Joseph Thorpe Elliston

Joseph Thorpe Elliston (1779 – November 10, 1856) was an American silversmith, planter and politician. He served as the fourth mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, from 1814 to 1817. He owned land in mid-town Nashville, on parts of modern-day Centennial Park, Vanderbilt University, and adjacent West End Park.

Early life Elliston was born in 1779 in Culpeper, Virginia. He moved to Lexington, Kentucky, where he was trained as a silversmith by Samuel Ayers from 1795 to 1798,

Career Elliston began his career as a silversmith in Nashville in 1798. The house stood on modern-day Elliston Place.

Elliston as a city alderman from 1806 to 1814. She predeceased him in 1816, and Elliston married Elizabeth Odom, widow of Charles Elliott and Rev. Learner Blackman. They resided on Sixth Avenue in Downtown Nashville, where the Tennessee Performing Arts Center was later built. His son-in-law, Alexander Little Page Green, was a Methodist minister.

Elliston died on November 10, 1856, in Nashville. His funeral was conducted by John Berry McFerrin at the McKendree United Methodist Church. He was first buried in the Nashville City Cemetery and later in the Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Elliston's son William R. Elliston married Elizabeth Boddie, a granddaughter of his stepmother, inherited the Burlington plantation, and served as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Elliston's portrait, done by Washington Bogart Cooper, is in the Nashville Public Library.