Major Elston had a reputation for his generosity around the community in Crawfordsville. He provided financial support to various men in the community who were struggling to buy homes. Major Elston had other pursuits rather than just mere wealth as he helped organize Crawfordsville’s first library in 1827. At the time of his death, local Crawfordsville newspaper, The Journal, published his eulogy in 1867. The Major was described as a man that had a “kind and generous deportment… a cautious but not exacting or oppressive disposition” whose esteem was “indelibly stamped upon the town’s conscience.”