Sources & Information:
Walter Elsworth was a farmer. This family lived in Owosso, Henderson and Elsie, Michigan.
Fairfield Cemetery located in Fairfield Township, Carland, Shiawassee Co., Mi.

The variation of name change, from Ellsworth to Elsworth, by Walter Herbert Elsworth has been noted by his daughter Shirley Jean Elsworth Bates as follows:

"I asked by brothers if they had any idea why our father dropped the "L" in our name. We all seem to agree it had something to do with a disagreement that he had with Uncle Lew Ellsworth [Lewis William Ellsworth] or his mother [Amelia A. Beckwith Ellsworth] but we aren't positive about it. His mother caused him some very serious financial trouble and he would never talk to us about her. My mother told me about some of it after I was married. Most I am finding out myself from other members of the family and through reading letters and clippings that were kept--these clippings have me reading a lot of old papers from library films and these are very hard on the eyes. My father always stayed close with Uncle Lew and his sisters and their families even tho whenever Uncle Lew and Dad were together they always argued about something--mostly politics. I never think about the two of them without remembering--it got so I think they chose opposite sides on any discussion whether they actually believed in what they were arguing about or not."

This change is not new since other members of the family have used the spelling with only one "L". It appears to be an obvious change, for reasons one might speculate on, without knowing the motivating reasons.