Elijah was born in Hardinsburg, Kentucky, which is about 50 miles southwest of Louisville. He came to Barry County, Missouri, about 1840 where he married Esther Terry in 1841. At the time Elijah was about 26 years old while Esther was about 18. They settled in the Capps Creek Township of Barry County, Missouri where he farmed.

Elijah and Esther (Terry) Waltrip were the parents of four children, all born in Barry County, Missouri:

When Esther (Terry) Waltrip died in 1851 at age 27, Elijah had four young children under the age of nine to raise. Living next to the Waltrip farm at the time was the Eli and Mary (Branson) Haynes family. They had a daughter, Delilah Jane Haynes, who Elijah married March 4, 1851, just 6 weeks after his first wife passed away. Delilah was only 15 years old while Elijah was 35 years old.

Elijah and Delilah (Haynes) Waltrip were the parents of eleven children, all born in Barry County, Missouri. Their last child (Ida Florence Waltrip) was born when Elijah was about 60 years old. He had fathered a total of 15 children.

When Elijah died January 12, 1892, at age 76, his estate went to probate court on February 12, 1892. B.O. and Susan (Waltrip) Gillett received $300 from the estate.

After the death of her husband, Delilah first lived with her youngest daughter, Florence (Waltrip) (Campbell) Bowman, and then with her daughter Samantha (Waltrip) Johnson, both in the Barry County, Missouri area.

The Elijah Waltrip Cemetery, where both Elijah and Delilah are buried, is located northwest of Purdy, Missouri, on the north bank of Capps Creek. The cemetery is now called the Eugene Gates Cemetery for the present owners of the property. There are only ten marked graves, all associated with Elijah Waltrip. The only grave after 1900 is that of Delilah (Haynes) Waltrip. The cemetery is roughly kept up.