Sterling Elliott - Early Life

Early Life

Sterling Elliott was born in 1852 on a farm in Ortonville, Michigan. At the age of twelve years old all of the farm work was turned over to Sterling. At the age of seventeen, with help from his mother, Sterling Elliott packed a bag and left home. He walked the 92 miles to Grand Rapids where he arrived in 1869 with about $8.00 in his pocket. His first job in Grand Rapids was to work on the railroad trains selling candy and fruit. In 1870 he went to Chicago where he worked for a wealthy business man, Mr. Matthew Laflin. In Chicago Sterling Elliott was granted several United States Patents on his invention, but he had no shop of his and contracted with others to manufacture his inventions. Mr. Elliott decided to move to Boston, Massachusetts where he opened his first machine shop. In 1882 he bought some land a few miles west of Boston and moved into his own factory (Elliott 5-11).

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