1934 deaths People from St. Louis American inventors American publishers (people)