Eleazur Ellis Calkins, Esq., was born in Herkimer, New York, September 10, 1796. Subsequently he removed to Perrinton, Monroe county, New York, and was married to Anna Blood, of Victor, Ontario county. New York, January 11, 1819. In October, 1832, he emigrated to Michigan, and settled in the town of Lyon, Oakland County. In 1833 he was appointed justice of the peace by Governor Stevens T. Mason, and at the organization of the township was successively elected to the same office for four terms.

He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church in the State of New York, and in his new home in Michigan, his house was the welcome home of the itinerant preacher, and in it the first Methodist Episcopal society of Lyon was organized in 1833. He was appointed leader of the society at its organization, which office he held almost continuously, also that of trustee, to the time of his death, December 26, 1866.