Laubheimer, Ragland, Ely, Adomanis Family Collection

John Jacob Iehle [Ely] and his wife Anna Catherine arrived in Baltimore from Kernvesthein, Germany in November 1816. He was the head gardener for Baltimore Mayor John Montgomery and then Governor John Lee Carroll. He was also a diaryman and lived on Biddle Street near Jones Fall in Baltimore. One descendant, John Jacob Ely was a widower and a good friend of H. L. Mencken.

Norman J. Ely was a member of the U.S. Naval Reserve classified as a deck officer (in 1944, the Sun newspaper described him as a "commander of an armed guard unit aboard a Liberty ship"). He was born in 1917. It appears as though he joined the reserves on June 25, 1942, attained the rank of Lieutenant (junior grade) on July 1, 1943, and was promoted to full Lieutenant on October 1, 1944. As of 1955, Ely was still a member of the Naval Reserve.