He was raised working on the family farm with his mother and siblings, attended the common schools, and when he was able began earning money as a teacher.
[1] He used his earnings to pay for his admission to the Cazenovia Seminary and Fairfield Academy, but had to quit before his final year due to severe inflammation in his eyes.
[1][2] In 1860, Elwood, as register of deeds of Green Lake County, found himself at the center of a legal battle over the status of the nearby town and city of Ripon.
[3] In the immediate aftermath, Elwood received an application to record a deed which was located in Ripon and he refused on the grounds that it was not part of Green Lake County.
He was sued by the property owner, Benjamin Spaulding, in a case that rose to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and was argued by some of the leading attorneys in the state.
For Spaulding, former Wisconsin Supreme Court justices Samuel Crawford and Abram D. Smith, and future congressman Edward S. Bragg.
Ultimately, the Wisconsin Supreme Court found in favor of Elwood and against the separation of Ripon from Fond du Lac, ruling that the language of the act was technically deficient and the subsequent ballot inconsistency made the referendum invalid.
[4] Elwood was well respected by his colleagues, and after the 1865 session was given the important role of implementing the controversial sale and settlement of swamp lands granted to the state by the federal government.