Ellis Hardware will receive Centennial Award in October

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SENECA — Ellis Ace Hardware, Rental & RadioShack will receive the Illinois State Historical Society’s 2009 Centennial Award this fall.

The Illinois State Historical Society 2009 Centennial Awards Program seeks corporations and not-for-profit organizations that have conducted business for 100 years or more. Successful applicants must who continuous operation for a century or more and have been incorporated in the state of Illinois.

To qualify, centennial corporations must provide evidence of continuous operation for 100 years or more. Acceptable documentation included copies of original charters and minutes to corporate meetings, as well as newspaper articles and city directories published contemporaneously with the business’s founding.

Ellis’ were able to provide the Illinois Historical Society with copies of the LaSalle County Biographical and Genealogical Record which showed evidence that the Ellis family has continuously owned and operated the hardware business in Seneca, Illinois since the year 1872.

Joel W. Ellis came to Seneca in 1872 from Hennepin, Ill. after serving in the Army and began with a lumber business and expanded to hardware and farm machinery and implements.

Ellis expanded to a building on Main Street in Seneca and in 1890 Ellis was appointed postmaster of Seneca and continued his hardware business.

The business has been handed down from generation to generation and a new building was constructed in the late 1970’s on South Main Street in Seneca. Ellis Hardware currently employs six members of the Ellis family representing the 4th, 5th, and 6th generation.

The Ellis family will be given their award on Saturday, Oct. 3, at a special reception at the Executive Mansion in Springfield.

The Centennial Awards Program, established in 1984, has honored more than 1,100 businesses around the state. Award recipients receive a plaque inscribed with the names of the standing Illinois governor and president of the Society, use of the Society’s Centennial Awards logo on their business letterhead, a year’s membership in the Society, and statewide recognition.

For more information, phone Michael Ellis, Ellis Hardware, at 815-357-6144, or the web site at mnellis@ellisacehardware.com.