Who is Elias Tarkington from Hocus Pocus and what is their importance?

Elias Tarkington is the son of Aaron. Elias helps the Mohiga Valley grow even faster. He is a capable and adept businessman, but he is lonely. He never marries and spends most of his life recovering from a dreadful wound received in the battle fields of the Civil War when he is mistaken for being Abraham Lincoln. Elias survives the assassination attempt but is forever thereafter in poor health. Though he helps the college and valley prosper, he is otherwise a bit of an eccentric, as witnessed by the numerous perpetual motion machines he has his engineering students continuously design and construct.