One of the more well-known people in this area was John Shell of Leslie County. It is widely said that he was 134 years old when he died July 6, 1922 and that his funeral was attended by two of his sons, one aged 90 and the other age seven. The stories about and told by John Shell were so convincing as to his age that in 1919, the Kentucky State Fair committee invited him to appear at the fair that year in Louisville with his youngest son Albert, then about 4 years old.In 1923, Thedford's Black Draught Company published a photograph of John Shell in their Ladies Almanac, claiming he was 135 years old. This claim to age was based on John's claim to have been a young man at the time of the earthquake that his Kentucky in 1811. He would say that it came in December, early in the morning and lasted for two days, shaking the dishes from the table and pictures from the walls.
He is also said to have had in his possession a tax receipt in his named dated 1809 which would mean that he was at least 21 years old that year. He is also said to have told stories about the stars falling (a meteor shower) in 1833 and that he had met Daniel Boone. A younger age estimate that he was only 115 when he died is based on his statements that he was 12 years old when Harlan became a county and that he stood on a tree stump and shouted the news to the people. This took place in 1819.
A thorough investigation of the facts prove both of the age estimates to be an exaggeration which is not surprising in light of John Shell's reputation as a storyteller. All the census records indicate that he was born no earlier than 1822 and an examination of the Harlan County tax lists show that he first appears in 1844 which would be correct for a birth date in 1822. Thus he was about 100 years old at his death. In fact, it appears that his parents, Samuel and Mary Ann Fry Shell, did not even bring their family to Harlan until about 1829 or 1830. His parents were both born in the Carolinas, but settled for a while in Tennessee where all their known children, including John were born.
John's mother actually appears to have lived to a greater age than her son as she is believed to have been 102 years old when she died in 1877. Among John's brothers and sisters were George, 1817-1867; Solomon, born about 1811 and married Tabitha Dixon; Nicholas, born in 1827 and married Eliza Irvin; Polly Ann, born about 1816 and married first to a Cawood and second to Jonathan Osborne. The Shell family settled first on Poor Fork and later moved over the mountain to Laurel Creek and Greasy Creek in the part of Harlan that became Leslie County in 1878. Many of their descendants still live in that area.
In 1844, John Shell married Elizabeth, daughter of Clem Nance. They are thought to have had twelve children. The oldest of these was Polly, a nickname for Mary. She was born in 1845 and married Eli Huff. The second child was William, the son who was said to be 90 years old at his father's death. In fact, he was about 75. He married Elizabeth Hoskins and died about five years after his father. He was followed by Andrew Jackson Shell who was born about 1848 and died as a boy.
The fourth child was Nicholas. Born shortly after the 1850 census, in 1877 he married Dallia, daughter of the well-known mountain lawyer Giles French. Next came Sarah, born about 1851. In 1872, she married Reuben Chappell. On May 24, 1852, John P. M. Shell was born. In 1873, he married Arminta Farley. His sister, Martha, was born Aug. 12, 1854 and was followed in 1859 by Elizabeth. Abijah was born Dec. 14, 1858. He and his wife Lucinda were living near his father 1900. Silas B. Shell was born just before the Civil War. In 1878, in Leslie County, he married Nancy Duff. His brother James McClelan was born during the war and the youngest of these children, Emily, was born in 1866.
After Elizabeth Nance Shell's death, John married Betty Chappell and they had one child, James Albert, born in 1915. This is the son who accompanied John to the State Fair in 1919. Betty Chappell Shell died when Albert was three years old. John Shell's death itself became a part of his story telling. It is said that he was breaking a horse to ride that last day and that he fell off and hurt his back. He died that night.
There is more about the Shell Family in the SE Kentucky Family Files