Madison County Genealogical Society

Minutes of the Meeting – June 13, 2019

The June 2019 meeting of the Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on Thursday, June 13, at 7:00 pm.

President, Robert Ridenour, called the meeting to order.

The following is the Treasurer's report for the month of May:

·       General Fund - Beg. Balance $3,385.15 - Income $35.47 - Expenses $0.00 - End Balance $3,420.62

·       Publications Fund - Beg. Balance $12,988.87 - Income $0.00 - Expenses $14.35 - End Balance $12,974.52

GIFT MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE

Do you have a family member that is interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership in the Madison County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful gift. A gift card will be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.

The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $25.00
Patron Annual Membership $35.00
Life Membership $300.00

Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at [email protected], about a gift membership.

June Meeting

 

On June 13, 2019, Dr. Kelly Obernuefemann presented a program titled Sweet Unassuming Rebel: The Life of Betty Shelby.

 

Dr. Obernuefemann is a Professor of History and the Coordinator of History, Political Science, and Geography at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois. Her areas of expertise are American Social History, American Southern History, and the American Civil War.

 

A young mother of two, who has not had a permanent home in nearly five years, follows a group of battle-weary, unrepentant soldiers into the heat of Northern Mexico to a settlement surrounded by hostile locals who frequently threatened violence. She and her husband refuse to give up the lost dream of a southern country of leisure and privilege. Historians have long overlooked this formidable woman, focusing instead on her husband’s daring raids in the Civil War and his scheme of a Confederacy south of the border. But Elizabeth “Betty” Shelby deserves more than to be a footnote in her husband’s biography. To the women of Missouri who joined the United Daughters of the Confederacy, she was an icon.

 

Elizabeth Nancy Shelby, known as Betty, was born into a life of privilege in 1841, in Lafayette County, Missouri. The Shelby family was one of the founding families of Kentucky and the family included a governor of Kentucky. But after the War of 1812, several of the family’s young men moved to the new lands across the Mississippi River. In addition to corn, wheat, and oats, many of these farmers grew hemp. These wealthy farmers used slave labor for production and the counties along the Missouri River became known as Little Dixie.

 

William Shelby was one of the wealthiest slave owning elite of Missouri, owning 47 slaves in 1850, and farmland worth an estimated $10,000. Unlike many antebellum Missouri families, the Shelbys could afford to send their children to private schools. Betty attended school in Columbia, Missouri, presumably at the Columbia Female Academy chartered in 1833. However, like most women of the time, Betty’s education was not as important as her marriage prospects.

 

In her case, the prosperous husband was someone well known to the entire family — he was family. Joseph Orville Shelby, known as Joe, moved to Missouri in 1852 from Lexington, Kentucky. He was not a poor relation, the previous year at the age of 21, he came into a trust fund of $80,000, left to him by his father who died when he was a child. Like Betty, Joseph had grown up in a life of privilege. With family connections in Missouri and his new trust fund, Joe decided to try his fortunes in the burgeoning Missouri hemp business. Joe and step-brother Howard Gratz formed the Waverly Steam Rope Company. The partnership of Gratz and Shelby was so successful that they owned 700 acres in Lafayette County, along with a sawmill and a steamboat. The labor for the business was, of course, provided by slaves.

 

In 1857, the year of their marriage, Betty was sixteen years old, cousin Joe Shelby was 27 and living a short six miles away. Joe’s biographer, Daniel O’Flaherty, wrote of Betty: “soon she was surrounded by beaus, and soon the smitten Joe was submerged in a torrent of jealousy which almost suffocated him. But Betty quickly showed her preference. On one occasion, she was wearing a ring given to her by an admirer, an inexpensive trinket, perhaps a birthday gift, when she saw Joe approaching down by the wharf. In a panic, she threw the ring into the Missouri River, as a symbol of a final decision.”

 

The couple married on July 22, 1857. Several Missouri newspapers tell the story of their honeymoon trip on a steamboat. “After the ceremony a bolt of red velvet cloth was laid as a carpet from the front porch of the William Shelby house down to the river landing where Joe Shelby’s private steamboat awaited to take the newlyweds and their guests on an excursion to St. Louis for days of champagne and sight-seeing.”

 

But this was neither the time nor the place for a quiet family life. The slave owners of Missouri were pushing the nation closer and closer toward civil war, and Betty’s husband, one of the so-called “Border Ruffians” was on the front lines. In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, stating that the status of the new states Kansas and Nebraska regarding slavery would be decided by popular vote. Missouri slave owners, fearing encirclement by free states, made their way to Kansas to vote illegally for Kansas to become a slave state. In 1896, the year before his death, Joe Shelby acknowledged “I was in Kansas at the head of an armed force about that time. I went there to kill free state men; I did kill them. I am now ashamed of myself for having done so, but then times were different from what they are now. No Missourians had any business there with arms and intent. The policy that sent us there was damnable and the trouble we started on the border bore fruit for ten years.”

 

The trouble followed Joe back to Missouri. In December 1855, men from Kansas burned the Shelby sawmill. Howard Gratz apparently wanted no part of the violence and returned to Kentucky in 1856. Shelby was managing the business on his own at the time of his marriage to Betty, and he was managing it poorly. By 1860, he over extended himself and the lavish style in which he lived soon depleted his capital. He sold his half of the company for $4,425. This was the start of a business pattern that would continue for Joe after the war.

 

Free from business concerns for the moment, Joe could focus on the secession crisis that gripped America after the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln. An avowed secessionist, Joe wanted to do whatever he could to help Missouri join the newly formed Confederate States of America. In 1861, Joe Shelby became involved in aiding the Southern cause. He went to St. Louis to buy musket caps to send to John Hunt Morgan in Kentucky.

 

He was still in St. Louis on May 10, 1861, when Union forces moved to seize Camp Jackson and imprison the secessionists who marched through the streets, amid crowds of Unionists. Not surprisingly, a riot broke out and the city was put under martial law. With Union soldiers stationed throughout the state, Missouri was kept from joining the Confederacy. But slavery supporters, such as Joe Shelby, quickly formed Partisan Forces who made their way to neighboring states to join the Confederate Army.

 

Was Betty Shelby as politically minded as her husband? Probably not, but she was later described by many sources as a secessionist and a firm supporter of her husband and his cause. However, she was also very busy as a new mother. Orville Shelby was born in 1861, followed by Joseph in 1862. Her memories of the war were printed in 1913 in Reminiscences of the Women of Missouri During the 60s. She wrote “General Shelby, who had refused many tempting offers to join the federal army, organized a company from the flower of Howard County and proceeded to join Confederate General Price at Springfield. Myself and children were left under the protection of an aunt, a high-spirited woman who had sent several sons to southern armies. When taxed by the Federals with furnishing altogether too many rebel soldiers, she boldly retorted that if she had a hundred sons, they would all be there. Many threats were made to burn out this nest of rebels. Frequently, as many as twenty-five soldiers would appear and order a meal of the best we could produce. Which we dare not refuse or her smokehouses would be raided and nothing left to us.”

 

Missouri quickly became consumed by guerilla warfare. Very few actual battles with Union Troops fighting Confederate Troops were fought on Missouri soil; but Joe Shelby quickly became a hero to the Confederates of the border states. His biographer, Daniel O’Flaherty, described him as “the Jeb Stuart of the West.” At the end of the war, his rank was Major General of the Missouri Cavalry Division of the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi.

 

The Union Army feared that both regular troops like Shelby’s Division and Partisans were getting aid from civilians, especially female relatives throughout the state; and, of course, they were. Betty Shelby, who was staying with relative Rebecca Gratz at the time, wrote, “My aunt provided a cot and nursed for several weeks in the brush, one of the men who had been badly wounded. A surgeon came surreptitiously in the night and set a broken bone. My aunt went every day and dressed the wound and sent him food. We were in daily terror lest the Negroes should betray him, but they never did. He recovered and rejoined the army. On another occasion, two of our men were secreted under a dormer window at the top of the house. They had been traced there and the Federals threatened to burn down the house if they were not produced. Had they carried out their threats, our friends would have been shot down in endeavoring to escape.”

 

Union troops were acting under the authority of the Second Confiscation Act, passed by Congress in July 1862, which stated that “if any person shall hereafter incite, set on foot, assist, or engage in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States, and be convicted thereof, such person shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years, or by a fine not exceeding $10,000, and by the liberation of all his slaves, if any he have, or by both the said punishments, at the discretion of the court. The fine will be collected in the form of confiscation of property.”

 

It was well known that Betty was the wife of a Confederate officer, so she was an obvious target. She wrote, “We had to leave our home and finally, when General Shelby’s raids became more frequent, had to leave the state. We went to St. Louis, where we were somewhat protected because of the relationship between General Shelby and Frank Blair. When the authorities decided that General Shelby’s raids would be less frequent if his family was out of the state, we were completely banished.”

 

Unlike some soldier’s wives, Betty did have a place to go — to her husband’s family in Kentucky. Her step-father-in-law, Benjamin Gratz, came to escort her to Lexington. There was only one problem — her in-laws were Unionists. According to his neighbor, Benjamin Gratz made his house available as a commissariat depot and cookhouse for Federal soldiers. In her 1913 reminiscences, Betty wrote only one sentence, “I went to my husband’s relatives in Kentucky.” She then went on to describe leaving Kentucky. Perhaps this is an example of the adage: “If you have nothing nice to say, it’s better to say nothing at all.”

 

Ann Shelby Gratz, her mother-in-law, was certainly put in a horrible position. In the first year of the war, while her son was leading troops for the Confederacy, her stepson was fighting for the Union. The stepbrothers fought on opposing sides at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in Missouri on August 10, 1861. Harry Gratz was shot five times and killed. Rebecca Gratz wrote to Ann the following month, “We may pray for Joe’s personal safety, though we cannot for the success of his arms.”

 

In the spring of 1863, not long after Betty’s arrival in Lexington, Federal officers in Kentucky decided to take action against the supporters of Confederate raiders. Word came to the Shelby-Gratz family that wives of Confederate soldiers had to go. As a loyal Union supporter, Benjamin Gratz appealed to President Lincoln to get the order rescinded. Mr. Lincoln replied that she might stay if Mr. Gratz would hold himself responsible for her good behavior. This proved a temporary solution.

 

The Confederacy was falling apart. After the fall of Vicksburg, July 1863, the Union army controlled the entire Mississippi River, cutting off any supplies to the Trans-Mississippi Division of the Confederate Army. Shelby’s men were spending most of their time in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, fighting a losing effort to hold on to supply lines in Missouri’s Red River region.

 

Betty Shelby grew frustrated with her distance from Joe and the lack of information. In the last year of the war, Betty made the incredibly dangerous decision to take her two young sons to go meet Joe. She found another woman willing to take the risk and left Kentucky, bringing slaves with her to help care for the boys. She said, “Later, when General Steele was operating in Arkansas and Louisiana, I started in company with another lady, accompanied by our colored maid for the South. It was suggested that our nurses might desert us. Consequently, we had their trunks placed in close touch with us as a precaution. After boarding one of the river boats for Memphis, as our maids did not appear as usual in the morning, our first move was to see if the trunks were still there. They were gone and we were left to cope with the babies as best we could. On arriving in Memphis, we were held for three weeks at a hotel. We suffered untold trials getting through the lines at all, as there was fierce fighting raging around Little Rock and vicinity. We were finally in company with other refugee families from Missouri, placed at Clarksville, Texas, where we remained until the close of the war.”

 

In 1865, the war was over, but Joe refused to surrender after the demise of the Confederacy. Instead, Joe planned to fight on with Mexican assistance. Joe planned to use his military experience as a bargaining tool and offered his assistance to the Mexican Emperor, in return for the creation of a new confederacy on the U.S.-Mexico border. It was a long shot at best; but Joe and his men could not face the prospect of the defeat of the Confederacy. The men gathered with their families in Texas, in preparation for the move to Mexico. But, apparently, the Emperor of Mexico was unimpressed with Joe’s men and their plan. He did not want to anger the United States, when he had enough problems within Mexico.

 

Shelby’s unit disbanded and the majority left Mexico, but Joe remained behind. Joe and about fifty others joined former Confederate General Sterling Price in a colonization effort on the site of about 500,000 acres of abandoned land. The Mexican government did not want to back any Confederate military plans, but they were willing to grant substantial amounts of inferior land in the north of Mexico to ex-Confederates, in the hope that it would stimulate the Mexican economy and boost the number of fighting men to discourage any Indian attacks. As far as ex-Confederates bringing slaves with them into Mexico, where slavery was illegal, a compromise was reached. The slaves would be considered indentured servants with what amounted to a lifelong contract. They would receive partial wages.

 

Joe planned to raise coffee and sent for Betty. They met at Veracruz. Betty could not have been very impressed by her new home. Betty and Joe added to their household in the new settlement in 1867 with the birth of their third son Benjamin. Despite having three young children to care for, Betty put up a brave front for her husband and the other ex-soldiers. Years later, she was given the following praise — “Mrs. Shelby, by her cheerfulness and the motherly hospitality she extended to the soldier boys, endeared herself to those so tried and true as but few women could have done. The Shelby home, ever famous for its generous hospitality, was no exception under these trying circumstances to those discouraged homeless men who had so faithfully followed her husband. She was indeed a sister, a mother, a safe consort, and she was living in a hostile environment.”

 

The local inhabitants were not happy when the Americans moved in and the Emperor’s government was too unstable to be of any help. It was only a matter of time before violence broke out. After one ex-soldier antagonized the local Indians, the Indians fought back. Thirty settlers were taken hostage and a ransom of $30,000 was demanded. After thirty days, the hostages were released. It is not clear whether the ransom was paid.

 

Maximilian’s government fell in 1867. With the government back in the hands of Juarez, the colony was doomed. Betty wrote, “This enterprise was finally abandoned, as the Mexicans made it so disagreeable for us by shooting into our camp, etc.” She probably means Mexican Indians. Although they had never officially surrendered to the Union, it was time to swallow their pride and move back to the United States.

 

After taking a ship to New Orleans, Betty and the boys were in Lexington, Kentucky by June 1867, where Joe joined them. After visiting with their family, Betty and Joe decided it was time to go home to Missouri. Their life of luxury was over, as it was for most Missourians. At the end of the war in 1865, the state was “a desolate waste, with now and then a lone chimney to tell the story of a fire.”

 

The Shelbys started over. They built a modest farmhouse near Coleville in Bates County, and welcomed fourth son Webb in 1868. Hardship, however, was never far behind in those years. In March 1869, the house burned to the ground and had to be built again. But Joe could not make a success out of wheat farming, probably because he had dreamed of making it big in industrial investment. He invested in Missouri railroads and coalmines. Neither venture proved successful and Joe went into debt.

 

As the Missouri economy slowly came back to life, old hostilities and bitterness from the war years remained in Missouri. During the 1870s, the farmhouse was visited by hundreds of old Confederates, many of them were homeless on the roads of Missouri and for them, the latch string was always out, as well as a good dinner cooked, and a clean bed waiting. Visitors included Jesse James, Frank James, and Cole Younger. In 1872, Frank James convalesced from a gunshot wound and hid out from authorities for over two months at the Shelby house.

 

Betty was obviously raising the children, which in 1880 included seven sons and a daughter, in a dangerous environment. After Jesse was killed in 1882, Frank James turned himself into authorities and was put on trial in 1883. Joe Shelby was a character witness for the defense. His turn on the witness stand was legendary in Missouri. One of the newspapers of the time stated, “Even the gaily dressed ladies in attendance noticed that Shelby had been drinking.” While on the stand Joe also admitted that Jesse James, Jim Cummins, and Bill Ryan had eaten at Shelby’s home. Betty was not called to testify and it was not recorded whether she was in attendance at the trial. Frank James was found not guilty.

 

Joe had as little luck farming in Bates County as he had in Lafayette County. Joe had gotten so heavily into debt he was about to lose the new farm. His mother stepped in and bought the farm from his creditors. Ann Shelby then deeded the farm to Betty in her will which read “to my daughter-in-law, Betty Ann Shelby, the wife of my son J.O. Shelby, the farm in Bates County, Missouri, where they now reside, containing about 400 acres to have and to hold for her separate use, an estate free from the control or debts of her husband, during her natural life. At her death, if her husband, the said J.O. Shelby shall survive her, during his life he shall have use and control of said farm for the support and maintenance of himself and those of his children which shall live with him but he shall have no estate or interest therein which shall be subject to his debt either past or future.” Obviously, Ann did not expect her son to stay out of financial trouble.

 

Joe wisely decided to make a career change. In 1885, former Confederate General Joe Shelby became a United States Marshall. After taking the job, he hired deputies and welcomed old soldiers to hang out with him. By 1896, Joe’s health was failing and he publically acknowledged that his participation in the pre-war violence in Kansas had been a mistake. Joe had come a long way and Betty had been there to see it. The following year, February 1897, Joe died at the age of 67 after becoming so ill he no longer recognized anyone.

 

Betty herself was honored in the years after Joe’s death. On August 20, 1901, the Missouri Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy held a reception for Betty, whom they described as “a sweet unassuming woman.” In 1913, they included two selections on Betty Shelby, one from the lady herself in her self-published Reminiscences of the Women of Missouri During the 60s. Mrs. T. Y. Brannock made the following observation “Since the death of General Shelby, Mrs. Shelby has made her home with her daughter. Time has silvered the once nut-brown hair and coming years have left their impress, but the lovely character remains unchanged. Honored and loved, she is patiently awaiting the summons to come higher.”

 

By 1910, Betty had left her sons behind to live with her daughter Ann, Ann’s husband Fred Jersek, a stock dealer, their daughter Alene, and two servants in Parmer County, Texas. In 1913, Betty applied for a Confederate widow’s pension; she listed no property owned at the time.

 

On March 1, 1929, after contracting pneumonia, Betty Shelby died at age 88 in Parmer County, Texas, and was buried in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1962, the Betty Shelby Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was founded in Waverly, Missouri, her pre-war hometown. And in March 1975, Save Weeping for the Night by Loula Grace Erband was published. It was a novel loosely based on Betty’s life and war experiences.

 

Married at age sixteen on a wealthy farm along the Missouri River, Elizabeth “Betty” Shelby could not have known that hero worship would become associated with her border ruffian husband or that the conflict over Missouri would take her to Mexico and back. She followed her husband to a Confederate military camp, to an ill-fated colony in Mexico, and back to a debt-riddled farm in Missouri. She harbored Frank and Jesse James from authorities, while raising eight children, and she took it all in stride as a loyal Southern wife.

 

This presentation was very well received and provoked many questions and comments.

 

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