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CHAPTER III, JAMES SHELTON (8)

James Shelton (8), born Patrick County, Virginia, March 1, 1791, and his progeny are those with whom the bulk of the data at hand is concerned.  James (8) moved with his father’s family to Buncombe County, North Carolina in about 1795.  He grew up in that county, the portion of which in about 1850 evolved into Madison County.  Madison was formed from portions of  Buncombe and Yancey, the latter having been formed in 1833 from portions of Buncombe and Burke Counties.  The area along Laurel Creek became known as Shelton Laurel.  In 1810 at age 19 James (8) went over to Greeneville, Tennessee, in what is now Greene County, and wed Betsy Lawson, sister of William (Buck) Lawson, a native Tennessean.  Betsy, being somewhat older, having been born in 1784, was to be the first of his four wives named in the Shelton family Bible at hand.  Records indicate that they first settled on the Nolichucky River near the town of Chuckney, then Jefferson County.  It is recorded that Buck Lawson married James’ sister, who was likely Elicy.  A record in the archives of the Mormon Church shows that one William Lawson wed one Sally Shelton on May 5, 1785, in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.  Perhaps this Sally was Roderick’s sister, thereby being an aunt of James (8).  Further, William and Sally may have been parents of William (Buck) Lawson, having moved to Tennessee prior to his birth.  Betsy and James (8) had a child, a daughter whom they named Naomi, born December 14, 1811.  Shortly thereafter Betsy was out of the picture, presumably having died.  The Lawson's reportedly took the child Naomi, and James(8) enlisted in the army for service in the War of 1812. 

James (8) is on record as having enlisted from Green County on December 20, 1813, and served until May 24, 1814, having been honorably discharged the latter date.  He was in Captain Thomas Wilson’s company of Tennessee militia under the regimental command of Colonel Ewing Allison.  The company to which James (8) was assigned consisted of dragoons (mounted riflemen) from east Tennessee, the roster of the unit being shown page 14 of this book.  They first assembled at Lookout Mountain and from there went to Fort Strother in Alabama.  Here General Andrew Jackson had assembled in mid-February in 1814 an army of about 5000 men for fighting the Creek Indians who had been marauding in three states.  Hearing that the Creeks had moved to the Great Bend in the Tallapoosa River, known as Horseshoe Bend, and had prepared an almost impregnable fort, Jackson decided to march on the fort.  He left a strong garrison at Fort Strother, sent his supplies down the river on flatboats protected by the regulars, and began his march overland to the Horseshoe.  On March 26, 1814, he camped with 2000 men five miles distant.  On the following day in the early morning he detached General Coffee with cavalry and Indian allies.  Coffee’s orders were to cross the Tallapoosa two miles below the Horseshoe, gain possession of the high ground along the river across from the Indian stronghold and close all means of escape in the rear.  Jackson planned to storm the breastworks across the neck when Coffee was in position.

Coffee executed the movement faithfully.  When he patrolled the opposite shore the eager Cherokee Indians in the command swam the river, captured the Creeks’ unguarded canoes and paddled the canoes back to the side of their allies.  Jackson moved to the breastworks and advanced the field pieces to within eight yards (See page 17.)

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CAPTAIN THOMAS WILSON’S COMPANY, COMMANDED BY ENSIGN WILLIAM W. HANCOCK

Muster roll of Captain Thomas Wilson’s Company of East Tennessee drafted militia under the command of Ensign William W. Hancock in the regimental command of Colonel Ewin Allison in the service of the United States from January 10, 1814, to May 24, 1814:

1.  Thomas Wilson, Captain, Cash’rd 17^th May, 1814.

2.  Joseph Graham, 1^st Lieut.

3.  Sam’l Jemerson, 2^nd Lieut., on command at Fort Williams 27 April, 1814

4.  William W. Hancock, Ensign

5.  Robert McKemy, Sergeant

6.  Elijah Thompson, Sergeant

7.  Michael Bustard, Sergeant

8.  Jacob Trobough, Sergeant

9.  Samuel Kelly, Corpl.

10. Henry Swatsell, Corpl.

11. Hugh McBay, Corpl.

12. Daniel Trobough, Corpl.

13. Allen Browne. Private. Appointed adjutant Jan. 10, 1814

14. William Browne, on command at Fort Williams Apr. 27, 1814

15. Henry Buster, discharged April 10, 1812 for inability.

16. Samuel Becknell, appointed Q.M. Sergeant Jan.10, 1814

17. Lindsey Becknell

18. Peter Baker

19. Patrick Cockburn, deserted March 4, 1814

20. John Cockburn, deserted March 4, 1814

21. Phillip Esterly, discharged March 4, 1814, furnished substitute.

22. Canrod Esterly, discharged March 4, 1814, furnished substitute

23. Michael Dittemore, discharged Apr. 10, 1814 for inability

24. Nicholas Eoly

25. Abraham Farner

26.

27. Charles Fulk, on command at Fort Williams, April 27, 1814

28. William Gregg

29. John George

30. William Harrison

31. John Harris

32. Joseph Hale, on command at Fort Strother, may 2, 1814

33. Aaron Huse, on command at Fort Williams, April 27, 1814

34. John Jack, on command at Fort Williams, April 27, 1814

35. Francis Jenoe

36. John Jenoe, deserted

37. James Kelley, discharged for inability March 10, 1814

38. Jacob Kifer

39. Henry Myers

40. John Myers

41. John Myers, Jr., on command at Fort Williams April 27, 1814

42. Charles Myers

43. George Masoner, appointed waggoner March 4, 1814

44. Peter Minick, on command at Fort Strother May 2, 1814

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45. John McMurty

46. Hugh Meloy, deserted March 4, 1814

47. Joseph McMurty

48. Daniel McCoy, on command at Fort Williams April 27, 1814

49. Phillip Neace

50. William Nelson, on command at Fort Williams April 27, 1814

51. Robert D. Nelson

52. David Otingeer

53. Robert Patton, appointed Quartermaster February 8, 1814

54. Michael Paysinger

55. John Paysinger, on command at Fort Strother May 2, 1814

56. Phillip Smithers, deserted March 4, 1814

57. James Shulton, on command at Fort Strother May 2, 1814

58. Joseph Swatsell, on command at Fort Williams April 27, 1814

59. John Wise, on command at Fort Strother May 2, 1814

60. Peter Weaver, on command at Fort Strother May 2, 1814

61. David Watson

62. David White

63. Michael George

The above list was certified to before James Dardis, Justice of the Peace, Knox County, March 18, 1816, by William W. Hancock, Ensign.

The foregoing list was copied from a history of the War of 1812 from the Atlanta Public Library. 

Note the spelling of James Shelton’s name, line 57, as James Shulton.  The writer’s father, Sam Shelton, Sr., who was the son of the above James, in introducing himself to customers or drummers who came to his country store, pronounced the name of almost as Shulton, so likely the recruiter who enlisted James at age 22 mistakenly wrote the name as Shulton.

The Fort Strother mentioned above is on the Coosa River in Alabama, twenty-five miles downstream from Turkeytown.

SEE PAGE 16

 James A. Shelton Pension document

Page 17

of the timber barricade.  At 10:30 AM on March 27 the battle began.  Jackson opened with grape shot from the field pieces.  The small pellets from the cannon sank harmlessly into the great timbers, and the Indians set up a scornful howl.  Jackson saw at once that he couldn’t effect a breach with his artillery.

As Jackson opened fire, Coffee placed 200 dismounted cavalrymen in a detachment and ordered them to cross the river to seize the Indian town.  The Tennesseeans captured it and set it afire.  The smoke and flames signaled to General Jackson the success of the men in the enemy’s rear.  When he noticed a slackening of the gunfire near the Indian village, Jackson mistakenly thought that Coffee’s troops were hard pressed.  By then it was after noon and the ineffectual bombardment of the Indian defenses had been in progress for two hours.  He decided to carry the breastworks with an infantry charge. 

The assault party consisted of the 39^th United States Infantry under Colonel John Williams and an east Tennessee brigade under Colonel Bunch.  The men moved forward steadily under a heavy fire and reached the portholes.  Then at close range they returned the fire of the Indians thru the apertures while some of their companions were mounting the breastworks with their bayonets fixed.  The first man to reach the top was Major Lemuel Montgomery, a soldier twenty-eight years old from east Tennessee.  He waved his sword as a signal to his men to follow, but an Indian rifle ball struck him in the head and he died instantly.  Jackson shed tears over this officer, characterizing him as “the flower” of his army.  A county in Alabama was named Montgomery in his honor.

Another who leaped atop the wall just as Montgomery fell was Ensign Sam Houston.  He was hit in the thigh by a bullet and in the body by a barbed arrow, but he went on over and pitched into the hard battle that soon raged inside.  Among the infantrymen who followed, piling over the barricades with bayonets fixed, was likely Private James Shelton.  The Indians fought fiercely, refusing to surrender.  So many were killed here that day that after this battle the Nation of the Creeks almost ceased to exist.  557 Indian bodies were found on the peninsula besides those that were drowned or shot trying to cross the river to safety.  Jackson’s losses were thirty-two killed and ninety-nine wounded.  Cherokee Chief John Ross led his tribe in the fight here.

The day following the battle, Jackson marshaled his forces and moved on down the Tallapoosa.  Where that river joins the Coosa to form the Alabama River, he constructed a new stronghold, Fort Jackson.  The Battle of the Horseshoe ended the Creek wars.  From Fort Jackson the company commanded by Captain Thomas Wilson, which included James Shelton (8), returned to Camp Strother where on May 2, 1814, James along with many other east Tennesseans were shown “on command”.  He was released to civilian status on May 24.

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The role of Sam Houston in the Battle of the Horseshoe earned him Jackson’s gratitude and affection and initiated his ascendancy to the governorship of Tennessee and later the presidency of Texas and many other honors and distinctions.  Some years later Sam Houston as governor signed a document wherein the State of Tennessee granted to James Shelton (8) on February 13, 1824, one hundred fifty-six acres of land in McMinn County, land which James had entered in 1819 and on which the permanent homestead was built, this document being at hand.

At the time of his enlistment James Shelton (8) was described as being five foot ten, of fair complexion, blue-gray eyes and sandy hair.  A photograph of him in his late years showed him to have a beard.  James (8) was discharged from the U.S. Army at Washington, Tennessee, a town on the Tennessee River near Dayton in Rhea County.  Washington is now very small but at that time was more populated and was the county seat prior to the offices being moved to Dayton.

For four years after his discharge from the Army James resided at Lookout Mountain, Indian Nation, a town in Cherokee land just west of the present city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, perhaps as an Indian Agent, possibly as an aide to Sam Houston, as Indian Agent following his War of 1812 service.

In 1815 James (8) likely returned to Shelton Laurel in Buncombe County, North Carolina, for a visit with his father and mother and brothers and sisters and other kin.  On July 8 that year Roderick (7) directed that John Strother convey to James (8) and two of James’ brothers, David and Lewis, tracts of land each on Laurel Branch at the homeplace, it being noted that that conveyed to James (8) included Roderick’s old plantation of 100 acres, copy of deed at hand, described page 6.

There is no record at hand of the date of Roderick’s death.  Evidently he died before 1820, as the census of that year in North Carolina does not list him.  The family of which he was listed as head in the census of 1800 and that of 1810 was in 1820 evidently headed by one Usra Shelton, a female over 45, this likely being Roderick’s widow, the mother of James (8).  Records at the Mormon Church genealogical Atlanta library lists James’ mother as Nora, but this writer feels that is a misinterpretation of a handwritten name.  The name here and in the census are both possibly misspellings of the name Ursula or Ursa for short.  James (8) and Sarah named their tenth child Ursula, one happily opines that it’s perhaps for her grandmother.

The census of Buncombe County for the years 1800, 1810 and 1820 show this household as follows:

1800 Roderick Shelton:  Males 2 un/10, 2 10/16 and 1 45/up.

         Females 2 un/10m 1 10/16, 1 16/26 and 1 45/up.

1810 Roderick Shelton:  Males 1 10/16, 1 16/26 and 1 45/up.

         Females 1 un/10, 1 10/16, 1 16/26 and 1 45/up

1820 Ursa Shelton (likely Ursula): Males none.  Females 1 16/26, 1 26/45 and 1 45/up.

The census of 1830 apparently does not list this family as an entity, Ursa now dead or living in another household.  Most likely she was also dead.  She would have been over 75, and there is no Shelton listed in that county that year as being that old.

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On February 10, 1816, James’ brother Martin was granted 80 acres of land on Laurel Creek.  Apparently it was about this time that Roderick (7) passed away, as there were no further records found which named him.  A search of Madison and Buncombe counties records revealed no wills on file prior to 1840.  Likely Roderick had divided all his property prior to his demise.

It was in 1816 that James (8) married Sarah Hooper.  She was evidently from Ducktown, Tennessee in the area which later became Polk County, as indicated in a statement in a letter at hand from Mrs. J. F. Henninger, nee Catherine Shelton, that the Hooper ancestors were from that area.  This area was on the route James(8) would likely have taken in traveling from Lookout Mountain to his father’s home at Shelton Laurel in Buncombe County, the portion which later became Madison County, North Carolina.  Perhaps a stop there enroute brought him in contact with the Hoopers and possibly resulted in his romancing Sarah.  It is related in the letter above referred to (date 1951, p. 23) that Sarah went back to the area for a visit to her parents and took her young son William C., the year being about 1821.  The census for Polk County, Tennessee, for 1840 is shown page 125, for 1850 page 130.

Census records show that Sarah was born in Tennessee in 1795.  After her wedding to James (8) they returned to Lookout Mountain where they resided until 1818.  That year they moved to Greene County, Tennessee, which is near Shelton Laurel.  In the interim James (8) evidently sold his portion of the Shelton Laurel property to his brother David, who history credits with being the founder of Shelton Laurel.

In a letter of July 14, 1982, at hand from one Miss Kaye Shelton of Benton, Polk County, Tennessee, she inquired of her Shelton ancestry.  It is noted that there are Sheltons listed in Polk County for the census of both 1840 and 1850 and it is likely that there is a connection between the Sheltons there and those of the James (8) family, the Polk County Sheltons shown as originating in Virginia and North Carolina.  In a recent letter Kaye wrote that she had a brother 60 years of age, presumably a James C. Shelton she had mentioned earlier.  She wrote:  My grandfather was John D. Shelton, born about 1853.  I think his father’s name was Emanuel (who) was from Shelton Laurel.  My grandfather came to Tennessee because of politics.  – I suspect that this Emanuel was called Mandy, son of Alexander who was born in 1804 and grandson of David, who was brother of James (8), son of Roderick (7),

In 1819 the Cherokees ceded the area known as the Hiwassee District along the Hiwassee River to the United States.  The area was opened up for settlement.  James (8) and Sarah moved into the area that year.  McMinn County with the county seat at Calhoun comprised a portion of this area.  With James and Sarah came other Virginia and Carolina natives as well as upper east Tennesseans.  Among the county officials was a Virginian by the name of Griffith Dickenson whose title was Ranger, whose responsibility was to oversee the use of public land.  Significant, perhaps, is the fact that there was a Griffith Dickenson in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, born about 1764, who was said to be a Baptist minister who wed Susannah Shelton in that county on October 12, 1785.  This could be the same Griffith Dickenson or perhaps his son.  Susannah’s father was Crispin Shelton.  Griffith is named in Crispin’s will as husband of his daughter Susannah.  Susannah had 8 or 9 brothers and at least two sisters, Jane and Elizabeth.  (See page 301)

In the settling of McMinn County, pioneers came down the rivers

 See Page 20

James A. Shelton Land Grant document

Page 21

from east Tennessee and North Carolina and ascended the Hiwassee to find homes.  In a letter written some years ago a William H. Thomas from Athens, Tennessee, an old man, wrote that among those who came to the area along the river were families named Shelton, Robinson (likely Robertson too), Sharp and Graves.  With James and Sarah there is an interesting tale of a romantic exploring trip down the river to the mouth of the Hiwassee on a flatboat.  They had loaded all their household goods and set out to homestead  in the newly opened territory.  They may have come down the Nolichicky River which flows across Greene County passing near the town of Chucky, then into the French Broad and Tennessee down to the mouth of the Hiwassee.  From there James (8) would have had to pole his craft upstream for some 12 miles to the site in McMinn County 6 miles below Calhoun.  Here across from the Cherokee Indian Nation in Bradley County, they established the permanent homestead.  In pondering this one wonders if in fact they didn’t make the trip down the Hiwassee from Ducktown since Sarah’s home was near the river.  This would certainly have been much easier – perhaps just as romantic.  Likely Sarah enjoyed this as she loved the river and spent much time on it in the ensuing years boating and fishing.  See sketch of flatboat page 22, map page 386.

Following James and Sarah came Buck Lawson and his wife, said to be James’ sister, possibly Elicy.  James (8) wed Buck’s sister Betsy.  The McMinn County census of 1830 lists Buck as William Lawson, age between 40 and 50.  His wife is shown as between 30 and 40.  This would conform to one of the females in Roderick’s household in the Buncombe County census: Of 1800 as one of the females under 10; of 1810 as the one between 10 and 16; and of 1820 as the one between 16 and 26.  The McMinn census of 1830 shows also a son 5 to 10 in the Lawson household.  That of 1850 shows Buck in the household of James (8), but not Buck’s wife, she likely having died…  This writer remembers from his youth an elderly gentleman who lived in Calhoun named Lawson (Jim, I believe) who was akin to our family and about the age of our father, Sam Shelton, born 1854, possibly the son of the lad above who by the census of 1830 was between 5 and 10 years old.  James and Betsy’s daughter Naomi, who supposedly lived with the Buck Lawsons after Betsy’s death, married John Harrison Robertson, born January 21, 1801, (cemetery marker shows this as November 12), a gentleman of good repute and some renown, having been the first county court clerk of Bradley County, Tennessee, when in about 1835 the county was formed from Indian land.  His progeny are listed page 54 of this book, likely descended from Henry Robertson, born about 1720, of Amelia County, Virginia, shown pages 281 and 233.

On first arriving at their homesite on the Hiwassee River, James and Sarah built a home, a long cabin.  Then they built a frame dwelling which was completed in 1820.  It was a two-story and stood the ravages of time for one and a quarter centuries, having then been torn down by the Tennessee Valley Authority in clearing for the Chickamauga Lake basin.  It had been the first frame house to be built in the area.  According to Tennessee history the first settlement in McMinn County was near Calhoun in 1819.  So it is not unlikely that James and Sarah’s was the first.  Through the years James (8) acquired land both sides of the river by purchase and by grant, and at hand are two documents attesting to this fact, one signed by James K. Polk, the other Newton Cannon, each as governor.

James and Sarah prospered.  They acquired much land and many slaves.  Their twelve children were 4 sons and 8 daughters as follows:

See Page 22

Sketch of a flatboat circa 1820

Page 23

Nancy Shelton, born 1817

Cornelia Shelton, born May 25, 1819

William C. Shelton, born September 4, 1820

Andrew Hooper Shelton, born March 25, 1822

Caroline Shelton, born September 22, 1825

Elicy Shelton, born May 27, 1827 (Some write this Elizie)

John Ellsworth Shelton, born September 4, 1829

Jane Shelton, born December 25, 1830

Louis Shelton, born October 20, 1832

Ursula Shelton, born February 15, 1834

Elizabeth Shelton, born June 30, 1836

Catherine Shelton, born July 20, 1842

A letter at hand from Catherine Shelton Henninger (Mrs. J. F.), granddaughter of James (8), which she wrote from her home in Statesville, North Carolina, in about 1951, gives some good insight into the character of Sarah Hooper Shelton, second wife of James (8):

“…..I do want to tell you a little story my Grandmother Perrin told me of our Grandmother Sallie.  When Uncle Bill was about three months old, she had a violent attack of homesickness, I suspect was no different from we other women (me at least).  So perhaps worried Grandfather into consenting for her to take her baby and go see her folks.  So her horse was saddled; her carpet bag, herself, baby and rifle were mounted, and with her faithful dog she ventured forth to see her mama and to show her baby.  Really she must have been a brave woman, for there were bears, panthers, wolves and Indians lurking along the path.  But Grandmother was a mountain woman, nothing frail about that ancestor of ours.  Well she stayed three months with home folks and was ready to come home.  She thought of all the reasons she did not want to brave all those terrors, even though she had her trusty rifle and faithful dog.  So she wrote Grandfather to come and fetch her home .. Manlike he obeyed her request as command..”

The Hooper home was in the mountains near Ducktown, Tennessee, now Polk County, some thirty miles from James and Sarah’s home.  Besides William referred to in the letter, they had Nancy and Cornelia.  Supposedly their Grandmother Hooper had kept them while the new household was being set up down in McMinn County of the Hiwassee River.  Likely Sarah’s desire to return home was caused as much as anything in missing her two little daughters Nancy, four, and Cornelia, two.  Perhaps too she was now ready to bring them home to the new household.

In an article in a Statesville newspaper in 1958 about Mrs. Henninger, she was quoted on reminiscences of her childhood days in Tennessee on the banks of the Hiwassee River and stories told of her Grandmother Shelton.  She recalled that the Shelton homeplace bordered on the river and people paddled back and forth in a matter of fact way.  She didn’t do much of it although she could because brothers and cousins were always at hand to take her where she wanted to go.  Stories of her Grandmother Sarah, who held a most important place in her life, were of how she could row a boat and fish and hunt as well as anyone.  Incidentally, Mrs. Henninger was the daughter of John Ellsworth Shelton shown in the listing of James and Sarah’s children above. 

Sadly, Sarah Hooper Shelton died by drowning.  It was in the winter time.  She was alone on the river.  Supposedly while raising

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a fish net her boat capsized.  They found her body floating in the river several days afterward.  A record in the archives of McMinn County shows that on July 4, 1853, one James Bonner was paid for holding inquest over the body of Sarah Shelton in 1851.  She is buried on the homeplace, her grave unmarked.

Of James and Sarah’s daughter Nancy naught is known by this scribe.  Born in 1817, supposedly in Tennessee, possibly at Ducktown at the Hooper home, she may have died early as the census of 1830 does not show but one child age 10-15 in the James Shelton (8) household, that one likely being Cornelia, nor does James (8) include her in a listing on the flyleaf of an ancient book at hand where he named the children in 1835.  She is, however listed in James Family Bible with the other children.  She may have stayed in Polk County with the Hoopers.  The census of 1850 in Polk County includes the family of Benjamin Hyde, 29 years old.  His wife is shown as Nancy A., 25.  The children are John A., 8; William A., 6; Cornelia M., 4; and Elizabeth A., 1. Except for  the age shown for Nancy at 25, which could be in error (she was born in 1817, would have been 33), the family here looks like it could have been hers.  In the first place the children all bear names of Nancy’s siblings, and it is particularly significant that the older daughter is named Cornelia.  Further, this family’s residence is located between the residences of a large family headed by one Steaphann Shelton, born 1775, and another headed by James Shelton, born in Tennessee in 1822.  The place also had a family of Hoopers near on either side.  The census shows this family to have all been born in North Carolina except for the two youngest children.  Perhaps Nancy, born in North Carolina, came to Tennessee early in life. There is a further note at hand on Nancy Shelton, daughter of James (8):  Born about 1817.  There is some evidence that Nancy was not the daughter of James’ wife, Sarah Hooper Shelton, that James may have married the second time prior to his marrying Sarah.  There is record in Jefferson County, Tennessee, which county reportedly included what is now Greene County the county adjacent to Shelton Laurel, North Carolina, of one James Shelton having wed Jane Langdon there on June 8, 1816.  James returned to Shelton Laurel for awhile after having resided on Lookout Mountain in Cherokee Indian Nation.  One Nancy (Shelton) Hyde, possibly this Nancy, shown in Polk County, Tennessee. in census of 1850 as having been born in North Carolina in 1825, she having several children all with first names of her siblings, one, a daughter, was given the unusual name of Cornelia, that of her closest sibling, her younger sister.  It was in 1815 that James’ father, Roderick (7), deeded to James a tract of land in Shelton Laurel at the homeplace.  James returned there to claim his land.  It was about this time that his father died.  James may have wed at this time, going over into Tennessee for the ceremony.  He disposed of his land, ostensibly selling to his brother David.  In the meantime daughter Nancy was born, possibly of Jane Langdon Shelton.  She, however, apparently went out of the picture.  James (8) probably left Nancy with Shelton kin and shortly found his was to Polk County where he met Sarah Hooper, Nancy having stayed on in North Carolina where she married, had a family and later moved to Polk County.  The above is conjectural, not to be taken as fact. 

Nor is ought known of Cornelia, daughter of James (8) and Sarah Hooper Shelton.  She is included in James listing of his children in 1835 on the flyleaf of an ancient book at hand.  She was born

Page 25

May 25, 1819.  She likely came to the home of James and Sarah in McMinn County when Sarah returned home after visiting her parents in Polk County.  Cornelia probably made visits to her Grandmother Hooper and may have married in Polk County.  The census of 1830 in McMinn County shows among the children of James and Sarah 1 female age 10-15.  Also shown in the household were two females under 5, who would have been Caroline and Elicy.  There was one male 10-15 who would have been William, 1 5-10 who would have been Andrew, and 1 under 5 who would have been John E. Cornelia would have been 11, Nancy 13.  The family Bible shows Cornelia as Cornelius, which is an error, as James (8) named William as his oldest son.

William C. Shelton, third child, first son of James (8) and Sarah Hooper Shelton, born September 4, 1820, left his imprint on the history of the clan, was without doubt one of its most colorful personalities.  He fought in three wars and boasted that his side came out victorious in all three.  The first of these was the Seminole Indian War.  When this war started, Bill was only 15, but he joined the army the following year and went forth to fight the Indians, his mother reportedly having cut off his long curls to ready him for his role as a soldier.  The war began in 1835 and ended in 1842, was the fiercest of all the wars fought against the Indians.  On the Indian side the war was first conducted by the celebrated Oceola, with whose name the war is largely associated.  And on the part of the U. S. Government, the events were directed by Scott, Taylor and Jesup and other commanders.  After a protracted struggle the Indians were completely subjugated, and in 1843 nearly four thousand of them were removed to Oklahoma, those who arrived in the Indian Territory forming one of the five civilized Indian nations now located in that state.  Although the tribe had ratified a treaty in 1834 to make a concession of its lands in Florida and submit to removal to Indian Territory, they reneged on doing so and had to be forced to go.

Another Indian nation, the Cherokee, was located just south of the Hiwassee River.  Although these Indians were staunch allies of the United States in the wars with other Indian tribes, particularly with the Creeks, in the summer and fall of 1838 several thousand of these were herded together for the Great Removal to the land beyond the Mississippi River.  James (8) had enjoyed trading with them and had a friendly relationship.  At Rattlesnake Springs in Bradley County, some 6 miles upriver from James’ place the last tribal council of the old Cherokee Nation was held.  After this gathering in October the Indians began their march into  western exile escorted by soldiers of the United States Army, to this writer one of the most shameful episodes in this country’s history.  John Harrison Robertson, William Shelton’s brother-in-law, being the husband of his sister Naomi, was also with the army in this removal.  General Winfield Scott was the commander of the troops who evicted the Cherokee.  Half of the Cherokee were reported to have died in the march, their property taken and their women ravished.  Many of the Cherokee escaped to the mountains, those remnants forming the present tribe of Cherokee in the reservation of that time in western North Carolina.

The next conflict in which Bill participated was the war with Mexico.  This one lasted from April 1, 1836, to May 1848.  The causes of the war with Mexico were many, the principal ones being the

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dispute over the western boundary of Texas, and the desire on the part of the United States to acquire California.  James K. Polk was president at the time, and generals Scott, Taylor and Freemont were the leading officers in the conflict.  A large number of young officers proved their worth in this war.  Among them were Robert E. Lee, Grant, Sherman, Jeff Davis and Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson, all destined to renown in the civil conflict to follow.  Santa Anna was the number one Mexican general.  The Americans were again victorious, giving to the United States California.  Bill reportedly attended a masked ball – whether or not covertly – given by Santa Anna.

Next came the War Between the States which lasted from 1861 to 1865.  Bill was a captain in the Union Army in this war.  As a consequence of this affiliation with the Union forces, his father, James (8), was sorely grieved, for grandpa was a staunch rebel.  Doubtless James took a measure of pride in this fine son who had served honorably in two wars; but to have him go against the south in this conflict was very difficult for him.  In a letter James (8) wrote to the pension board in his late years in applying for recompense for his service in the War of 1812, he suggested that perhaps since he had “sympathized with the rebellion” the government may not consider him entitled to a pension.  He was, however, approved for pension from that war, and although he did not himself ever receive any remuneration, his fourth wife drew the pension until her death in 1905.

William C. Shelton joined the Union Army for duty and was enrolled at Sale Creek, Hamilton County, Tennessee, on November 11, 1861, for three years.  He received a private’s wages to August 9, 1862, serving in Company I, 5^th Regiment of East Tennessee Infantry.  He was mustered in at Huntsville in east Tennessee on August 14, 1862, having been appointed captain 5 days earlier, continued with the 5^th Regiment until August 31 that year under Colonel William Clift.  He was transferred to 7^th East Tennessee Infantry Volunteers where he was Captain of B Company.  On December 22, 1862, his unit was transferred to the 8^th Tennessee Infantry and here William C. Shelton commanded A Company of this Regiment, the regimental commander being Colonel Felix A. Reeve.  William C. was allowed to resign his commission by order of Major General Schofield by order dated July 8, 1884, on the captain’s request due to debilitating chronic rheumatism.  Yet he apparently stayed with his unit

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in a lesser role until the end of the war and was mustered out with his unit at Company Shopes, North Carolina, on June 30, 1865.  The following pages are records from the archives of the history of Tennessee’s involvement in the war as regards those units.

7^TH TENNESSEE VOLUNTARY INFANTRY REGIMENT, U. S. ARMY

J. F. Brownlow, Adjutant General, State of Tennessee, in a report dated March 1, 1866, stated:  “The 7^th Regiment was never organized, and the companies raised for it were transferred to other regiments.”  However, in the official records, references were found to two organizations, both called the 7^th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, one from east Tennessee and one from west Tennessee.

The east Tennessee organization had its inception in a band of guerillas, or partisans, raised in the fall of 1861, by William Cleft of Hamilton County.  On November 14, 1861, Governor Isham G. Harris issued an order:  “Muster all the armed forces possible without calling on Zollicofter, and capture Clift and his men dead or alive.”  On November 7 General Zollicofter’s office reported:  “Three expeditions (it said) are moving from different directions upon Clift’s men, but it is feared they will disburse and escape to the mountains.”  Colonel S. A. M. Wood, 6^th Alabama Infantry, reporting on his part in these expeditions, said his regiment moved from Chattanooga to Sale Creek where Clift’s men were supposed to be encamped and found the insurgents had dispersed the night before after voting upon what their procedure would be.  Colonel Clift, Lieutenant Colonel Shelton and two others voted to stay and fight; 100 voted to try and reach Kentucky; and the rest, some 200, voted to disperse.  They broke up during the night, 10 or 12 going with Colonel Clift who hid in the mountains; 65 with Captain Sullivan marching toward Kentucky; and the others dispersing.  (The Lieutenant Colonel Shelton, second in command of Colonel Clift’s guerillas, was likely William C. Shelton, later shown as Captain, commander of Company A., 8^th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment.  A search of the records disclosed no Colonel Shelton with the Union forces in Tennessee.)

On May 24, 1862, Brigadier General George W. Morgan at Cumberland Ford wrote:  “I had taken steps to organize a partisan regiment under Colonel Clift (commissioned by the Secretary of War) in Scott and Morgan counties, Tennessee, in order to annoy the enemy’s rear.”  The regiment so organized was called the 7^th Tennessee Volunteer Regiment, and Colonel Clift on October 31, 1862, gave a report of his operations from June 1, 1862, to that date.  Colonel Clift wrote that he started recruiting in Scott County early in June, made expeditions into Morgan and Anderson counties and fortified an eminence near Huntsville, Scott Co., Tennessee.  Here with about 250** men he was attacked on the morning of August 13 by from 1500 to 2000 Confederates.  Most of his men, new recruits, fled in confusion, but … “about 50 men held our breastworks for one hour forty-five minutes against the enemy.  Major James S. Dunan and captains Robins, Wilson and Shelton fought with great coolness and deliberation.  When our numbers in the breastworks were reduced to about 20 men, I ordered a retreat which was conducted in good order, the men carrying with them our guns without a loss.”  He went on to report scouting parties throughout Scott, Morgan and Fentress counties in October and a brush with Ferguson’s guerrillas.  On authority from General James T. Boyle, he had mounted about 50 of his men and requested the War Department to furnish with cavalry saddles and bridles, on the date of his report he gave his headquarters as Somerset, Kentucky.

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On December 26, 1862, at the time of General James Hunt Morgan’s third raid into Kentucky, Colonel William A. Hoskins at Lebanon, Kentucky, reported the 7^th Tennessee Infantry, 258 men, as part of his command and stated he placed it in a temporary brigade along with the 12^th and 16^th Kentucky regiments to engage in the attempt to cut off Morgan. 

On August 21, 1863, Colonel Clift “late of the 7^th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment” was ordered to report at once to Brigadier General J. M. Shackleford commanding 3^rd Brigade, Cavalry Division, XXIII Corps.  Evidently the division had been broken up some time before this date.  No muster rolls were found, but a Lieutenant Colonel Hazeland, 7^th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, was mentioned in addition to the other officers named above.  Also the Captain Sullivan mentioned in Clift’s first organization was later spoken of as Major Sullivan, 7^th Tennessee Infantry.  The muster-in roll of Captain William C. Shelton’s Company A, 8^th Tennessee Infantry, shows it was transferred from the 7^th East Tennessee Volunteers in accordance with order dated December 22, 1862.  Also a detachment from Captain James Wilson’s company  was mustered into the 8^th Tennessee on May 15, 1863.  (Significantly, perhaps, Captain Thomas Wilson was the commander of William C. Shelton’s father’s company in the War of 1812.)

8^TH TENNESSEE VOLUNTEER INFANTRY REGIMENT, U. S. A.

Mustered in at Camp Dick Robinson, Kentucky, May 1863 and at Camp Nelson, Kentucky, June and August 1863; mustered out at Company Shops, North Carolina June 30, 1865.

Field Officers

Colonel – Felix A. Reeve

Lieutenant Colonels – Isham Young, George D. LaVergne

Majors – George D. LaVergne, William S. Barnett

Captains – William C. Shelton, Co. A. mustered in at Camp Dick Robinson May 16, 1863.  Men from Scott and Hamilton Counties.  Transferred from Colonel William Clift’s 7^th East Tennessee Volunteer Infantry in accordance with order dated December 22, 1862.

William S. Barnett, John A. Bowers, Co. B. mustered in at Camp Dick Robinson May 15, 1863, men mostly from Greene, Hawkins and Cocke counties.

William S. Bewley, Thomas Bible, Co. C. mustered in at Camp Dick Robinson, May 13, 1863; men from Greene, Cocke, Union, Jefferson, Hancock, Carter and Claiborne counties.

Alfred Couch, Co. D. mustered in at Camp Dick Robinson May 15, 1863, men from Greene, Cocke and Hawkins counties.

Lemuel Bible (First Lieutenant), Co. E. mustered in at Camp Nelson June 30, 1863; men from Cocke, Greene, Hawkins, Washington, Anderson, Carter and Sullivan counties.

(There is no record of Co. F.  The muster-in roll of a detachment of men commanded by 1^st Sergeant James M. Friels for the 8^th Tennessee bore a note that the company was transferred from the 7^th Tennessee Volunteers with orders dated December 22, 1862.  The detachment was described as Captain James Wilson’s company of the 8^th Tennessee Infantry, and this may have been the nucleus of Co. F., of which we have no record.)

James W. Berry, Co. G. mustered in at Camp Nelson June 30, 1863, men from Hawkins, Greene and other Tennessee counties.

William K. Byrd, Co. H. mustered in at Camp Nelson August 11, 1863, men from Hawkins and Greene counties.

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George W. Graham, Co. I. Mustered in at Camp Nelson August 11, 1863, men from Hawkins and Greene counties.

James H. Kinser, Robert A. Ragan, Co. K. mustered in at Camp Nelson August 11, 186, men from Cocke and Greene counties. 

Felix A. Reeve was appointed colonel by the Secretary of War on September 6, 1862, and authorized to raise and command the regiment from refugees from east Tennessee who were gathering at Federal posts in Kentucky, especially at Cumberland Gap.  Soon after his appointment Cumberland Gap was evacuated by the Federal forces; and the regiment was recruited at other points.  The regiment was reported in the Department of the Ohio, District of Central Kentucky, in December in 1862 with Colonel Reeve in command.  On January 10, 1863, at Nicholasville, the regiment was reported with 21 officers, 324 men for duty, aggregate present 381, aggregate present and absent 652.  However, it was not until the middle of May 1863 that the four companies were actually mustered into service.  At that time the regiment reported 357 effectives.  Other companies were mustered in during June, July and August.  On June 30, 1863, the regiment was reported in the Department of the Ohio, XXIII Corps, 4^th Division, 2^nd Brigade, and on July 28 was reported at Lexington, Kentucky.  Since the beginning of organization the regiment had been employed on fatigue duty building fortifications and so on at various points in Kentucky.

On August 6 the XXIII was reorganized and the regiment placed in Colonel Daniel Cameron’s 2^nd Brigade, 3^rd Division.  The brigade moved into east Tennessee with General A. S. Burnside, and on August 31 the regiment was at Wartburg; and on September 24 at Greeneville; on September 30 at Lick Creek Bridge; on October 15 at Jonesboro on the Blountville Road.  It did not serve with its regular brigade during November, being temporarily attached to Colonel William A. Hoskins’ 2^nd Brigade, Forces in east Tennessee.  On December 31, 1863, it was again in Cameron’s brigade at Strawberry Plains.

On January 22, 1864, the regiment moved to Knoxville where on January 31 Colonel Reeve was in command of the 1^st Brigade, 3^rd Division, and the regiment transferred to his brigade.  An inspection report dated February 27, 1864, stated that the 4^th and 8^th Tennessee Regiments, still in Knoxville, were in bad condition as regards appearance, discipline and drill.

On April 10, 1864, the XXIII Corps was again reorganized, and the 8^th Regiment was placed in Colonel J. W. Reilly’s 1^st Brigade, Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox’ 3^rd Division.  Under various commanders it served in the brigade until the end of the war.  On April 20 at Bulls Gap, Tennessee, the regiment reported 27 officers, 369 men, present for duty.  It was here at Bulls Gap on April 14, 1864, that Captain William C. Shelton tendered his resignation as captain of Company A., 8^th Tennessee Regiment, account of physical disability (chronic rheumatism).  The regimental physician certified to his inability to continue in his capacity.  Colonel Reeve forwarded the documents to Brigade Headquarters noting:  “This officer served faithfully through the Florida and Mexican wars; and entered the Federal Army at an early stage, in which he has been to my own knowledge an efficient and worthy officer.  But he has grown infirm from exposure and advancing age, and his place can be most efficiently filled by the 1^st Lieutenant of the company.  His resignation is therefore respectively approved and forwarded.”  The resignation continued through the channels to the surgeon of the Medical Division of the U. S. Volunteers, Josiah Curtis, to whom the Cap-

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tain was directed to report at Knoxville, Tennessee, who further certified to his disability to Headquarters, Department of the Ohio, there where his resignation was finally accepted on July 8, 1864, by Major General John M. Schofield, Headquarters Commander.  A number of these documents are found reproduced page 70 and the following pages.  The regiment was sent to Knoxville by train on April 26 from whence it moved down to Red Gap, Georgia, for the beginning of the Atlanta campaign.  It crossed the Georgia line on May 7 and after some preliminary skirmishing was heavily engaged at Resaca on May 14, 1864.  (To this writer it is interesting to note that he wife’s great-grandfather, Henry Benton Thomas, a corporal in Company G, 21is Ohio Regiment, was in this battle and in other campaigns before Atlanta.  His brother, Private Levi M. Thomas, also of this unit, had been wounded and captured in the Battle of Chickamauga, September 20, 1863.)  After Resaca the 8^th Tennessee Volunteer Regiment, of which Captain Bill had commanded A Company, was commanded first by Colonel Reeve, then by Captain Robert A. Ragan and finally by Captain James W. Berry.  Colonel Reeve was discharged on July 14, 1864, on surgeon’s certificate.  Although almost constantly engaged for the next 3 months, the heaviest fighting in which the regiment took part was an attempt to cross Utoy Creek west side of Atlanta on August 6.  Of this engagement Brigadier General Reilly wrote:  “Where all behaved so gallantly, it is very difficult to give special mention to any, but I cannot in justice neglect to bear official testimony to the gallant and heroic conduct of the 8^th Tennessee Infantry officers and men without any distinction.  The list of casualties, however, is their best eulogy when it is known that the regiment went into the charge with but 160 muskets.”  Berry, who commanded the regiment at the time reported:  “The regiment entered the charge with 223 men and lost 26 killed, 5 mortally wounded, 36 wounded and 16 missing, making a total of 83 casualties.  In this serious charge the officers and men of the regiment exhibited in the highest degree the bravery, discipline, presence of mind characterizing veteran troops.”  (See page 380 anent one of Captain Bill Shelton’s men, Private Rese B. Ingle, who was killed at Utoy Creek.)  The regiment reached Decatur, Georgia, September 8 where it remained stationed for some time.  It reported total casualties during the campaign of 2 officers and 30 men killed, w officers and 55 men wounded, 2 officers and 23 men missing, for a total of 144.  On September 23 the regiment needed 195 recruits for minimum strength. 

When General Wood started his invasion of Tennessee, the regiment moved with the brigade up to Chattanooga, then over to Pulaski and took part in the fighting from Pulaski to Columbia to Spring Hill to Franklin and finally to Nashville.  On November 26 the regiment had less than 200 effectives and was stationed in the second line of Reilly’s Brigade in the Battle of Franklin where it suffered 7 casualties.  In the Battle of Nashville, December 15-16, 1864, the regiment was in reserve on the 15^th.  On the 16^th it was placed on the extreme right of the Federal lines on Hillsboro Pike.  It made a charge about 2:00 PM in which it captured 4 pieces of artillery and about 250 prisoners.  Early in 1865 the brigade moved to North Carolina and took part in the occupation of Wilmington on February 23, 1865.  On the 24^th  the regiment reported needing 390 men to fill it up.  From Wilmington the regiment moved to Newbern; from there to Raleigh where on April 14 it was detached from the brigade and assigned to temporary garrison for Raleigh under Brigadier General I. N. Stiles until it could be mustered out.  Orders were issued for the muster on June 22, 1865, and the regiment was mustered out on June 30.  Captain Berry had remained in command of the regiment from the middle of the Atlanta Campaign to the muster out.  Muster out was at

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a place called Company Shopes, North Carolina, and on the muster roll that date Captain William C. Shelton’s name was included.  The captain likely then returned to east Tennessee to take up residence.

Several McMinn countians in units of the 3^rd Tennessee Cavalry Regiment were aboard the Steamer Sultana which on April 27, 1865, sank in the Mississippi enroute to Cairo for discharge.  Among Shelton kin aboard were:  3 Wood boys, Landon, John and James, brothers-in-law of James (8) of Company B, of whom Landon perished; O. G. Shelton, Company E; J. H. Hooper, Company D; H. Farmer and J. J. Massey, Company H; and A., E. and J. A. Farmer, all of Company A.

As a side note, Captain Bill’s middle name was said to be Chamberlain.  His daughter, Laura Shelton Walker (Mrs. T. A.), stated that was likely true as she had heard him speak of that family and that he had named his younger son, Landon Chamberlain.  (Corrected page 58).  She also stated that her father said he was a cousin of Frances Willard, she who founded the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

William C. Shelton was married twice.  His 1^st wife was Sarah Rymer, born in 1827, whom he wed about 1843.  Prior to the Civil War they made their home in Bradley County, Tennessee.  They had several children.  His 2^nd wife, whom he wed in about 1870, was Dorcas Paris, born September 4, 1850.  They too had several children, lived at Cog Hill near Etowah in the eastern part of McMinn County, Bill having sold his property in Bradley.  Bill’s children by each wife will be listed starting page 56 of this book.  He was named in his father’s 1^st will.

James (8) and Sarah’s 4^th child, 2^nd son, Andrew H. Shelton, the middle name likely being Hooper, was born March 5, 1822.  It is noted that Andrew married, lived on a farm in Bradley County adjacent to that of Andy Hooper, who was his uncle.  The censuses of 1840, 1850 and 1860 show Andrew Hooper in Bradley County but no Andrew Shelton in any of these years.  A letter at hand indicates that Andrew owned land in Washington County, Missouri and at which time and from whence his brother John who was visiting there wrote their father, James (8).  A record at hand of a family is likely that of Andrew’s.  It will be listed pate 78 of this book.  Andrew is named in his dad’s 1^st will.

James and Sarah’s 5^th child was Caroline, born September 22, 1825.  She wed Simeon Graves.  She died in 1847, and there is no record at hand of children.  She was not named in James’ will.  Simeon remarried in about 1850, this time to Caroline’s younger sister, Elicy.

James and Sarah’s 6^th child was Elicy.  It is written this way by James in a list of the children he made in 1835, though the family though the family Bible lists her as Elizie.  She was born May 27, 1827, wed Edward Sharp in about 1843 in McMinn County, had 2 children.  Then Edward died in Bradley County in 1847.  Elicy then wed Simeon Graves, former husband of her deceased sister, Caroline, in 1849.  They had 8 children.  Elicy died in 1866.  Elicy’s children will be named page 81-83 this book.  James (8) names daughter Elicy in his first will.

John Ellsworth Shelton, next in line and 7^th of James and Sarah’s children, was born September 4, 1829, he and Bill having the same birthday, Bill being 9 years older.  John was a favorite son of James (8), having joined the Rebels in the Civil War.  It is said that James, his sons away at war and the homeplace, threatened with destruction by the Yankees, endeavored to get an assignment in the home guard as his forebears had, but he was turned down on account

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of his age.  He was in his 70’s.  However, it was said that Captain Bill was instrumental in preventing the northern soldiers from burning the homeplace, using his influence as a Union officer.  At times James was hard pressed to keep provisions for his brood.  There were his wife and 3 small children still at home besides the retinue of slaves.  Much of his property in the nature of livestock and provisions was confiscated by the Yankees foraging for food.  He fooled the marauders more than once though with his ingenuity.  He contrived to build a false wall at the end of a garret in the second story of the house.  Behind this partition was a room where he stored provisions.  The room was not noticeable to anyone prowling in the garret.  James was thus enabled to keep food for his family.  This writer came upon this room in the old house as a lad while exploring the premises.  On inquiring of Dad the purpose of the room, he told the story, and having been one of the brood for whom the provisions were stored, and he remembered too that they soldiers had once taken his favorite horse and he, having acquired another, would take it to the woods and hide it when there were reports of Yankee soldiers being in the neighborhood.

At hand is a communication with James (8) from the United States Treasury Department dated March 30, 1877, transmitting a draft of $150, possibly in payment of claim for damages suffered at the hands of the Federals during the war.  John Shelton received a commission as Lieutenant in the Confederate Army.  Reportedly, these brothers, Captain Bill and Lieutenant John, were in direct combat, one’s company against the other’s, as was so oft the case in that war.  John’s company was said to have been captured by Bill’s company and that Bill secured women’s clothing for John so that he could slip out through the lines.

29^TH TENNESSEE INFANTRY REGIMENT, C. S. A.

Organized September 30, 1861, reorganized May 1862; formed Co’s E and H of 2^nd Consolidated Tennessee Infantry Regiment April 9, 1865; paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina, May 2, 1865.

Field Officers

     Colonels – Samuel Powel, Horace Rice, William P. Bishop

     Lieutenant Colonels – Reuben Arnold, Horace Rice, John B. Johnson, William P. Bishop.

     Majors – Horace Rice, John B. Johnson, William P. Bishop

Captains

     Commanding Officers

     Company A – W. W. McLelland, Samuel L. McKamy, men from Bradley County

     Company B – M. H. Hancock, William A. Bible, Alphonse Chable, Richard M. O’Neal, men from Polk County

     Company C – Robert F. Patterson, James W. Fulkerson, John B. Hodges, men from Claiborne County

     Company D – James G. Rose, William P. Bishop, men from Hancock County

     Company E – Abraham Kyle Blevins, L. N. Kyle, men from Hawkins County

     Company F – “The Greeneville Guards”, John Q. Reeves, men from Washington County

     Company G – George P. Faw, Isaac P. Reeves, men from Washington County

     Company H – James H. Coulter (or Colston), Thomas S. Rumbough, James W. Henshaw, men from Greene County

See Page 33

A typical Young Federal Soldier in the Civil War With a Henry Rifle.

See Page 34

The pedigree chart of Reid Walker - Thomas Alexander Walker & Laura Ann Shelton

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     Company I – William Fry, John H. Craig, J. P. Bushong, men from Washington County.

     Company K – Samuel Powel, Jacob Hamilton, George A. Edmonds, Jerome N. Martin, men from Hawkins County.

These ten companies had been organized during the months of July and August, 1861.  They assembled at Handersons Mill, Green County, where they were organized into a regiment.

Also in May 1862, a Confederate company with W. P. Darwin Captain and with men from Rhea County was mustered in at Washington, Tennessee.  In this outfit was a private named James Shelton, possibly the son of James (8)’s son Andrew at a very young age.  Of the field officers of the 29^th Tenn. Inf. Regiment, Colonel Powel resigned in November 1862.  Colonel Rice was wounded and taken prisoner in Franklin on November 30, 1864.  Lieutenant Colonel Johnson died July 15, 1864.  Major Blevins was killed May 27, 1864.

In the fall of 1861 the regiment remained in East Tennessee, being reported at various times at Loudon, Knoxville Strawberry Plains and Greeneville.  In October 1861 the regiment along with the 15^th Mississippi and the 11^th, 17^th and 20^th Tennessee Infantry Regiments, and McNairy’s and Brazelton’s cavalry units were in Brigadier General Felix Zollicofter’s command in a march toward Barboursville and London, Kentucky.  This resulted in a confrontation with Federal troops at Rock Castle, Kentucky, on October 21, 1861.  However, John Shelton’s regiment, the 29^th Tennessee Infantry, was not engaged actively.

The regiment joined General Zollicofter’s at Beech Grove, Kentucky toward the last of December 1861.  On January 7, 1862, it reported 493 present on duty, 854 on roll.  At this time Zollicofter’s force at Beach Grove was composed of the following:  The 16^th Alabama, the 15^th Mississippi, the 17^th, 19^th, 20^th, 28^th, 29^th and 37 Tennessee Infantry Regiments; plus cavalry and artillery.  On January 18, after Major General G. B. Crittendon had taken command of the forces in the area, the 28^th was reported in Brigadier General William H. Carroll’s brigade, which also included the 17^th and 29^th Tennessee Infantry Regiments, plus McClung’s Battery.

As part of this brigade the 29^th participated in the Battle of Fishing Creek on January 19.  In this battle Colonel Powel was wounded and Major Rice took command of the regiment, which suffered 29 casualties.  On February 23, Carroll’s brigade was composed of the 17^th, 25^th and 37^th Tennessee Infantry Regiments plus two battalions of cavalry and two batteries of artillery.  The brigade retreated through Tennessee to Mississippi.  On March 26 the Tennessee 29^th moved from Eastport, Mississippi to Iuka, Mississippi, where it was stationed while the Battle of Shiloh was taking place.

In the reorganization of the army after Shiloh, the 29^th was placed in William J. Hardee’s corps, Brigadier General J. S. Marmaduke’s brigade, which on April 26 was reported composed of the 3^rd Confederate, 6^th Mississippi, the 25^th, 29^th and 37^th Tennessee Infantry Regiments and Baker’s battery of artillery.  On this date the 29^th reported 469 effective.

At the reorganization of the regiment in May 1862, Colonel

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Powel was re-elected; Major Horace Rice became lieutenant colonel and John B. Johnson major.  Powel resigned in November 1862; Rice succeeded him as colonel.  Johnson became lieutenant colonel and A. Kyle Blevins major.  When Johnson died in July 1864, William P. Bishop succeeded him as lieutenant colonel, later becoming colonel of the regiment.  When Blevins was killed in May 1864, S. L. McKamy became major.

On June 30, 1862, Marmaduke’s brigade was reported as composed of the 25^th, 29^th and 37^th Tennessee and the 3^rd Confederate Infantry regiments and Sweet’s Artillery Battery.  No reports on the 29^th were found for the period from June 30 to November 22, 1862.  Colonel Bishop in his account of the regiment in Lindsley’s Annals states that it accompanied the army of General Bragg from Corinth to Tupelo, Mississippi; from Tupelo to Chattanooga; thence into Kentucky where it confronted the enemy at Mumfordsville and Perryville.  In General Hardee’s report of the Battle of Peryville on October 8, 1862, he wrote that Colonel Powel commanded a brigade on the extreme left of Hardee’s corps and that the brigade suffered heavily.  Presumably the 29^th Regiment was part of this brigade.  No report of casualties of the brigade was found, but Hardee’s corps reported 242 killed and 1504 wounded.

On November 22, 1862, Colonel Powel was reported in command of a brigade in Anderson’s division, Hardee’s corps, composed of the 45^th Alabama, 1^st Arkansas, 24^th Mississippi and 29^th Tennessee regiments.  On December 12 this division was broken up and the 29^th Tennessee transferred to Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk’s Corps, Major General B. F. Cheatham’s Division, Brigadier General Preston Smith’s brigade.  In the Battle of Murfreesboro, December 31, 1862, this brigade was commanded by Colonel A. J. Vaughn, Jr., and was composed of the 12^th, 13^th, 29^th, 47^th and 154^th Tennessee and the 9^th Texas Infantry regiments.  Allin’s Sharpshooters and Scott’s Battery.

The brigade organization under various commanders remained unchanged until the final reorganization of General Joseph E. Johnston’s army in April 1865.  The regiment remained in winter quarters around Shelbyville, Tennessee, until the withdrawal of the army to Chattanooga in June 1863.

In the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19 and 20, 1863, the 29^th under Colonel Rice reported the expenditure of 10,600 rounds of ammunition and suffered 71 casualties.  It moved to Sweetwater on October 19 but returned to Missionary Ridge on November 9, 1863.  On November 20 following the brigade was transferred to Major General T. C. Hindman’s division for a few months and was engaged in the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863.  On February 20, 1864, it was returned to Cheatham’s division where it remained for the duration.

The 29^th spent that winder near Dalton, Georgia, except for one brief expedition in February when it was part of a force started to reinforce General Polk in Mississippi.  The regiment was recalled, however, on reaching Demopolis, Alabama.  As part of Cheatham’s

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Division it participated in the Atlanta Campaign, beginning in May 1864.  In this campaign Major Blevins was killed on May 27, and Lieutenant Colonel Johnson died of disease July 15 that year.  The regiment returned with General Hood to Tennessee and lost its colonel, Horace Rice, who was wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864.  (In this writer’s book, Of Courage and Compassion, an historical novel based on the life of his great uncle, John B. Beall, a Confederate officer in the war, a romance between Orville Rice from east Tennessee and John’s sister, Mary Frances, was ended when Rice went off to West Point Military Academy in the 1850s.  Mary Frances later wed Martin Hardin, also a Confederate soldier, and became the mother of my mother.)

One anomalous …  note was found during this period.  Major General W. S. Hancock, in a note to General Grant, dated August 16, 1864, stated “The Provost Marshal at Deep Bottom says that an officer from the enemy’s lines opposite communicated with him to exchange papers this morning.  He belongs to the 29^th Tennessee and says that the 17^th of the same state is with them.  They belonged to Longstreet’s Corps, but I do not find them on the memorandum furnished me of Field’s Division.”  This may have been an effort by a Confederate officer to communicate with a brother or other relative in the Union command.

On December 10, 1864, Cheatham’s Corps, Brown’s Division, Vaughn’s Brigade, commanded by Colonel William M. Watkins, was reported as composed of the 11^th-29^th commanded by Major John E. Binns, and the 12^th-47^th, 135^th-51^st-52^nd-154^th Tennessee Infantry regiments.  After the Battle of Nashville, the brigade moved to Carolina to join General Joseph E. Johnston.  It arrived at Bentonville when the battle was nearly over but in time to prevent the capture of General Johnston’s headquarters by the Federals. At this time the brigade was commanded by Captain Franklin F. Tidwell.

In the final consolidation of Johnston’s Army, the 29^th Regiment formed companies E and H of the 2^nd Consolidated Tennessee Infantry Regiment commanded by Lieutenant Colonel George W. Pease.  His command was comprised of 11^th-12^th-13-th-29^th-47^th50th51st-52^nd-154^th Tennessee Infantry regiments which was patrolled at Greensboro, North Carolina, on May 2, 1865.

It was possibly at Bentonville, North Carolina, in this period that Company A of the 8^th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army, it being the unit of William C. Shelton, captured Company A of the 29^th Infantry Regiment of the Confederate Army in which First Lieutenant John E. Shelton was an officer, the time when William C. sent his brother back through the Federal lines by dressing him in women’s clothing.  Perhaps the reunion here was a particularly happy one, because Bill was shortly to join his younger brother at home.  Bill’s unit was mustered out June 30, 1865, less than two months after John’s.

John Ellsworth Shelton walked with a limp, but records at hand do not indicate that he was wounded in hostile action.  He wed Lucinda Perrin, born December 25, 1836, in about 1853.  Reference is made to her in a letter John wrote to his father, James (8), John

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referring to her as Sinda.  She died June 17, 1878.  They had ten children, shown later in this book.  John was remembered liberally in his father’s will and was appointed executor of same.  John Ellsworth Shelton died October 18, 1875, is buried in the family cemetery on the homeplace.

Jane Shelton, eighth child of James and Sarah Hooper Shelton, was born December 25, 1830.  She married Nathaniel “Dude” Farmer in 1845, lived in Bradley County, Tennessee, until about 1866.  They left Tennessee to join Jane’s brother Lewis at Neosho, Missouri, where Lewis had gone some years earlier.  Jane and Dude never made it that far, though, having run out of Money many miles short of their destination.  This was at Rolla, Missouri.  Here they had to part with some of their household goods, including a feather bed, for money to hire someone to take them on to Lebanon, Missouri.  They were poor and never got any farther.  There were a lot of children, reportedly 12 in all, and Jane died at the birth of the youngest at age 43.  The names of all the children are not at hand.  Those who are known will be listed page 94 of this book.  Jane was named in her father’s will.

Lewis Shelton, ninth child of James (8) and Sarah Shelton, was born October 20, 1832, being the namesake of James’ brother Lewis.  It is said that he never married.  Following is a letter from Lewis’ brother, John, to their father which indicates that Lewis died in Greenwood County, Kansas in 1864 at age 32, he having owned land in that county. 

State of Kansas, Greenwood County, June 29, 1866.  Dear Father:  I once more take my pen in hand to let you know that I am well at present and hoping when these few lines come to hand they will find you and all the rest well.  I arrived here on the 18^th instant.  I have examined the record and papers of Lewis’ estate, and I think that under the circumstances of the county it has been very well managed.  William C. Waybright, the present administrator, is a Mason, and I consider him a gentleman.  He has explained the management of the estate in full satisfaction to me and I have made a final settlement with the court.  And have received all the money that is due to the estate and the deeds to the land in Missouri, and I have started this morning to attend to the land business.  The law of Kansas gives all the personal and real estate to you, and from what I have learned the State of Missouri does the same.  And I consider it best not to give you the amount of the estate at present, and if anything should turn up before I get back you could write to Mr. William C. Waybright, Eureka, Kansas.  It is about one hundred miles from here, and we have started with some man who is going out there in a wagon, and from there it is about a hundred fifty miles from the railroad.  So I can not tell you when I can get back home.  But I will get along as fast as I can.  So you and Sinda need not get out of heart.  We have had very good luck so far.  So nothing more at present, remaining your son, etc., John E. Shelton

John, enroute to his brother’s estate in Greenwood County, Kansas, had been joined by brother Andrew in Washington County, prior to this that hostilities in the Civil War had ended, and no doubt there were still numerous outlaw bands at large.

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At hand are two deeds involving property of James’ son Lewis Shelton in Newton County, Missouri.  Apparently Lewis died in testate and an executor was appointed by the county.  One of the deeds, dated 1865, conveys land from the executor to James (8) and the other conveys land from James to daughter Catherine Shipley and husband.  Apparently the lands are not the same in each deed but in the same vicinity.

The lands in Missouri referred to in the above letter were in the southwest corner of the state near Neosho.  James (8)’s brother Lewis had gone to Missouri earlier and settled in the northwestern part of the state near St. Joseph, some 200 miles north of Neosho.  He had died there of yellow fever in 1847, his property going to his children.  He had gone there in about 1819, the time James (8) moved down to McMinn County, Tennessee.  See page 220 for the elder Lewis’ descendants.

Ursula Shelton, tenth child of James and Sarah, was born February 15, 1834.  She wed Henry Jacob Cantrell about 1849 and moved to southeast Kansas shortly thereafter.  There they occupied land once owned by her brother Lewis.  Ursula died bout 1862, having had at least 2 children.  Henry Jacob married again soon after.  There is a deed at hand which conveys land from Henry J. Cantrell and wife Elizabeth M. Cantrell to the heirs of Lewis Shelton.  This deed, dated 1864, seems simply to relinquish any right that they may have held to this property, the same reverting to James as heir. At hand is a letter from H. J. Cantrell to James (8):

April 22, 1866, State of Kansas, Wilson County.  Dear Father and Brother.  I again attempt to drop you a line to let you know that I am still on the land and among the living.  This leaves us all well and enjoying the same like blessing of the Great Deity, for find it a great blessing to all be well.  I received your letter of recent date which I opened and read with great satisfaction.  It has been so long since I had heard from you that I had about given up hopes of ever hearing from you again, knowing as I do the great uncertainties of life.  You wrote that you all were in a broken up condition.  I am sorry to hear that you are, though that is a common occurrence, and we of the Southwest, or a great many at least,  can sing the same song – broken up by the war – for we have seen sights here as well as you in Tennessee.  Ursula’s children had probably wed and on their own now. 

You said you were trying to take a new start.  (The war which started in 1861 had ended one year ago.  James was now 75.)  I can say to you that I am trying also to take a new start.  That is making a living the honest old way.  That is by the sweat of my brow.  Well I will try to tell you something in regards to Lewis estate.  Tough that is a hard thing for me to get at.  It has been handled in such a way that it is hard to get anything like the truth of the matter.  In the first place Oscar Coy took the matter in hand and made on public sale.  Disposed of all the property at private sale and I never could get at the exact amount of the estate and before making final settlement he resigned and appointed another administrator, and the estate still stands unsettled until the 1^st Monday in July.  (It is indicated in a letter p. 77 that E. J.’s brother-in-law, John E. Shelton settled the estate on June 29.)  Since I received your letter I have been to the administrator of the estate, he being very sick at the time.  I could not ascertain at the time more than that more was between fifteen hundred and two thousand dollars in money and land, the

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land being in Newton County, Missouri.  The present administrator advertised for a final settlement, and owing to his sickness was unable to make the settlement.  I guess there is no doubt that he will make the settlement the first Monday in July and I should like that some of you would be in attendance at court if possible and see how the matter is arranged.  Would be gland to see you.  Heard you say you would like to know who the administrator was.  His name is W. C. Waybright, post office address Eureka, Greenwood County, Kansas  I have nothing more of importance to write.  I would like to see you all very well but whether or not I ever will in this world I trust in the great and Godlike providence that we may meet in the world to come.  Please give my respects to all inquiring friends and likewise to you dear father and brother.  So with these reflections I will close by saying to you all to write soon and often and let’s try to keep up a correspondence between us.  I remain yours until death.  H. J. Cantrell, James Shelton, John Shelton, NB.

James named his daughter Ursula and her children in his will.  The names of her children are not at hand.

Elizabeth Shelton, eleventh child of James and Sarah Hooper Shelton, was born June 20, 1836.  She married Christopher Graves on August 6, 1853.  Christopher Graves, son of the Christopher born in the later part of the 1700’s was a brother of Simeon Graves who wed Elizabeth’s sister, first Caroline and then Elicy.  Elizabeth died in 1858, had surviving child named later.  She is named in her father’s will.

Catherine Shelton, twelfth and last of James and Sara Shelton’s children, was born July 20, 1842, there having been a span of six years between children here and Sarah now being 47 years old.  Catherine married Richard N. (Dick) Shipley September 17, 1857.  In 1872 James (8) deeded them 118 acres in Newton, County, Missouri.  There is at hand a letter from Dick Shipley to his brother-in-law, John E. Shelton.  This is a nice newsy letter.  Part of it is mission The portion at hand is here quoted:

Newton County, Missouri, October 27, 1873.  Dear Brother John. I take my pen in hand to write you a letter in answer to yours of September 2 which was received in due time.  We were glad to hear from you once more but were sorry to hear your health is not very good (John died two year later.)  In the first place I will ask you to excuse us for not writing sooner and will say to you that we are all well except the little girls have whooping cough, though they are not very bad off.   I have nothing much of interest to write you at present.  You complain of hard times in your country.  I would say to you that hard times have found their way here too.  Crop on an average is very light.  Wheat and oats crops were ordinary.  Corn crop is tolerable good in places while in other places there is an almost entire failure.  So on the whole there is not more than half a crop, the money is so scarce that corn is not selling very high.  It can be bought now at thirty-five or forty cents.  The prospect is that it will run up to a pretty high figure before spring.  It may be of interest to you to know what our prospects are for a living here.  I would say that we are doing the best we can and that is bad enough, though I would say that we have lived so far and lived as well as we ever did in Tennessee.  The prospects ahead look very gloomy but maybe the dark clouds will blow over. 

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After which I will give you a short sketch of what we have been doing since we have been out here.  When we got here I found myself with sixty dollars in money.  So as a matter of course we had to have some little necessities to go in the house and some provisions, the first thing which exhausted my capital.  At once winter was on us and nothing could be done out until March to amount to anything.  I was not able to make any move to make a garden, so I hired myself out and worked for fifteen dollars per month from March till July.  Since then I have been working at anything I could do my best at.  So I have made a little money.  We had a tolerable good garden.  Catherine has sold out of the garden, chickens and butter about forty dollars cash.  In the way of stock we now have one cow and calf, one sow and eight fine pigs.  I have bought me a good last spring colt and pretty much corn, enough to do me until spring.  Catherine and the children have three geese and six ducks.  I have three hogs now fat that will make close to one thousand pounds of pork, so we intend to just sop one sode of our bread and sell our bacon next summer.  I am not able yet to turn a wheel toward improving land.  It costs so much here to break the land and fence.  I have traded for a little improvement near me which has some little improved land on it ….

It is indicated that Catherine and Dick, partly because of their industry and thrift, perhaps, as indicated in the above letter, were favorites of James (8).  In terms not heretofore found in papers at hand he refers to his affection and love for his daughter Catherine in a deed and for this consideration deeds her the property. There were at least two children.  Catherine is named in her father’s will.

Sarah Hooper Shelton having died in 1851 James (8) wed the third time in 1853.  This wife was Jane Wood Shelton, born Tennessee in 1834, eldest child of Jessey Wood, born in North Carolina, and Margaret McCracken Wood, born in Tennessee, both in 1813.  Jane was a lass of the community.  Besides Jane, the Woods had at least seven other children, all born in Tennessee:  Margaret, born 1836; John in 1838, James E. in 1840, Landon in 1842, Martha in 1844, Henry in 1846, and Nancy in 1850.  Jane’s 3 older brothers, John James E. and Landon, were privates in the U.S. Army in the Civil War.  Their unit was Company C, 3^rd Tennessee Calvary Regiment.  Landon was killed.  Four hundred men of the regiment were captured on September 25, 1864, at blockhouses no.’s 7 and 8 at Sulphur Trestle on the Nashville and Decatur Railroad as General Nathan Bedford Forrest moved up from Athens, Alabama, into middle Tennessee.  With this encounter the wiping out of the regiment was almost complete.  The officers were exchanged December 15, but the enlisted men were imprisoned at Cahaba near Selma, Alabama.  With the end of the war in the spring of 1865 the Union Army sent a steamboat to pick up released prisoners.  On March 6 they headed down river to Mobile by the Alabama River, thence across to New Orleans and up the Mississippi to Vicksburg.  At Vicksburg they were herded aboard the Sultana, a 260-ft. steamer, with several hundred other prisoners, a total of about 2000 prisoners being aboard, greatly overcrowding the steamer.  As they headed for Cairo, Illinois, at Paddys-Hens-and-Chickens, a landing north of Memphis, on April 27, 1865, one of the Sultana’s boilers exploded.  All but 500 of the men on board were lost.  Presumably among the survivors were John and James Wood, but Landon is known to have perished.  On a monument in Mount Olive Cemetery in Knoxville 365 names of Tennesseans who were aboard are inscribed, including 174 who were killed instantly.  The three Wood brothers are shown.

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At hand are two letters from Jane Shelton’s brother, Henry Wood, the first written in 1928, the other in 1930, both to his nephew Sam W. Shelton:

Gainesville, Missouri, January 5, 1928.  Well Dear Nephew, it’s been a long time since I wrote to you, but I got to thinking of the old place back there and I thought I would write and tell you how we are.  We are all well hoping this will find you in the same blessing.  Sam, you wanted to know my mother’s maiden name.  It was Margaret McCracken, and you know my Father’s name.  It was Jessy Wood.  Sam, I think of the old place so often I would like to see it once more.  Say, Sam, could you get me some sweet gum wax and send me a chew of it.  You know how we used to get it.  I do like to chew it.  We used to get it in the island.  Sam, who does own the old homeplace we used to live on sough of the ferry, and who owns the island?  I do think about them so much.  Sam, I will look for you this next summer.  I know you could come, and you and I could talk lots.  So, Sam, I will close for this time.  Say, Sam, is Sam Graham still living in Candies Creek?  I could ask lots more, but I will close.  Hoping you will come to see us.  Henry Wood

Gainesville, Missouri, November 8, 1930.  Dear Nephew, I just been sitting by the window and lookin’ out at the timber.  How pretty it looks.  The trees make us think of the old home there at the ferry and how we went a chestnut huntin’.  Say, would you send me a few of the chestnuts?  I would be glad to see chestnut trees growing here.  Well, Sam, you wanted to know what kin Graham was to you.  Sam Graham’s mother was my mother’s sister.  So that would make Sam’s children your second cousins.  Well, Sam, I am suffering from a bad rising on my breast bone down at the lower part of my chest.  I have two operations, but it hasn’t done any good.  It runs all the time.  So, Sam I would like to see you once more in this life, but if we don’t meet in this world may God bless us to meet in Heaven where there will be no partin’.  God bless you and your family.  Henry Wood.

Henry died of pneumonia in about 1933, was survived by his widow and five children – one son and 4 daughters.  On of the daughters, a widow, Rhoda Gayton, was living in Gainesville in 1938 with the 83-year-old mother.  Henry seemed to be more closely associated with James and Jane’s children than were any of the others of the Wood clan.  It is recorded that Henry’s nephew did send some sweet gum and perhaps some chestnuts from the homeplace to his aging uncle, being the time before the chestnut blight of the late 1930s which killed off the chestnut orchard on the place.  Once they were numerous on the place and prolific.  Now there are none.

The Sam Graham mentioned in the above letter is likely the one listed in Captain Bill Shelton’s company in the 8^th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment, U. S. A., during the Civil War.  There is a S. A. Graham and wife buried in the cemetery on the homeplace.  This S. A. Graham was born November 7, 1844, died November 2, 1929.  His wife, M. J. Graham, born August 13, 1843, died June 9, 1920.  S. A. was a Mason.

James and Jane had 4 children, the last two being twin girls.  At their birth or soon after in that year Jane passed away as did one of the twins.  Jane and the infant Mary are buried at the entrance to the cemetery on the homeplace, their graves unmarked.  Jane’s death was in 1858.  Their children were as follows:

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Samuel White Shelton, born October 1, 1854

Cyrus Shelton, born August 2, 1856

Sarah Shelton, born August 26, 1858 (twin)

Mary Shelton, b. August 26, 1858 (twin)

Samuel White Shelton, eldest of James and Jane Wood Shelton’s four children, was born at the homeplace October 1, 1854.  Records do not confirm the source of the name, but it is supposed by this scribe that he was named Samuel for his maternal grandfather, Samuel McCracken.  As to the name White, there is a connection between the family of James Shelton (8) and that of James White, the founder of Knoxville, Tennessee.  James White, born 1742, married Mary Lawson.  James Shelton married Betsy Lawson.  James White’s son Hugh Lawson White had a son Samuel White, born 1826, who died in 1860.  In conversation recently with my brother, Samuel White Shelton, Jr., he related that our father was named for a Samuel White who was an itinerant preacher who used to come to the Shelton farm to hold services, that grandfather had seen so favorably impressed by this minister that he named his son, born 1854, for him.  Regrettably, the minister was reported to have turned away from the ministry and turned to evil ways.  This Samuel White may have been the son of the Hugh Lawson White above.  James White came to the area now Knoxville and built a fort prior to 1791.  He laid out the city originally named for him that year, which was later changed to Knoxville.  Further , James White was a general in the War of 1812 and led troops in the Battle of the Horseshoe in 1814.  James Shelton’s involvement in this battle is described on pages 13 through 17 of this book.  Samuel stayed on at the James Shelton homestead and operated the farm.  He also established a country store and ran a ferry across the Hiawassee River.  He was postmaster at the location which was known as Raht in Bradley County, Tennessee, just across the river from the homestead.  In 1899, he wed Mary Viola Hardin at her home in Meigs County, Tennessee, at Goodfield, the daughter of Martin Ally and Mary Frances Beall Hardin.  They had 10 children.  In 1908 they built a new home on the high ground across the valley from the old frame house that James (8) and Sarah had built in 1820.  They called their new home Sheltola, a combination of Shelton and Viola.  A photograph of the new home is shown page 140.  The old home is shown in the photograph page 141, which shows also the place the new home was to be built a stone’s-throw across the way.  Samuel lived out his life in the two houses, having died December 15, 1937, at 83, his wife Viola, 20 years his junior, died September 14, 1957, also at 83.  They are buried in the cemetery on the homeplace.  Samuel is listed in James’ earlier will as one of 3 minor children, in his last will as principal heir.

Cyrus Shelton, second of James (8) and Jane’s 4 children, was born on August 2, 1856.  He died November 23, 1875, at age 19 from over-exertion at a high school athletic contest at Charleston High School where he was an outstanding student and athlete.  Following is a letter from Cy to his brother Sam, the latter who was at the time a student at Hiawassee College, Madisonville, Tennessee.

Charleston, Tennessee, August 10, 1873.  Dear Brother:  I this beautiful Sabbath morning seat myself to answer your most welcome letter.  We are all well except Dolly (his niece, Sarah Elizabeth, their brother John’s daughter).  She is a little sick this morning.  Mr. Perrin (Dolly’s grandfather) is not any better.  Father went over to see him Friday and thinks he won’t live long.  (Samuel Perrin,

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father of John E. Shelton’s wife, Lucinda, died August 17, 1873, was born June 10, 1810.  His wife, Elizabeth Perrin, was born November 10, 1810.  Both are buried in the cemetery on the James Shelton homeplace.  Their home was in the Buckhorn community.)  This is all the sickness I know of in the community.  John says he is going to move back and not send to school this session.  I am going to go to W. H. Crawford this next 5 months.  I expect Pa hasn’t decided where he is going to send me yet.  But I expect I will go to Mr. Crawford’s and board at Mrs. Ball’s.  You wanted to hear something about the Sunday School at Spring Creek.  They called on Brother Shelton to hear Mrs. Workman’s class, as she was not there.  The young people looked at me and laughed as if they thought it was me.  I ain’t going back today.  We have turned both patches; all of our watermelons are about gone.  We have got an excellent swing on the big sycamore on the other side of the river.  I have been hard at work all the time and have not had time to write through the week.  We have got the hard work done and gone to grubbing.  Mother says she wants you to write plainer so she and pa can read it.  But as I am not used to writing long letters, I had better quit.  I was glad to hear that you are well pleased and sorry to hear that your bed is so hard.  So, as I have nothing further of importance to write, I will close.  Write when you think it necessary, but I would like to hear from you soon.  So goodbye for the present.  Your true friend and brother, Cyrus.

Cy died unwed.  He is buried in the cemetery on the homeplace.

Sarah Shelton, twin daughter of James (8) and Jane Wood Shelton, was born August 26, 1858.  Sarah grew up on the farm and married John Massey.  This was about 1875.  The census of 1870 in McMinn County, Tennessee, lists a John Massey, age 15, in the family headed by Annie Massey with 6 children, John being the eldest, presumably the father is dead.  This is shown next to a family headed by John and Susan Massey being respectively 62 and 59 and having 5 younger Masseys listed.  Sarah and John too moved out west, likely to her brother Lewis’ estate in Newton County, Missouri, land which had reverted to their father James (8) on Lewis’ death and which James likely deeded to her.  Although she is mentioned as a minor in an earlier will, she is not named in his last will likely because, as he states, “I have heretofore given to each and all of my other children what I thought to be a fair share of property.”  Sarah probably died at about 30.  There likely were no children.  In her will Sarah may have returned the land they occupied to her surviving brother, Sam, or by the laws of Missouri it reverted to him, for he owned land in Missouri which he never saw fit to exercise a claim.  There is a wedding picture at hand of Sarah and John Massey.

Sarah’s twin sister Mary died at birth or soon thereafter.  Of Jane’s children only one of the 4 had any memory of her, and even to Samuel, the eldest, his only memory of her was of viewing her in her coffin as someone held him up so he could see her.  One feels sad even now in the seeming injustice to this young woman, plucked in her youth and beauty to die at 24, hardly beyond maturity.  Only one of her children, those of her youth and of James’ old age, lived to see old age, lived to see old age, that being Samuel who died at 83.  Jane is buried in the cemetery on the homeplace as is the baby Mary.  They lie near the entrance under an ancient cedar with no marker. 

 See page 45

Two photo's  Sarah Shelton and husband &Laura Lea Mitchell, descendent of James Shelton

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Following Jane Wood Shelton’s death in 1858, James (8) married the fourth time.  She was Catherine Winters Bell, a widow born May 14, 1815 from Greene County, Tennessee, whom he wed in Charleston in Bradley County, Tennessee in December 1858.  She had been wed previously to Samuel Chase Bell and had divorced him for desertion February 20, 1843 in Greene County.  Though there is perhaps no connection, it is noted that one James Poindexter Shelton wed one Sarah H. R. Bell in Amherst County, Virginia May 17, 1825. 

The census of 1860 shows the following in James’ household:

     James Shelton        age 70      born in Virginia

     Catherine Shelton   age 45      born in Tennessee

     Samuel Shelton      age 6        born in Tennessee

     Cyrus Shelton         age 4        born in Tennessee

     Sarah Shelton         age 1        born in Tennessee

Likely James (8) had known the family of this fourth wife since his early youth when at Chuckey in Greene County, Tennessee.  In her late years, after James died, Catherine resided with Samuel and family on the homeplace in the old house, and although she never returned to Greene County, she often spoke of the town of Chuckey, her old home, with nostalgia.  She and James had no children, though this writer seems to recall hearing that she had a son by her first husband.  She loved Sam’s children as though they were her own grandchildren, and that feeling seemed to be mutual toward her.  There is at least one picture of her at hand, that of her holding Sam’s third child, Sam Junior, at less than a year old.  She died November 9, 1095, is buried in the cemetery on the homeplace. 

Catherine Shelton was typical of the grandmothers of that day.  She was perhaps even more loved than most, for she was unselfish and kind not only to those whom she called her own but to the neighborhood children as well.  But she sat by the open fireplace on winter evenings and smoked her clay pipe.  Her tobacco stashed away at hand in a crevice in the stone fireplace, she would light it with a taper from the mantle, there by her hand fashioned from scraps of paper garnered through the day.  She always carried some money on her person in a cloth sack at her waist.  The money she had was in gold pieces from her pension from James’ service in the War of 1812.  Many a young maiden from the neighborhood benefited from her mild philanthropy in the nature of a gift of cloth and buttons for a new dress, the only requisite being that the lass make a dress for herself and wear it to show Grandmother Shelton.  She was at times overindulgent with Sam’s children, allowing them unbeknown to their mother to partake of solid food at an age considered by  most to require only milk.  As we children became older and became large enough to do chores for her, it was their delight to do so, and one imagines that among young James’ earliest chores was that of going to the store to fetch Grandmother a sack of Victory tobacco or some such brand with an extra penny or two for the purchase of hard candy. 

James Shelton (8) died October 9, 1879 at 1:00 o’clock in the morning other records to the contrary notwithstanding.  His pension papers in the National Archives show on claimant record received December 18, 1879, that he died October 8, 1879.  The family Bible shows also that as the date of his death.  The date shown on his gravestone is November 8, 1879, and in a statement signed by Joshua

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Ellis and Sam W. Shelton on February 7, 1880, on record with James’ pension papers, they state they saw him die November 8, 1879 and say him buried the following day.  The record no doubt thought to be correct when made, was given without checking the records.  Following is an entry from Sam’s diary of October 9, 1879:

All night last nite watching for father to die.  He died a little past 1:00 o’clock A. M. Thursday.  (October 9, 1879, was a Thursday.)  He died easy – I know that he is better off now.  One of the greatest restraints is taken from my evil inclinations.  All my father’s influence over me, and no one ever had more, was for good.  One reason  for my being a good man was that it pleased Father.  The old man died in peace and after having lived for eighty-eight and one half years, he commenced a poor boy, worked hard and now leaves me a good fortune.  He tried to rear me right.  I think he did his duty by me.  I cannot see where in any way he has gone wrong.  I shall ever remember him with a grateful heart – I loved him much.  He taught me not only by precept but by example as well.  He educated me, though himself an uneducated man.  I can only say with truth – and everyone who knew him can say the same – that he was thoroughly honest and truthful.  He was a saving man.  He never talked big about what he was worth.  While his name is not known far from home, while he has done no wonderful deed to make him famous, he was never-the-less one of the nobler beings – much nobler doubtless than many whose names are known all over the globe. 

Sam was 25 when the above was written.

James Shelton (8) and his fourth wife, Catherine Winters Bell Shelton, are buried in the family plot at the cemetery overlooking the Hiawassee River on the farm that he cleared from the wilderness in McMinn County, Tennessee.

Following is copied the will of James Shelton (8) which was written on March 1, 1869, his 78^th birthday.  He wrote a last will some eight and one half years later, shown page 52.

In the name of God Amen.  I James Shelton of the County of McMinn and State of Tennessee, being now in the enjoyment of a reasonable degree of health, and in the full and proper exercise of my reasoning faculties, but of the uncertainties of life I am perfectly conscious, and do now, therefore, while I may intelligently do so, make and publish this my last Will  and Testament, hereby revoking and making void all other wills by me any time made.

     Item First.  I direct that my funeral expenses and all my just debts be paid as soon aster my death as possible out of any money that I may die possessed of or may first come into the hands of my Executor hereinafter named.

     Item Second.  I give and bequeath to my beloved wife Catherine Shelton all that part of the homeplace on which I now reside lying East of the road running from the old ferry landing along and upon said road, until it reaches the corner of the fence made by my son John E. Shelton, and then run east to the line of the land of Jepther Sivils, so as to take from the said homeplace hereby bequeathed, and give to my said son John

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E. Shelton some ten or twelve acres including his orchard and the other improvements thereon, which said ten or twelve acres I design in my life time to convey to John E. Shelton by deed, but in case I shall not, then I design the same to go to him under this clause of my will, and this bequest of the homeplace (by which I mean my farm lying east of the public road with the exception of above stated) is made to my wife to use, occupy and enjoy to her benefit and to the benefit of my three minor children, Samuel, Cyrus and Sarah during her life time or widowhood, and at her death or intermarriage, the same is to go absolutely and in fee simple to said minor children, and on the death or intermarriage of my said wife before the minors become of age, it is my will and desire that then my son, John E. Shelton, manage and control said land for them and their benefit until they respectively arrive at age.  I further will and bequeath to my said wife a sufficiency of my personal property now on hand, or that of which I may die possessed to properly carry out and enjoy said farm as long as she may under this will occupy it.

     Item Third.  I will and bequeath to my son John E. Shelton all that part of the homeplace west of the line designated above in the second item and also eight acres, more or less, which I bought of James Guffie, all the above lands lying in McMinn County, Tennessee.  Also I will and bequeath to my son, John E. Shelton, so much of one hundred and sixty acres of land on the opposite side of the river in Bradley County, Tennessee, and the same I bought many years ago from one Steven Hemstead, as I have not recently sold and conveyed to J. H. Magill.

     Item Fourth.  To my oldest son, William C. Shelton, I give and bequeath the farm on which  he now, and has for many years, resided, being the quarter section I bought of Benjamin Chester. 

     Item Fifth.  As to my son, Andrew H. Shelton, he heretofore by my permission went upon two hundred forty acres of land entered by me and this I intend for him and he with that understanding sold the land to William C. Shelton for one thousand dollars and received the money therefore, but no title papers or obligations of any kind passed, and now I, therefore, will and bequeath the said two hundred and forty acres, it being that from which my son Andrew moved, and the same that was entered by me and sold as aforesaid by Andrew H. to William C. Shelton, to William C. Shelton. [sic]  I design, however, within a short time to make a deed to William C. Shelton for the lands described in this item, and I simply incorporate this item in my will to provide against any contingency.

     Item Sixth.  I have heretofore given to the children of my deceased daughter Elicy Graves all I design for them.

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     Item Seventh.  To my daughters Jane Farmer and Ursula Cantrell, the latter now dead, I have heretofore given four hundred dollars each, and I design no more for Mrs. Farmer or the children of Mrs. Cantrell.

     Item Eighth.  To my daughter, Elizabeth Graves, I gave four hundred dollars in her life time, and I design no more of my estate to her surviving child.

     Item Ninth.  To my daughter Catherine Shipley I have already given as I remember about two hundred and thirty-seven dollars.  And I intend in my life time to make the gift up to four hundred dollars, and if I do not my executor will do so.  In case I make out the four hundred dollars a receipt for the same will be found among my papers.

     Lastly.  I hereby nominate and appoint my son John E. Shelton the Executor of this my will, with the request that he faithfully carry out the provisions of the same, which is written on two sheets making nearly six pages.

In witness whereof I have to this my will set my hand and seal this the 1^st day of March AD 1869.

Signed, sealed and published in our presence and we have subscribed our names hereto in the presence of the testator and at his request each signing in the presence of the other on the 1^st day of March AD 1869.

                                                                                             John B. Hoyt

                                                                                             J. T. Cate

On page 141 is a photograph of a small steam boat on the Hiawassee River which was made about 1890.  The background is a panoramic view showing the home, the barns and much of the farm of James Shelton (8).  The captain of the steamer, Ben Ferguson, is shown on the upper deck of the boat standing beside the pilot house.  The name of the boat is The Ocoee.  Lined up on the lower deck are eight people.  Two can be positively identified – Sam W. Shelton and H. D. Saulpaw – son and grandson-in-law of James (8), Henry D. being the husband of John E. Shelton’s daughter Sarah Elizabeth (Dollie).  Three of the others are likely deck hands.  The steamer is moored on the left bank in Bradley County at Sam’s store, Raht, Tennessee, there likely for the purpose of loading or unloading merchandise. 

It is a winter scene, the bottom land near the river showing is dead cornstalks.  The outlines are not sharp but the trees in the background except for the conifers are bare.  A rail fence extends along the edge of the woods to the north of the house.  The main house on the high ground to the right in the picture is the two-story frame house James (8) built in 1820.  Wood smoke is curling upward from the large chimney in the center of the house.  The sun shining on the south end of the house is reflected in windows on that end, two on the first floor and one on the second.  There are a number of other buildings.  Foremost of these is the large new barn a hundred yards to the north, the roof not yet completed.  The picture, made in about 1890, shows the old barn, the smokehouse, a

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crib and several other buildings to the east.  To the south were a stable, a shed for storing equipment, to the west the well house.  On the high ground across the valley to the west is shown the log edifice built by James and Sarah on first arriving here by flatboat in 1819.  In this area is the site of the new house built in 1908.  Here an area was fenced off and trees left to grow, some of those visible in the picture still standing in the yard where Sheltola stood, ancient oaks and cedars, then merely a dream of Sam’s, today only a memory to Sam’s children who called it home, neither the old house nor the new is standing today, both having succumbed finally to the ravages of time.

There are at hand a number of papers such as deeds, land grants, pension certificates and letters pertinent to the history surrounding James Shelton (8).  A list of these follows:

     1.  Grant of land (original homestead) for 165 acres to James Shelton (8) in McMinn County, Tennessee, by State of Tennessee, signed by Governor Sam Houston, February 13, 1824, the acreage James entered in 1819.  (See page      .)

     2.  A deed of 149 acres of land from Christopher Graves to James Shelton in McMinn County, Tennessee, January 27, 1829.

     3.  A receipt to Elijah Ballenger for $105.90 from Entry Takers Office, Cleveland, Tennessee, signed by Luke Lea, Governor, January 25, 1839.

     4.  Grant of land of 80 acres to James Shelton in Hiawassee District, McMinn County, State of Tennessee, signed by James S. Bridges, Register of Hiawassee District, February 23, 1839.

     5.  Grant of land of 60 ½ acres to James Shelton in Hiawassee District by State of Tennessee, signed by James S. Bridges, Register of Hiawassee District, February 23, 1839.

     6.  Grant of land of 14 acres to Elijah Ballenger in Bradley County, Tennessee, by the State, signed by Newton Cannon, Governor and Luke Lea, Secretary, January 25, 1839, Ocoee District.

     7.  A receipt to Elijah Ballenger of $55.50 from Entry Taker’s Office, Cleveland, Tennessee, signed by Luke Lea, April 30, 1841.

     8.  A grant of 111 acres to Elijah Ballenger in Bradley County, Tennessee, by the State, signed by James K. Polk, Governor, on April 30, 1841.

     9.  A deed of land for 226 acres from Stephen Hempstead to James Shelton in Ocoee District, Bradley County, dated June 7, 1842, John H. Robertson, County Court Clerk.  (This John H. Robertson was the son-in-law of James Shelton (8), having wed James’ eldest daughter, Naomi.  This document was lent to Jeanette Robertson Trotter, great granddaughter of John H. and Naomi Robertson and was not recovered after her death.)

     10.  A deed of land for 40 acres from Martin Haggard to James Shelton in Bradley County, dated August 31, 1848. 

     11.  Title bond to E. T. & G. Railroad in the amount of $1000.  unto Elijah Ballenger for land in Bradley County, dated April 9, 1856, signed by John Hall, Supervisor. 

     12.  A deed of land for 40 acres (less 11 ½) from Henry J. Cantrell to heirs of Lewis Shelton, Greenwood County, Kansas, dated May 16, 1864. 

     13.  A deed of land for 160 acres from W. C. Waybright, Administrator to heirs of Lewis Shelton, Greenwood County, Kansas, April 5, 1865.

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14.  A letter from H. J. Cantrell to James Shelton and John E. Shelton from Wilson County, Kansas, April 22, 1866.

15.  Letter from John E. Shelton from Washington County, Missouri, to James Shelton, June 10, 1866.

16.  Letter from John E. Shelton from Greenwood County, Kansas, to James Shelton, June 29, 1866.

17.  Will of James Shelton (8) of McMinn County, Tennessee, dated March 1, 1869.  Also copy of last will, dated October 28, 1876.

18.  A deed of land for 120 acres (less 11 1/2  acres) from James Shelton to Catherine Shipley, Newton County, Missouri, November 28, 1872. 

19.  Letter from Sam Shelton to his brother, Cyrus, from Hiawassee College, August 4, 1873.

20.  Letter from Sam Shelton to his brother, Cyrus, from Hiawassee College, September 20, 1873. 

21.  Speech by Sam Shelton entitled Silence presented at Hiawassee College, September 26, 1873.

22.  Letter from R. N. Shipley to John Shelton from Newton County, Missouri, October 28, 1873.

23.  Speech at Hiawassee College by Sam Shelton entitled When Would I Die?  December 3, 1873.

24.  Diary of Sam W. Shelton, first entry October 27, 1876, last entry in 1897.

25.  Transmission of draft of $150 from United States Treasury to James Shelton, March 30, 1877.

26.  Transcript of title to Ballenger place, Bradley County, at public sale to highest bidder, James Shelton (8), 546 acres, December 28, 1877.

27.  Notification of approval of pension claim of James Shelton for service in War of 1812, dated September 14, 1878, by Act of March 9, 1878, Department of the Interior.

28.  Certificate from U.S. Pension Bureau of entitlement of James Shelton to pension from War of 1812, dated September 14, 1878.  (See page     .)

29.  Letters of Testamentary to S. W. Shelton, executor of the estate of James Shelton (8), deceased, issued November 3, 1879. 

30.  Letter from pension office to Catherine Shelton, widow of James (8), March 27, 1880.

31.  Diary of Sam Shelton, first entry October 7, 1880, last entry 1881.

32.  Contract to rent Ballenger farm to James Perry by Sam W. Shelton at $175 per year, dated July 26, 1881.

33.  Diary of Sam Shelton, first entry October 12, 1881, last entry in 1833.

34.  Deed of land for 40 acres from Samuel W. Shelton to Wm. Thompson, Bradley County, Tennessee, February 12, 1890.

35.  Photograph of Steamer Ocoee on Hiawassee River, Captain Ben Ferguson.  Eight people on deck, including besides Ferguson, Sam W. Shelton and Henry D. Saulpaw with James Shelton’s homestead in background, taken about 1890.

36.  Wedding announcement of Sam W. Shelton to Viola Hardin on October 25, 1899.

The Civil War with its rifts it caused in the family bore heavily on the history of the James Shelton (8) clan, the surren-

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der of Robert E. Lee in April 1865 and the capture of Jefferson Davis, President of  the Confederacy, on May 10 that year, brought to a close the terrible conflict, and though the homeland was desolate, the rifts in the family began to heal and the scars have all but disappeared.  The fact that James remembered his son Bill, the Union captain, in his will no less than he did his other sons, except perhaps John, the Confederate Lieutenant, was indicative that Bill was accepted back into the family without reservation.  It is perhaps because, in part at least, Bill was influential with Union forces in saving the homeplace from destruction by them during the war and because of his being a Union officer the carpet-baggers preyed less on the homestead than otherwise might have been. 

On October 28, 1876, James Shelton (8) made his last will and testament:

I, James Shelton, being of sound mind and disposing memory and desiring while I am in good health to make a disposition of my property to take effect after my death, do make and publish this my last will and testament, hereby revoking and making void any and all wills by me at any time heretofore made.

     And First.  I will and desire all my just debts paid out of any moneys first coming to hands of my executor hereinafter named and I also thereby direst my executor hereinafter named to place plain marble tombstone at the head and foot of my grave.

     Secondly.  I will and bequeath to my beloved wife Catherine Shelton one third of the value of the farm on which I now live and to hold the same for and during the term of her natural life and it is my desire that she live with my son Samuel W. Shelton and that he take care of and provide for her comfort.

     Third.  I will and bequeath all the real estate of which I am seized and possessed to by beloved son Samuel W. Shelton to have and to hold forever in fee simple, subject however to my wife’s life estate on third part of my homeplace.  My said real estate consists of and comprises my homeplace where now live and a half interest in a tract of land on the Bradley County side of the river belonging to the same.  My said home farm being in the 16^th Civil District of McMinn County, Tennessee, and also my Ballenger farm which I bought at the sale of the real estate of E. Ballenger, deceased, which farm lies in the 8^th Civil District of Bradley County, Tennessee.

     Fourth.  I will and bequeath to my said beloved son Samuel W. Shelton all of my personal property of every kind and description.  It being my intention to give my said son Samuel W. Shelton all of my property both real and personal except the life estate hereinbefore given my

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wife in my homeplace and at her death he is to have that also.  I have heretofore given to each and all my other children what I thought to be a fair share of property.  My son Samuel W. Shelton is living with me and taking care of me in my old age and I desire him to have all I leave at my death encumbered only with my wife’s said life estate in one third part of my said homeplace.

     Lastly.  I nominate and appoint my said beloved son Samuel W. Shelton executor of this my last will and testament and I desire that no bond or security be required of him for the execution of said trust.  In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and official seal on this the 28^th day of October 1876.

                                                                                                  James Shelton (seal)

Signed and published in our presence and in the presence of each of us at the request of the testator who have hereunto set our names as subscribing witnesses. 

                                                                                                  J. N. Aikin

                                                                                                  J. H. Ball

                                                                                                  W. P. Bryant

State of Tennessee, McMinn County.  This being the 3^rd day of November 1879 personally appeared before me, R. A. Ellis, clerk of the county court, and F. B. McElwee, chairman of said county court, and court now being in session, J. N. Aikin one of the subscribing witnesses the within will and after being duly sworn deposes and says that he witnessed said will at the request of the testator and said will was made and published by James Shelton on the day it bears date for the purposes therein expressed and that James Shelton has since that time departed this life in said county and that he the said James Shelton at the time of executing and publishing said will of sound mind and deposing memory said will is therefore probated in common form this day and date last above written.

                                                                                                  R. A. Ellis, Clerk

                                                                                                  F. B. McElwee

Following is a letter of testamentary to S. W. Shelton, executor of the estate of James Shelton (8), deceased, written November 1, 1879:

Sate of Tennessee, McMinn County, to S. W. Shelton.

Greetings:  It appearing to the satisfaction of the county court that James Shelton has died leaving a will in which you are appointed executor, which said will has been duly proven in open court and you have qualified as required by law and the provisions of said will, and it being ordered by said court that letters testamentary issue to you, therefore to empower you to enter upon the execution of said will and to take into your possession all the property of the estate of the said James Shelton, deceased and to make a true (correct) inventory thereof and return the same to the next term of county court and make collections of all debts due said estate according to law, and after paying all just and

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lawful demands upon the estate and settling up his estate according to law.  You will pay over and deliver all property and effects that remain in your hands according to the directions of the will and the laws of the land. 

Witness R. A. Ellis, clerk of said court, at office in Athens, the first Monday in November 1879.

                                                                                               R. A. Ellis, Clerk

On the following pages the genealogical date at hand on the grandchildren of James Shelton (8) will be set forth with pertinent notes.

The children of John Harrison and Naomi Shelton Robertson, who wed in McMinn County, Tennessee, on October 6, 1826, are as follows:

     James Shelton Robertson, born July 7, 1829, died May 15, 1908

     Caroline Robertson, born October 19, 1830

     Sarah (Sally) Robertson, born March 7, 1832

     Hortensia Robertson, born April 27, 1833

     Andrew Jackson Robertson, born February 17, 1835

     Felix G. Robertson, born July 26, 1836

     Mary Ann Robertson, born March 17, 1838

     Daniel Green Robertson, born October 5, 1839

     John C. Robertson, born November 24, 1841

     Francis A. Robertson, born July 9, 1843

     Benjamin H. Robertson, born November 24, 1844

     Catherine Tennessee Robertson, born May 24, 1846

James Shelton Robertson married Elvira E. Waterhouse July 6, 1856, she having been born in August in 1837.  They had a son Gideon born December 3, 1863, who died May 6, 1944, having married Frankie C.           , born January 10, 1871, who died August 1, 1956.  Gid as a boy was remembered by his cousin Catherine Shelton Henninger (Mrs. J. F.) in a letter she wrote several years ago.  She wrote that he was a few years older than she and that as a child she hated him because he teased her so unmercifully.  James and Elvira reportedly had several other children of both sexes.  One of the daughters, it is said, married a man by the name of Hawk.  One married a Marshall and two married Humphreys.  All of them in turn had children.  A Mrs. Morrison of Cleveland, Tennessee, is said to be a granddaughter of John and Naomi Robertson, daughter of James Shelton Robertson, it is believed.  James S. died May 15, 1908, Elvira December 20, 1897.

Caroline Robertson possibly married a man named Baker and it is noted that her husband was likely Jim Baker by whom she had a daughter Florence. 

Sarah (Sally) Robertson married a man named Black and moved out west, was married at one time to a man named Goarin.

Hortensia Robertson married L. P. Stephens.

Andrew Jackson (Jack) Robertson does not show in the records

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at hand as to whether or not he married and had children.

Felix G. Robertson married and had a son Felix, born in 1878, who died in 1957, having married Myrtle             , born in 1883 who died in 1964.  Felix 2 had three daughters (one set of twins) and one son.  In 1957 he and Myrtle had six grandchildren, all living in Cleveland, Tennessee.

Mary Ann Robertson is not in records at hand as to spouse or children.

Daniel Green Robertson who had the rate of blacksmith with Company E of 4^th Tennessee Cavalry, Union Army in the Civil War, is buried in the Cleveland, Tennessee, cemetery.  He married Elin Zerane Alexander, born May 14, 1850, who died March 17, 1935.  They had the following children:  William Fritz Robertson, born August 8, 1875; John Eugene Robertson, March 25, 1879; Margaret Isabella Robertson, April 1, 1882; Phillipa Mae Robertson, born March 26, 1885; and Benjamin Harrison Robertson, born September 15, 1888.  William Fritz Robertson had the following children:  William Fritz Robertson, Jr., deceased; Jeanette Robertson Trotter (Mrs. Joe M.), deceased as of October 5, 1970; Marie Robertson Brown (Mrs. Earl W.); Lieutenant Colonel Daniel E. Robertson, deceased; and James W. Robertson.  There are a number of grandchildren of William Fritz Robertson.  Included among these are the children of William Fritz Robertson, Jr., who had William Fritz Robertson III of Knoxville, Tennessee, and Connie Robertson Lesser (Mrs. Douglas) of Glassboro, New Jersey; and the children of Mrs. Earl W. Brown, who had Brenda Brown Taylor (Mrs. Alex), born about 1945, and Cindy Brown Miller (Mrs. James) born about 1947, the former now residing in North Carolina, the latter in Florida.

John C. Robertson was also a soldier in the War Between the States, though he fought for the south and was reportedly killed in the Battle of Atlanta, is said to be interred in the Confederate cemetery there. 

There is no record at hand of spouse or children of Francis A. Robertson.

Benjamin Harrison Robertson likely wed and had children.

Catherine Tennessee Robertson wed William LaFayette Hicks.

John Harrison Robertson, husband of Naomi Shelton Robertson, born November 12, 1801, died October 24, 1857.  Naomi, born December 14, 1811, died January 26, 1847.  John served for a time in the United States Army having enlisted July 19, 1824, at Cherokee Indian Agency.  He is listed in the McMinn County, Tennessee census of 1830 as married and having one male child under 5.  He was still with the army in the removal of the Cherokee Indians to their reservation in Oklahoma in 1838.  John H. was the first county clerk of Bradley County, Tennessee.  He was likely a relative of James Robertson, Tennessee pioneer, though according to a great-granddaughter, Jeanette Robertson Trotter, he was not a direct descendant.  He is buried in the Cleveland, Tennessee,

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cemetery, as is Naomi who died June 26, 1847.  The land for the cemetery, consisting of seven acres, was donated for the purpose by John Harrison Robertson.  His old home, which is still standing, is on the original homestead adjacent to the cemetery.  On the arch that spans his and Naomi’s gravestones is the following inscription:  “Why stranger dost thou tarry here – no longer dare delay – the judge is near and near the final hour.  O stranger go repent and sin no more.”

Of James’ daughter Nancy, born in 1817 in Tennessee, naught is known by this scribe.  She was likely born at her Hopper grandparents’ home at Ducktown in Polk County, Tennessee.  She may have died early, as the census of 1830 does not show but one child at age 10 to 15 in the James Shelton (8) household, that one likely being Cornelia, nor does James (8) include Nancy in a listing of his wives and children to that date (1835) on the flyleaf of an ancient book at hand.  She is, however, listed in the family Bible with James’ other children in a handwriting not James’, probably that of his last wife, Catherine.  Nancy may have stayed in Polk County with the Hoopers and may have married early.  The census of 1850 in Polk County includes the family of Benjamin Hyde, 29 years old.  His wife is shown as Nancy A. Hyde, 25.  The children are John A., 8; William A., 6; Cornelia M., 4; and Elizabeth A., age 1.  Except for the age shown for Nancy at 25, which could be in error, the family here looks like it could be that of James and Sarah Shelton’s daughter Nancy.  In the first place, the four children bear names of siblings of Nancy, and it is particularly significant that for her eldest daughter she chose the name Cornelia, unusual as it is, it being the name of her sister next younger than she.  Further, the Hyde family residence is located between the residences of a large family headed by one Steaphann Shelton, born 1775, and that of one headed by a James Shelton, born in Tennessee in 1822.  The residence has also a family of Hoopers near on either side. 

Of James and Sarah’s daughter, Cornelia, their second, naught is known either of her.  She is included in the list named above and in James’ family Bible, though in the family Bible the person making the entry listed her as Cornelius.  This is unquestionably an error.  James in his will noted that William C. Shelton was his eldest son.  Cornelia likely came to McMinn County with her mother when Sarah was in Polk County to visit her parents.  She probably made occasional visits to her Grandmother Hooper and may have married in Polk County.  The census of 1850 is James Shelton’s household one female age 10 to 15 which is likely Cornelia, she then being 11 years old.  I have no further record.

William C. and Sarah Rymer Shelton had the following children:

     George M. C. Shelton, born 1844

     Catherine Shelton, born 1846

     John Shelton, born 1849

     Timp Shelton, born 1854

     Dahl Shelton, born about 1856

There was a Miranda Shelton, age 20, with the Edward Taylor family in 1860, next door to William C., said to be his daughter.

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The children of William c. and Dorcus Paris Shelton were:

     James A. (Jim) Shelton born October 12, 1871, died January 1914.

     Callie Shelton born February 23, 1874 (Caldona).

     Laura Shelton born September 20, 1875.

     Sarah Shelton born February 6, 1878.

     Landon Shelton born January 24, 1880.

     Elsa Shelton born April 20, 1882.

     Myrtle Shelton born August 8, 1884.

     Julia Shelton, born January 2, 1888.

     Daisy Shelton born February 22, 1890.

     Jennie Shelton born March 25, 1894.

A letter at hand from Catherine Shelton Henninger (Mrs. J. F.) includes a description of William C. and his family.  Part is here quoted:

Uncle Bill was very like Grandfather in looks – blue eyes, fair skin, but hair, I think black, tall really fine looking, incidentally was a captain in the Union Army; made money easily and spent it without effort.  Consequently often came for a lift from my father, much to the disgust of my mother; but notwithstanding everybody loved Uncle Bill.  He also lived across the river, probably on the farm where the Hooper family lived.  He in later years bought a farm on Cane Creek Camp Ground.  Uncle Sam and I visited them during a camp meeting.  I think he tried to feed the whole crowd.  His home (farm) was near the camp ground and everybody was his friend.  Uncle bill had long reformed from his wayward ways.  At that time his older children, second wife, were teenage.  He was a very intelligent, interesting kind of man, generous to a fault.  He was married twice, first time to a Miss Jacks.  I never saw her.  They lived on the same farm that the Hoopers owned on Candas Creek that I have mentioned.  There were two sons, John and Dal.  John killed a man and both he and Dal went out to the far west.  He did not serve in prison as I recall.  For years Uncle Bill did not hear from him.  But later he did hear that John had died.  Dal came back to see his father while he was living at Cog Hill.  Uncle Bill married a Miss Jerusia Paris or Farris, an awfully good woman.  They raised a big family.  Their eldest son James visited us often.  Also Callie and Laura, but not so often.  I have lost all sight of all of them.  My youngest brother died in James’ home near Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Uncle Bill, I was told, in his late years lost his mind.

The daughter, Miranda, born 1840 when Bill was 19, reportedly out of wedlock, was shown by the census of 1860 to be living in the household of one Edward Taylor and family in Bradley County, two houses from Bill Shelton’s residence.  Miranda reportedly died early in life.  Jim Sharp who resided in Meigs County at Goodfield, Tennessee, said to be son of Bill born in 1836, was of good heritage.  Bill and Sarah’s daughter Catherine died about 10, John and Dahl married sisters, Flora and Adeline Jack.  John had two sons, one of whom was named Homer and both of whom are said to have died early in life.  Dahl reportedly had no children.  John and Dahl wed in east Tennessee and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, and died there.  The census of 1860 has no record of either George M. C. or Timp, the latter originally shown as a female, age 6.  Likely

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this is really Dahl, as he is not shown and would have been about 6.

Bill and Dorcas’ son James A. Shelton, born October 12, 1871, wed Minnie Viola Purcell of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in 1897 and lived in Joplin, Missouri.  They had Earl, Landon, Beuna, Catherine, Vera and LaHoma.  Some of the descendants of these children live in Missouri; others live in each Kentucky, California, Texas, Colorado and other places.  Jim died in January 1814.  This son, the eldest of Bill and Dorcas’ children, wrote his Uncle Sam Shelton on January 14, 1909:

“It has been quite a while since I heard from you, so I would like to know if any of you have got away.  I wrote to Jeff Shelton (his first cousin being his Uncle John Shelton’s son) at Gudger about 16 months ago but never heard from him.  (Jeff died on February 11, 1909, less than a month after the date of this letter.)  How is Aunt, your wife, and children?  I can’t remember her name, but I think I would know her if I could see her.  (He refers to his Aunt Viola.)  Dolly and Henry, are they still in Dayton?  Landon Shelton (his younger brother who was 9 years younger than he) was to see me last month.  He is at McKellop’s in Oklahoma.  That is Myrtle’s name.  (See pages 62 and 63 for data on Myrtle’s first husband, the father of Marla Shelton.)  They live in Muskogee but are all on a hunting trip in the Kinnish Mountains.  All are well; write soon.  With regards to all.  J. A. Shelton.”

Noted hereon are data from recent correspondence with descendants of William C. Shelton’s son James a. (Jim) Shelton.  Among these letters are those from Vicki Schneider, daughter of Jim’s daughter LaHoma; Vera Diehl, Jim’s daughter; and from Kay Scot, daughter of Jim’s son, Earl K. Shelton.  They provided valuable information on the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Jim and his wife Minnie Purcell Shelton.  All of these expressed interest in knowing more about their antecedents.  Vicki furnished information on the military service record of her great-grandfather William C. Shelton.  She also provided the middle name of William c. as Carroll where this writer had supposed it was Chamberlain.  William’s daughter, Laura Shelton Walker, had told me his middle name was likely Chamberlain, since he had named his youngest son Landon Chamberlain.  Vicki also gave the middle name of her grandfather James as Austin, which I hadn’t known.  The following data was furnished on the children of James Austin and Minnie Purcell Shelton:

Earl K. Shelton, son of James A. and Minnie Purcell Shelton, was born about 1900, died about 1974.  He wed Crystal May Berryhill, who was born Oktaha, Oklahoma in 1902 in about 1920.  They had five children:  Juanita Catherine, who wed a Hect and had 2 sons, resides in Louisville, Kentucky; Billie Marie, also of Louisville, who had no children; Earl K. Jr., who has 2 children, Cindy and Bruce Shelton, lives in Upton, California; Kay (christened Viola Ione), who was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1924, wed O. E. Scott, lives in northern California, has 2 sons, Richard Morris Scott, born 1940, and Ronald Stephen Westphal, born 1942, both in Glendale, California; and James A. Shelton, who was adopted by his mother’s sister and her husband and took their name.  He became James Frank Foshee.  James lives in Dallas, Texas, has 3 children, James Russell, Betty Jo and Thomas Foshee.  Crystal May Berryhill Shelton died when

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James A. was 18 months old.  She was Cherokee Indian whose grandfather was Jake Berryhill in Oktaha.  At the time of the removal of the Indians to Oklahoma in 1843, Jake, who was then only 5 years old, became separated from his family.  It is quite possible that his parents perished, as many of the Indians did in that trek.  Jake is mentioned in several books anent the Removal, among which are Trail of Tears and a History of the Cherokee.

Landon George Shelton, son of James A. and Minnie Purcell Shelton, was born about 1902.  He died about 1968.   He had daughter Beverly and son Robert.  Beverly married           Hards, has a son.  They live in San Bernardino, California. 

Beuna Juanita (Tootsie) Shelton, daughter of James A. and Minnie Purcell Shelton, was born about 1903, died in 1977.  She wed Maurice Luther Fowler.  They had 2 sons, Landon Lee Fowler and Maurice Luther Fowler, Jr.  Landon Lee was killed in the war about 1945.  He had married and had daughter Susan Fowler.  Maurice Luther Fowler, Jr., died of Pneumonia at ate 2 ½.

Katherine Madge Shelton, daughter of James A. and Minnie Purcell Shelton, was born in 1904.  She wed           Wallin, who died in 1978.  They had 2 daughters, Betty Jane and Maureen Pricilla.  Betty Jane married Robert Hagenbuch.  They live in Arcadia California, have 2 sons, Michael Lee, who is unwed and Robert Laurence, who wed Donna Wiecker.  Maureen Pricilla wed         McClelland and lived in Glendale, California, they have 2 sons, Carter and James Patrick.  Carter wed Stephanie         and has Cary Palmer and William Spencer McClelland.  James Patrick wed Shirley Cummings and has daughter Krystal Joelle McClelland.  Maureen, a college professor, was killed in an automobile accident in early 1985.  Katherine, who lived in Chula Vista, California, died May 14, 1985.  Following is from a letter from Betty Jane of December 28, 1985.  “My sister, Maureen, was killed in an auto accident the early part of February and Mom was not able o cope with the loss.  Mom had a massive heart attack and went very quickly.  Thank God!”

Vera Charlotte Shelton, daughter of James A. and Minnie Purcell Shelton, was born about 1909.  She wed          Diehl.  He died in 1978.  They had one child, a daughter, Delores Ray Diehl.  Delores wed         Rector.  He was killed in an automobile accident.  They had son Douglas Calvin Rector.  Vera raised her grandson Douglas.  He now lives in Portland, Oregon.  He wed Lori Webb.  They have daughter Kaycie Delores Rector, born July 23, 1984.  Vera enjoyed her trips to Portland more account of her brand new great-granddaughter.  The baby was born on her grandmother Delores’ birthday.  Vera died on October 2, 1985.  The following is further from a letter of December 28, 1985, from Betty Jane Hagenbuch:  “After Mon’s death, Aunt Vera made a quick move to Portland to be near her grandson.  Aunt Vera died in October of a stroke.  Again she had difficulty with the death of Mom.  (They had lived in adjacent trailer homes in Chula Vista.), the two of them were so very close …”  Another one at hand, this one from Florence Well mother of Lori Webb Rector, dated December 30, 1985:  “… Ver Diehl passed away October 2, 1985.  She was in the hospital about 10 days.  Her heart gave out.  It was a shock to all of us, especially for Doug.  … Vera had moved to Sandy, Oregon, in July to be near Doug and Lori and the great-granddaughter Kaycie.  Doug is married to my daughter Lori …”

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LaHoma Christine Shelton, daughter of James A. and Minnie Purcell Shelton, was born about 1911.  She wed        Dickson.  She lives in Lake Ellsinore, California.  She has 2 daughters, Joyce Lynn and Vicki C.  Joyce Lynn, who lives in Glendale, California, wed Robert McDonough.  They have 6 children:  Denis Lynn, Mary Kathleen, Colleen Ann, Michael Robert, Mark Daniel and Su Lani.  Denis Lynn wed Timothy Reis and lives in London, England where Tim is in the Air Force, have daughter Allison Marie and son James Reis.  Mary Kathleen wed Dan Krebs and has son Adam Jacob Krebs.  Colleen is unwed, is a teacher in Lake Ellsinore.  Michael Robert wed Kelly Kern and has Mark Robert McDonough and one other.  Mark Daniel is supposedly unwed.  Su Lani is adopted, she being a native of Seoul Korea.  Vicki C. Dickson, Lahoma’s younger daughter, wed Mike Schneider.  They live in Lakewood, Colorado.  They have 3 sons, Eric, born 1964; Brett, born 1967; and Jason, born 1974.  At hand are snapshots which were enclosed in a letter from Vicki of (1) her with her great Aunt Myrtle and sister Joyce, (2) her wit her own mother LaHoma and Joyce, and (3) Vicki’s sons Brett, Eric and Jason.  The snaps taken in March, 1984, are treasures.  The one of Cousin Myrtle shows her as she approaches her 100^th birthday o August 8, 1984, still beautiful and happy to be posing with likewise beautiful grand nieces.  The one of LaHoma with her daughters shows her to be about 50, although she is undoubtedly in her 70s.

James Austin Shelton was killed in a coal mine accident in Canada in January 1914.  His brother Landon had accompanied him to work there and it was Landon who wrote to Minnie to inform her of the accident.  James A.’s wife, Minnie Purcell Shelton, who was born in Eureka Springs, Kansas, about 1880, died in 1954.  At the time of James’ death she and the children were staying with Minnie’s family.  He had told her if anything happened to him while he was away that she and the children should go to their Aunt Myrtle’s and Uncle Arthur McKellop’s place in Muskogee, Oklahoma.  The McKellops were said to have owned 360 acres of peach and apple orchards.  They had also space where they raised thoroughbred horses.  After James’ death Minnie and the children had hard times, but when the older children reached an age where they could be gainfully employed the family moved to the city, and Earl, Landon and Beuna went to work to help meet expenses, as did Katherine shortly thereafter, while the 2 youngest – LaHoma and Vera – went to school.

Caldona (Callie) Shelton, eldest daughter of William C. by Dorcas Paris Shelton, was born February 3, 1874.  She wed W. C. Lewis of Atlanta.  They had 4 children, two of whom survive.  The survivors are Carroll, born 1900, and Lelia, born 1905.  Carroll wed and resides in Washington, D. C. area.  He has 2 daughters, Jane and Carol.   Jane wed Steve           .  Carol wed Douglas Cox.  They have at least one child, a son.  Lelia Lewis wed J. Furman Mitchell.  They had 3 children, Jimmy, Marilyn and Eleanor Mitchell.  They lived in Atlanta.  Jimmy is married, has 2 daughters and one son.  Marilyn is married and has 4 daughters.  Eleanor was married for a time to          Jackson, has no children.  But Lelia does have grandchildren, 7 of them and numerous great-grandchildren.  Her husband died June 21, 1984.  Callie Shelton Lewis passed away several years ago, W. C. in July 1954 some years earlier.  Lelia’s Aunt Jennie and daughters Julia Lois Harr and Mildred Furbush visited Lelia and Furman a few years ago in Atlanta.

Laura Shelton, second daughter of William C. and Dorcas Paris Shel-

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ton, was born September 10, 1875.  She married Thomas A. Walker on December 16, 1894.  They resided in Etowah, Tennessee.  They had 6 children, 4 male, 2 female:  J. Nat, Felix, Thomas A. Jr., Shelton Reid, Nell, and Dorcas.  J. Nat was a locomotive engineer with Louisville and Nashville Railroad and lived in Etowah, Tennessee.  After retirement he moved to Massachusetts.  He died in March 1985, is buried in the cemetery at Etowah.  Felix Walker was a merchant in Blue Ridge, Georgia, his last known address.  Thomas A. Walker, Jr., was an architect with Combustion Engineers in Chattanooga, married and resides at Signal Mountain, Tennessee.  Shelton Reid Walker, youngest son of Laura and Thomas, passed away at a young age, I believe in his early twenties.  Their daughter Nell resides in Atlanta.  Dorcas Walker, youngest of the children, who this writer remembers as a very beautiful young girl cousin from when the family used to visit our home at Sheltola, Calhoun, Tennessee, wed Elmer B. Ethridge.  They had Marla Shelton Ethridge, born March 11, 1939, and Bruce LaMar Ethridge, born April 4, 1936.  Marla wed Aubrey H. Mitchell.  Both are employed at the University of Tennessee,

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A 1978 photo of three Shelton descendents of California

Myrtle died in July, 1984, sixteen days short of 100; Jennie, now at 92 (1986), lives in San Bernardino, California.  Julia, now 98, also lives in San Bernardino.  For data on their families, see pages 62-69.

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Knoxville.  They had Laura Lea Mitchell, born October 24, 1964, and Aubrey Todd Mitchell, born January 22, 1968.  Laura Lea wed William Scott Lane on June 29, 1985.  Bruce LaMar Ethridge wed Ana Clark.  They have sons Kirk Steven Ethridge, born about 1960, who wed Amy Elkins, and Craig Neal, born about 1962.  Elmer died several years ago, Dorcas only in June, 1977.  Laura Shelton Walker was going on 93 when she died on January 11, 1968.   Thomas A., Sr., born 1846, died in 1926.  (See chart page 387.)

Sarah Shelton, next in line of Bill and Dorcas’ children, was likely named for her grandmother, Sarah Hooper Shelton, was born February 6, 1878.  She married Sterling Porter, lived for a time in Etowah, Tennessee.  They had a daughter Elsa who married a Green, and daughter Beulah who married a Carver.  There was a Sterling Porter who used to visit the Saupaws at the old John E. Shelton home.  I as a lad remember his working for Dolly and Henry in the yard at The Oaks, as their home was called.  This was in the 1920s, he then being probably 20 years of age and a very jovial person.  Possibly he was a son of Sarah and Sterling.  He was for sure akin to Dolly, she likely being his mother’s first cousin.

Landon Shelton, one of the two sons of William C. and Dorcas Paris Shelton, being the younger, was born January 24, 1880, moved to Butte, Montana, married late in life.  They had no children.  His widow survived him by several years, her home being in Seattle.

Elsa Shelton married Taylor Cooper of Golden, Missouri in the Ozark Mountains.  She was born April 20, 1882.  She and Taylor had 3 sons and a daughter.  The sons were R. L., James and Fred.  The girl was named Catherine – Katy, they called her – who wed Arvil Bouton and lived in Berryville, Arkansas, not so far from Golden.

Myrtle Shelton, born August 8, 1884, died on July 23, 1984, just 16 days before her 100^th birthday.  She resided in San Diego, was still going strong at 99 plus.  As a young woman she was a reigning beauty, Southern style, who might have retired on her laurels as such but who continued to progress mentally, even on her 78^th birthday having taken her solo flight for her pilot’s license.  Her apparent philosophy is contained in an admonition to her daughter that “One cannot grow old gracefully!  One may mature but only becomes old when she stops growing.”  A picture of her I have at had with her sisters Julia Baugh and Jennie Tillotson taken 7 years ago at her home in California confirms the beauty and apparent good health of the three at the time.  Julia is now 97, Jennie 91.  Myrtle’s first husband was a Muskogee Indian named Arthur Albert McKellop, son of Albert Pike McKellop, a leader in his tribe in Indian territory days of Oklahoma.  They had Alberta Pearl, born October 12, 1912, an intelligent and beautiful lass who gained fame and fortune both as an actress and a writer of lyrics and dialogue for musical productions for screen and radio.  She attended the University of Oklahoma and later California State College.  She was given an Indian name in her tribe, meaning in Muskogee language “rippling waters”.  She took up acting temporarily and chose her stage name Marla Shelton, because, she said, she wanted a name like her mother’s maiden name.  Marla’s godfather and advisor was Patrick Hurley, later Secretary of War under President Herbert Hoover.  Her father and mother were divorced and Myrtle married an Atwater.  Marla lived with her father until she was 18, never seeing her mother, her father desiring that she be raised as an Indian.  But she went to Hollywood and her mother joined her there.  A letter from Myrtle is at hand: 

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San Diego, California, August 28, 1937.  Dear Paul:  Explanation:  I am Marla Shelton’s mother, formerly Myrtle Shelton.  Your letter to your cousin, Marla Shelton, is still undelivered.  Marla is on vacation and your letter is being held until she returns.  Her address is 212 Oceano Drive, West Los Angeles, California.  She will be pleased to receive your letter.  Marla looks a great deal like the Sheltons – Dollie, Jasper and Jennie.  Of course you do not remember Jasper and Jennie, but if you will compare pictures, you can readily see the resemblance.  I feel quite flattered that she took Marla Shelton as her stage name.  She said it was the nearest to Myrtle Shelton, her mother’s maiden name, that she could get, besides I like to have folks know that she is a Shelton.

How I would like to see Uncle Sam and Aunt Viola and all the rest of you!  Uncle Sam was always sort of an idol of mine, but to him I was just one of many of his nieces – his brother Bill’s daughter Myrtle.  Ask him if he still remembers me.  (Her Uncle Sam, then 83, died on December 14 following.)  Aunt Viola was a darling.  I still don’t know how Uncle Sam got her to say yes.  Please write me every little detail about everything and everybody.   Your Cousin,

                                                                                                 Myrtle Atwater

William C. Shelton and wife Dorcas lived with their family in McMinn County, Tennessee at Cog Hill.  The children went to school in Athens.  Among Myrtle’s friends were Frank Payne and Mrs. Roy Holsclaw.  As a young woman she went to Oklahoma and married.  She divorced her husband and moved to California and remarried.  At the time of the above letter she was a widow, her last husband, Ulrikson, being deceased. 

I’d say that Alberta Pearl likely became an actress in the movies inadvertently.  Once, as an executive consultant with Max Factor cosmetics, a business appointment required her presence in a Paramount Pictures executive meeting as a technical advisor-to-be on an upcoming film.  Not surprisingly, the outcome was an unsought, un-thought-of contract for acting.  A three-year agreement ensued.  This scribe had the good fortune of attending a number of the movies in which she played:  Stand In, Fifth-Second Street and Nobody’s Fool.  Among other appearances on the screen were Escape to Paradise and Western Serials.  She was tested for the part of Scarlett in Gone With the Wind and not having gotten the part rejected the role of Belle Watling.  She was and is a truly beautiful and talented woman.  There are a number of letters from her at hand, some while she was making movies and others of recent dates.  They are extremely interesting and informative, reflecting a vivacious and intelligent person.  Married to Jack Dawn, the make-up artist on May 28, 1937, they had two children, one of each sex, the eldest of the two having been born in 1938.  She wrote of attending a Shelton reunion, that her Uncle Landon was there from butte, Montana, and there was a total of 41 Sheltons present and eight in-laws.  She related that she had lived with her father for some years but went back to her mother, that her mother took her to visit her mother’s sisters.  She wrote that she had fallen in love with her Cousin Fred Baugh, her Aunt Julia’s son, a year older than she.  Her husband, Jack Dawn, she wrote, was accustomed to large families, his being a large one in Kentucky and Tennessee.  Marla had a sister Merideth who died of cancer in her late forties.

Marla divorced Jack Dawn and remarried.  This husband, N. Gayle

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Gitterman, now deceased, was an executive of Warner Brothers.  Marla some years of age experienced dire tragedy in her life.  Her daughter, son-in-law and their four children, the Peters family, were in the crash of a private plane wherein the daughter and all of the children were killed.  The son-in-law and one child, granddaughter James Peters, survived the crash, but both were seriously injured.  

Marla at age 66 enrolled at Saddleback College for refresher courses, was an outstanding student, wrote for the student paper and was active in community affairs.

Though she had not aspired to be an actress, became one not of her own volition, she had a successful three-years career in moving pictures; but she hated it.  And just as long as it took her to get extricated from contract entanglement was the extent of her involvement with acting in the movies.  She preferred to offer what was behind the façade of comeliness – a brilliant mind and enthusiasm for writing and producing.  Vincent Youmans, one of America’s foremost composers, he of “Tea for Two” and other hits fame, recognized in Marla this attribute, preferring it more than symmetry, and during the last three years of his life concentrated on teaching her to write lyrics.  She wrote the lyrics score for his New York show after which she returned to Hollywood and wrote for motion picture musicals.  During this time she also wrote and acted on her own show for CBS radio for one season.  Currently she writes a weekly column for the Laguna Chronicle, The Turning Point.  See pages 403 and 404. 

Alberta at the age of 12 was the youngest girl in the world to have taken a first class commercial radio operator’s license, and the record still stands.  She built and operated Station 4FN (Miami, Florida).  At the time of the 1926 hurricane in Miami she and her dad by radio were the only means of communication out of Miami for a 3-day period.  Her son John Wesley Dawn, Jr. (Wes) follows in his father’s footsteps and is now one of the top make-up men in the industry, having in 1979, for instance, supervised the makeup for the picture Urban Cowboy, being Travolta’s makeup designer for this production.  Marla, in her 60’s found life to be most enjoyable, her past titles of Miss Houston, Miss Tulsa and Miss California or even the national winner’s title could not have brought the exhilaration of the honor of making the Dean’s list at Saddleback College.  This latter achievement is enhanced in that Marla has considerable hearing loss and had to lip-read the instructors, could not even take notes, for if she’d taken her eyes away it would have caused her to lose some of what the instructor said.

Marla in her late 60’s had due in part to an auto accident in which she sustained severe injuries, to financial losses and to earlier tragedies affecting her family, entered a period of deep depression in 1980.  During that time my correspondence with her consisted of letters directed to her.  She has since recovered and her letters again reflect her brilliant and vibrant self.  She recently worked with her local medical center auxiliary where her duties were to check elderly shut-ins.  Lately she has become a volunteer library assistant.  Being an avid reader and seeing the need of expediting the handling of incoming books to get them on the shelves quickly – she would see a book she wanted in a stack awaiting preparation to go on a shelf – she devised a scheme to expedite their availability, applied it.  Recently, however, at Wes and Sherri Dawn’s house, on inadvertently opening a door to the basement instead of the bathroom

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Adjacent, she fell headlong down fifteen ladder-like stairs to the cement floor.  Both of her ankles were broken and a knee cap had to be replaced.  Typifying the Shelton breed in stubbornness she was at last account making a quick recovery.  Marla has a neighbor, one Colonel James Shelton, who she feels is a part of our tribe from far back, that James and Mark have been names in his family for generations.  For photograph of Marla turn the page.  A correspondent for her local paper, she writes a charming column The Turning Point.  Marla’s son Wes has 2 daughters, Erin and Anna Dawn.  Another grandchild is Jamie Ann Peters, the survivor of the plane crash.  Erin and Anna attended school in New Jersey.  Jamie now lives with Marla. 

Julia Keith Shelton, eighth child of William C. and Dorcas Paris Shelton, was born January 2, 1888 in McMinn County, Tennessee.  She married James David Baugh, born May 26, 1888, on December 28, 1907.  Julia lives in San Bernardino, California, is widowed.  A picture of her taken 3 Christmases ago approaching her 94^th birthday shows her to be not only hale and hearty but “pretty as a picture”.  She and James David had 6 children:  Auda Shea Baugh, Frederick W., Ruth, Alma Julia, Edith Louise, James David Jr.

Auda Shea Baugh, daughter of James David and Julia Keith Shelton Baugh, was born in Tennessee on October 28, 1908.  She wed Phil Stearns.  They reside in Redlands, California. 

Frederick W. Baugh, son of James David and Julia Keith Shelton Baugh , was born in Tennessee on March 7, 1911.  He married Marion Grace Drayer, daughter of Hugh E. and Cora Drayer.  They have 2 sons, Bruce and Craig.  Bruce was born June 7, 1944.  He graduated from California State College in Fullerton in 1971 after serving 2 years in the army in Alaska.  He wed Suzanne Ivan on October 11, 1980, she having son Colin, born May 6, 1977 by an earlier marriage.  Bruce is a manufacturer’s representative in the metals industry.  They live in Auburn, Washington.  Fredrick’s son Craig Baugh graduated from UCLA in 1969, is a potter in Whitefish, Montana, makes stoneware and porcelain, has galleries in Montana, Hawaii and Kansas.  He wed Rae Ciskey in 1980, is divorced.  Fred is retired after 40 years with California Department of Employment, spends time gardening, golfing, fishing and painting.

Ruth Baugh, daughter of James David and Julia Keith Shelton Baugh, born July 17, 1916, died January 3, 1918.

Alma Julia Baugh, daughter of James David and Julia Keith Shelton Baugh, was born in California on August 20, 1918.  She wed and had children.  She died January 3, 1976. 

Edith Louise Baugh, daughter of James David and Julia Keith Shelton Baugh, was born in California on August 30, 1921.  She married Ivan Leslie Smith on May 14, 1946, resides in Oneida, New York.  They had 3 children:  Ivan Leslie Smith III (Skip), Keith Louise, and Abbie Jean Smith.

Ivan Leslie Smith III (Skip), son of Ivan Leslie and Edith Baugh Smith, was born July 29, 1947.  He went to prep school at St. Andrews at Sewanee, Tennessee.  Enroute to take him to school they once visited Edith’s aunts Laura and Sarah and

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Marla Shelton

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Born Alberta Pearl McKellop to Myrtle Shelton and Arthur Albert McKellop, a Muskogee Indian in Oklahoma in 1912.  Her grandfather, Albert Pike McKelloop, a leader in his tribe in Oklahoma Territory, was a friend of Patrick Hurley who became Secretary of War under Hoover and Alberta’s godfather.  Alberta attended the University of Oklahoma and later California State College.  She, at 18, joined her mother in California.  An intelligent and beautiful young woman, she gained fame in Hollywood and New York as an actress and writer of lyrics and dialogue for musical productions for screen and radio.  When she was 12 on a sojourn in Florida with her father, she took a first class commercial radio operator’s license, was the youngest girl in the world to have such a license and the record still stands.  Married to Jack Dawn, the makeup artist, in 1937, she has two children.  She played in several movies, starred in some, but she preferred to offer what was behind the comeliness – a brilliant mind and enthusiasm for writing and producing.  She and Jack Dawn were divorced.  She later wed N. Gayle Gitterman, an executive of Warner Brothers, now deceased.  Marla remains active, recently returned to college for refresher courses, was an outstanding student, having made the Dean’s list.  See page 63 for further information on Marla and her family.

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other relatives in Etowah, Tennessee.  After prep school Skip went to the University of South Carolina.  After graduating here he went to Berk Lee School of Music in Boston.  Now a musician, he recently wed his college girlfriend in Columbia and took her back to Oneida to live. 

Keith Louise Smith, daughter of Ivan Leslie and Edith Baugh Smith, was born July 16, 1951.  She wed Howard Rubin and both have busy careers in New York.

 Abbie Jean Smith, daughter of Ivan Leslie and Edith Baugh Smith, was born April 4, 1953.  She earned a PhD in accounting at Cornell, is a professor in the graduate school of business at the University of Chicago.

Edith Louise Baugh was a Woman’s Air Force Service Pilot (WASP) in World War II, surviving as an instructor, had commercial pilot license with instruction and instrument rating.  Her husband, Ivan Leslie Smith retired recently as Vice President of Oneida Ltd., a firm with which he spent his entire working career.

James David Baugh, Jr., son of James David and Julia Keith Shelton Baugh, was born in California on March 14, 1923.  He wed Mary H. Patterson, born April 23, 927 on July 25, 1945.  James David Jr. and Mary had 2 children, Thomas David Baugh and Julie Helen Baugh.

Thomas David Baugh, son of James David Jr. and Mary Patterson Baugh, was born August 19, 1953.  He wed Teresa Mofield, born July 25, 1953, on March 10, 1975.  They had two children:  Molly Kate, born February 24, 1980, and Megan Elizabeth, born December 17,1984.  Thomas D. is a PhD. 

Julie Helen Baugh, daughter of James David Jr. and Mary Patterson Baugh, was born June 4, 1957.  She wed           Henderson resides near her parents with her son Michael.

James David and Mary and their children are natives of San Bernardino, California.  Their son, Dr. Thomas D. Baugh, like his cousin, Abbie Jean Smith, who earned a PhD at Cornell, earned his doctorate at the University of Florida at Gainesville in organic chemistry.  He resides with his family at Ponca City, Oklahoma, where he is employed in the oil industry.

In a recent note from Auda Baugh Stearns, who lives in Redlands, California, she wrote of a visit she and Phil made to east Tennessee a short while back:  “When we were in Etowah, Tom Walker (Tom Jr., Laura’s son) took us to Lamontville where we took a picture of the Shelton Memorial Church.  My brother Fred did an oil painting for me from the photograph.  So we are always reminded of Lamontville.  (That hamlet is a community on the Calhoun-to-Big-Springs road.  The church is on the old Shelton Ferry road one and one half miles south of Lamontville and half a mile north of the old Shelton homestead.)  I understand the church is now being torn down: what a pity, it was so pretty.  (the church still stands but it has been stripped of its pews, stained glass windows, lamps, bell, etc., and is used by a Mr. Farmer as a hay barn, he having purchased the property.)”  For

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Further information on Shelton Memorial church see page 92 on Virginia Muncy Shelton.  In recent correspondence with Auda she wrote that she and brother Fred were avid golfers.  She wrote that Julia, her mother, lives less than half an hour from her, that she remembers so much about growing up, family and events, Auda enjoying her vivid descriptions bout events of the past.  She remembers that her father, William Shelton, was much older than her mother, Dorcas, that he was very strict, that he had a dog named Sherman which was always with him at his side as  they walked for miles and miles.  Her father couldn’t see too well, so he had one of his daughters read to him from the Bible every morning, that he was able to quote chapter after chapter.  Julia confirmed that his middle name was Carroll.  She said that her mother was very close to her children and very special, that her mother was very pretty and had the bluest and most beautiful eyes. 

Dorcas died in 1906, William having passed on 2 years earlier.  She said that Jennie was sent to a boarding school and Daisy went to live with Myrtle in Oklahoma, that Landon and Julie lived on at the old homeplace until she wed in 1907.  Then Landon left about a year or so later.  Then Julia’s older sister Callie’s husband, W. C. Lewis, bought the homeplace and later sold it to an outsider.  Julia said that it was a beautiful home.  Their Uncle Sam use to visit them, bringing with him 2 nieces, Jennie and Dollie, before Sam was married, and she remembered the elegant surrey he had, drawn by handsome horses.  She remembered him and Aunt Viola with much fondness when they lived at the old Shelton home that James (8) –Bill and Sam’s father –had built in 1820 and that they had arrived there by boat.  That was before Sheltola was built, that it was when Aunt Viola had her first baby, James Hardin Shelton, and that she (Julie) pushed the baby in his buggy.  (She was 12 years old.)  She remembered her Aunt Viola as a beautiful and most gracious lady, that everyone dressed for dinner, always a white linen table cloth, that whenever one of the sisters visited Uncle Sam, Aunt Viola would send them home with a supply of pretty dresses from Sam’s store and the other sisters would be jealous.  Julia recalls Grandmother Shelton, Sam’s stepmother, how she always wore her little night cap in bed and thought she was her own grandmother and lived her.  And she remembered the Saulpaws who lived up the road on the John Shelton homeplace, that it was a lovely home and that she had there a beautiful bedroom all to herself, four poster bed and all. 

In correspondence with Auda’s sister, Edith Louise Smith, of Oneida, New York, she too recalled stories her mother told of visiting the old James Shelton homeplace and at the store in the “bend of the river”.  She wrote of her family, that data being included on preceding pages. 

Daisy Shelton, 9^th in line of William C. and Dorcas Paris Shelton’s ten children, was born February 22, 1890.  She died in 1917 without, I believe, having wed. 

Jennie Lynn Shelton, 10^th and youngest of the children of William C. and Dorcas Paris Shelton, was born in McMinn County, Tennessee on March 25, 1894.  She wed          Tillotson in about 1812, is widow-

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ed.  Jennie too resides in San Bernardino, California.  They have 2 daughters, Julia Lois Baugh Tillotson and Mildred Georgiana Tillotson.

Julia Lois Baugh Tillotson, daughter of Jennie Lynn Shelton and          Tillotson, was born May 22, 1913.  She wed Charles M. Harr on November 11, 1931.  They reside in California.  They had one child, a daughter.  She was Patricia Joane Harr who was born August 2, 1937, wed Peter Forbes Fisher on February 14, 1958, had Peter Forbes Fisher, Jr., born May 4, 1961, who wed Pamela Kay Ward on August 20, 1980.  Peter and Patricia’s second child was Paul Eric Fisher, born March 28, 1965; their third was Phillip Charles Fisher, born January 7, 1970.  Julia and Charles and family reside in California. 

Mildred Georgiana Tillotson, daughter of Jennie Lynn Shelton and        Tillotson, was born march 22, 1918.  She wed Edward Arthur Furbush, born July 18, 1912, on February 20, 1943.  They had 2 daughters:  Sandra Kay Furbush, who was born Aug. 7, 1944, who wed Michael Charles Lynch, born November 28, 1968, and Douglas Edward, born August 24, 1970.  Mildred and Edward’s other daughter is Jacqueline Lee Furbush, born March 20, 1949.  She wed Thomas Edward McClanahan, born July 30, 1946, on March 21, 1970.  They have Ryan Edward, born July 23, 1976, and Heather Lynn, born December 4, 1978.

William Carroll Shelton, son of James (8) and Sarah Hooper Shelton, born September 4, 1820, in McMinn County, Tennessee, died July 7, 1904, age 84.  He was 30 years older than his wife, Dorcas Paris Shelton, she having been born the same date in 1850.  They were wed in about 2870.  Dorcas Paris Shelton died February 13, 1906.  William C., colorful veteran of three wars – the Seminole Indian War, the War with Mexico and the War Between the States – having been captain in the latter, in his last years often visited with his kin, at times returning to the old homeplace for a visit with his younger half-brother Sam.  Sophia Henninger Steele, a grand niece, being John E.’s granddaughter, once wrote of remembering a childhood visit to the old homeplace when Uncle Bill was there:  “I think he was 90 at the time.  Aunt Viola played the piano and he clog danced for us.  To me – a child at that time – he was just unbelievable.”

In May of 1972 this writer visited the cemetery at Cog Hill, Tennessee, where Uncle Bill and Aunt Dorcas are buried.  The site is in McMinn County near Etowah.  The cemetery was at the time unattended, it being badly overgrown and many of the monuments overturned.  This

 See page 70

William C Shelton Military documents

See Page 71

See Page 72

A Civil War era letter from William Shelton

 See page 73

William Shelton Release document

See page 74

William Shelton Medical Certificate

See Page 75

William Shelton Resignation Letter

See page 76

William Shelton Resignation Letter of Acceptance

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graveyard is likely known as Carlock Cemetery as there is a large marker near the entrance to a man of that name, ostensibly a person of some renown.  The place is off Highway U. S. 411 south of Etowah.  At the time of this visit, there was a road sign just two miles south of the southernmost traffic light in the town which read “Welcome to Cog Hill Baptist Church”.  A right turn was indicated.  Following the road in that direction for 6 tenths mile keeping to the left, the cemetery was found to be on the right.  The graves are on the backside of the lot.  Alongside the grave of William is that of Dorcas and on the other side is the grave of J. M. Paris, likely Dorcas’ brother.  Bill’s marker and that of J. M. Paris were toppled from their foundations.  They are large monuments in three parts, and some difficulty was experienced in getting them back up and placing them in good order.  From left to right the markers read: 

J. M. Paris

b. June 17, 1852

d. June 23, 1905

Captain William C. Shelton

b. Sept. 4, 1820

d. July 17, 1904

“Asleep in Jesus”

Mother

Dorcas, wife of William C. Shelton

b. Sept. 4, 1850

d. Feb. 13, 1906

“Asleep in Jesus”

Andrew H. Shelton, fourth child, second son of James and Sarah Hooper Shelton, was born March 25, 1822.  His middle name was likely Hooper, as this was his mother’s maiden name.  It is noted that he owned a farm in Bradley County, Tennessee, across the Hiawassee River from his father’s homeplace and on land adjacent to and beyond that of Andy Hooper, who presumably was his uncle.  There is no record at hand of a marriage or children of Andrew.  It is indicated in a letter at hand from John E. Shelton to their father, James (8), that Andrew did marry and that he owned land and was living in Washington County, Missouri, in 1866, at which time John E. had stopped with Andrew there enroute to greenwood County, Kansas, to settle their brother, Lewis’ estate, Andrew having previously sold his land in Bradley County, Tennessee, to his brother Bill.  John’s letter follows:

Washington County, Missouri, June 6, 1866.  Dear Father.  It is with great pleasure that I take my pen in hand to let you know that I am well at present and have arrived at Andrew Shelton’s on the third instant.  I have had very good luck on my trip so far.  I had to walk some twenty miles in getting here; and we intend to start in the morning to the southwest branch of the Pacific Railroad, which is about 16 miles, and thence to the Pacific, which will be about 35 miles by railroad, thence to some point in Kansas, and we think we can travel in about seventy or eighty miles of where we want to go, then I expect to walk the balance of the trip; and I will write as soon as I get there.  Andrew is well acquainted with the man who has been managing Lewis’ estate and thinks that they are men who will do what is right with it.  Andrew sends his best respects to

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all of you and will write as soon as he gets back.  So I will close by saying I will be back as soon as I can close the business I came for.  From John E. Shelton to James Shelton

John’s promised letter arrived in due time.  There is not one at hand, however, from Andrew.  John had settled the estate June 29.

In endeavoring to find Andrew in the census, he was not found in either McMinn or Bradley counties, Tennessee, in 1840, 1850 or 1860.  Apparently he moved out west before 1860.  The census of 1850 shows a family headed by one Starling Shelton, age 30, in Bradley County, Tennessee as the head of a family of six all born in Tennessee.   The age at 30 corresponds to the actual age of Andrew at that time at that time of 28.  Starling may have been a nickname commonly used.  The name Starling is strange in Shelton history, not appearing in the Bradley County census either before or after 1850. He was shown that year as a farmer, worth $200, born in Tennessee, that his place was near Bill Shelton’s place and next door to that of Simeon Graves, brother-in-law to Bill and Andrew, the Graves who married their sister Elicy.  In a recent letter from Maudie Shelton inquiring of her husband Dewey’s lineage, she wrote that the Sheltons came to Missouri from Tennessee “in a large wagon train, first to Illinois and then on to Missouri”.  She also mentioned that among those in the wagon train was Starling Shelton.  The names of the children, except for one, are common to the James (8) lineage.  The family in 1850 is as follows:

Starling Shelton, age 30

Charlotte Shelton, age 25

Clarissa Shelton, age 7

Elizabeth Shelton, age 5

Sarah Shelton, age 4

James Shelton, age 2

Pertinent to the movement westward of many of the Sheltons, including sons and daughters of James (8), is correspondence at hand of recent date from Maudie and Dewey Shelton.  The letters here are quoted I part:

St. Joseph, Missouri (pmkd May 20, 1982), Paul Shelton.  I am doing research on the Sheltons.  My husband Dewey was born Franklin County, Missouri, February 27, 1899.  His father William born Franklin County November 4, 1857.  His father, David Addison Shelton, born about 1838, and we think his father was a John Shelton born about 1795 in Tennessee …

Knoxville, Tennessee, May 24, 1982.  Dear Maudie and Dewey … My book, The Family of James Shelton of McMinn County, Tennessee, does not clearly delineate your lineage.  However, the James Shelton of the book, my grandfather, was born in Patrick County, Virginia, in 1791, the son of one Roderick Shelton; and James had several brothers among whom was one named John, born about 1789.  They had an older brother, Lewis.  The family moved first to Buncombe County, North Carolina, in the 1790s, and from there James moved to Tennessee and Lewis moved to Missouri to Washington County or Franklin County.  I have no information on the brother, John, but he may have gone to Missouri with Lewis.  I know that there were a large number of our kin who migrated to Missouri and farther west in those days …

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St. Joseph, Missouri, May 28, 1982.  Dear Paul …. I found where John and Velina were buried in Franklin County.  It was on a farm and quite a large cemetery way back there, but in 1972 were only 12 stones standing …  Our John’s father was also a James.  Do any of these names ring a bell with you?  Starling Shelton left Tennessee with close to 40 wagons, loads of people.  Mostly they were related – Luttrells, Sheltons, Maupins, Haneys among a lot more.  Starling’s son was named James Knox Polk Shelton.  Both were in Civil War.  Starling married Charlotta Ann Gregory in McMinn County (Tennessee) on November 14, 1841 … the Mid Missouri in their Pioneer Times had an article written on John O. Shelton, born 1778 in Virginia, who died in Miller County in 1864.  His son, George Shelton, was born in 1810 in McMinn County, Tennessee.  He moved to Maries County, Missouri by 1840.  George married a Miss Roberds.  They had George Washington, Rose, Mary, Alfretta and William …

Dewey left Franklin County in 1936 moving to Holt County where he lived until 1966.  Then he and his first wife split and he returned to Franklin County … and up here to St. Joseph in 1969.  His first wife died last year.  He has 2 boys and 3 girls living … I was married to a Joseph Hopper and had 7 children.  He is now dead.  His parents also came from Tennessee.

St. Joseph, Missouri, June 21, 1982.  Dear Paul … I’m like you.  I just know that Dewey’s great-granddad was John and had a brother Samuel also sons Samuel, Charles, Marion Frances and David (Dewey’s granddad) and 2 daughters – Martha and Lucinda.   I think he married a second time 1848 in Franklin County to a Philena or Velina Maupin.  She and he had a son A. L. (Amos) Shelton in 1853.  John died in January in 1859 and she shortly thereafter, and the Maupin grandparents raised this A. L. in New Haven (Missouri).  But this John was first to Illinois and on to Missouri.  This Lewis was a brother or some close relative … Also was an Andrew lived next door to John in Missouri census…

Knoxville, Tenn., June 25, 1982.  Dear Maudie and Dewey … I can understand your anxiety and frustration in trying to trace ancestors in the maze of names and dates among the Sheltons, there are so many of the same name and approximate same time.  I’ve spent several years trying to assort them and still have some doubts as to my true lineage.  It was a practice that the first-born be named for his grandfather.  For instance, my father and all his brothers (and sisters)  who lived to marry and have children named their first-born son James for the child’s grandfather; and that grandfather James had James for the child’s grandfather; and that grandfather James had been named for his grandfather.  The statement in your latest letter that the Sheltons .. “came to Missouri in a large wagon train, first to Illinois and on to Missouri” gave me the idea that this pilgrimage originated at the old Shelton homestead in North Carolina, now known as Shelton Laurel in Madison County.  My grandfather James, born in 1791, had come down to Tennessee earlier (1819) and established a homestead on the Hiawassee River in McMinn County.  At about the same time his brother Lewis went farther west into Kansas and Missouri.  Other brothers of this James were Martin, David, Armistead, John and William.  There were daughters too, among whom was one named Nancy.

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My records show that Lewis went to Missouri in about 1820 and died there, that we have a large connection in Missouri.  Martin and David remained in Shelton Laurel.  Armistead is said to have moved to Kentucky, and I have William shown in McMinn County, Tennessee, in the censuses of 1830, 1840, 1850 and 1860 with a large family.  I have no further record of John and have assumed that he died early.  But he may have gone west with Lewis, being younger and thus not mentioned in the data at hand.  Then in the 1860s there was an exodus of my father’s brothers and other kin who went west possibly joining a pilgrimage from over in North Carolina.  They proceeded west to Missouri, Illinois, Kansas and farther west even to Oregon and California.  Among those who went from my grandfather’s family were his son, Lewis (a nephew of the earlier Lewis) and Andrew (probably Starling).  Lewis acquired property in Greenwood County, Kansas, and Newton County, Missouri.  Andrew settled in Washington County, Missouri, where he raised a family.  The brothers were accompanied by sons, nephews and cousins.  Then later on their sisters Ursula Cantrell (Mrs. Henry Jacob), Jane Farmer (Mrs. Nathaniel “Dude”), Catherine Shipley (Mrs. Richard N.), Sarah Massey (Mrs. John) and their families went west to join those already in Kansas and Missouri.  Catherine went to Newton County, Missouri; Ursula to Wilson County, Kansas; Jane to Rolla, Missouri; and Sarah, I think, to Lewis’ place in Newton County, Missouri.  All of these had children except for Sarah, she having died early.

I don’t find any of Dewey’s antecedents in the census records of Tennessee.   David Addison Shelton, Dewey’s grandfather, then a young man, along with David A.’s father, John Shelton, possibly left from North Carolina and came down through Tennessee where they were joined by the McMinn County Sheltons in their trek westward.  There is a John D. Shelton shown in McMinn County, Tennessee, in the census of 1840 as being between 20 and 25, showing no children, with wife between 15 and 20.  This could be David A.’s father.  Otherwise, I just can’t tie your lineage in with the records I have.  (Maudie Shelton wrote that John, above, was born in Virginia about 1785, his wife, Barthena, in Tennessee in 1803.)  I still have some doubts about the lineage of my great-grandfather Roderick Shelton, born about 1754, the father of Lewis, David, Martin, James (my grandfather), Armistead and John (born about 1795).  I am inclined to believe that his name was James Roderick, he having taken his middle name for some reason, perhaps to differentiate him from the many other James Sheltons in Virginia and Carolina at that time.  It is known that Roderick was in the Revolutionary War, having fought under George Washington in the Continental Army, but records in the archives do not list him.  There is a James Shelton among the list of the 12 brothers where Roderick isn’t listed who did fight in the Revolution, and I suspect that he and Roderick are the same.  This Roderick or James Roderick, whichever, is likely Dewey’s ancestor too, his great-great-grandfather.  You wrote in an earlier letter that your John’s father was also a James, which would tend to confirm that Roderick was really James Roderick…….. (Further research shows that James’ bro John was Roderick’s sire.)  Returning to the descendants of the children of James(8) and Sarah Shelton, their daughter Caroline, born September 22, 1825, married Simeon Graves.  She was about 22 when she died in 1847, and it is unlikely that she had surviving children.  James(8) did not mention her in his will nor refer to surviving children.

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Elicy Shelton, born May 27, 1827, daughter of James (8) and Sarah Shelton, had children by both her first and second husbands.  By Edward Sharp, whom she wed in Bradley County, Tennessee in about 1843, who died in 1847, she had two children:

Napoleon Sharp, born 1844

Edward Sharp, Jr., born 1846

It is interesting to note that Edward Sharp, age 4, was listed among James Shelton’s household in the census of 1850:

James Shelton, age 50, born in Virginia

Sarah Shelton, age 50, born in Tennessee

John Shelton, age 21, born in Tennessee

Lewis Shelton, age 17, born in Tennessee

Elizabeth Shelton, age 14, born in Tennessee

Catherine Shelton, age 8, born in Tennessee

Polly Shelton, age 75, born in Virginia

Betsy Ann Jerrell, age 23, born in Tennessee

Edward Sharp, age 4, born in Tennessee

Buck Lawson, age 55, born in Tennessee

Edward Sharp, Jr., age 4, is listed here.  He is also listed with his mother Elicy and step-father Simeon Graves as Edward Graves in the census of 1850, as is Napoleon Sharp, listed as Napoleon Graves, age 6.  The writer does not know anything of the Betsy Ann Jerrell listed.  There is a possibility that the name is Terrell written erroneously as Jerrell.  She may have been Shelton kin or possibly a domestic.  The others in the line-up with the exception of Polly Shelton and Buck Lawson will be easily identified.  Although this scribe is not certain who Polly Shelton is, there is the possibility that she is the widow of Frederick Shelton, Roderick’s cousin, grandson of Crispin, son of Abraham.  Fredrick married Polly Shelton in Pittsylvania County, Virginia on October 16, 1795, according to a record found in the Mormon church library.  If age 20 at the time of her wedding, her age in 1850 would correspond with that shown above for the census of 1850.  It is not likely that Polly is James’ mother, as she was only 16 years older than he and James had older brothers.  The Buck Lawson shown is William Lawson, James’ brother-in-law, said to have married James’ sister, name unknown, possibly Elicy, and apparently dead.  It will be noted that James’ daughters Jane, now 20, and Ursula, now 16, are not listed, James’ daughters Jane, now 20, and Ursula, now 16, are not listed, they having already wed and left the household.  Edward Sharp and his brother, Napoleon, both died in testate and unmarried in 1864, Edward at age 18 and Napoleon at 20, mayhap in the war.  They were both shown in the household of one John Schott in Bradley County, Tennessee, by the census of 1860.  This person was shown in the census of 1850 in the household of Simeon and Elicy Graves with Napoleon and Edward, he was a mulatto farmer, age 32, in Bradley County.

By Simeon Graves, whom she reportedly wed in 1849, Elicy had at least eight children:

Nancy Graves, born 1851

Elizabeth Graves, born 1853

Lucinda (Cindy) Graves, born 1855

Lewis Graves, born 1857

Daniel Graves, born 1859

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Catherine Graves, born 1861

Vilena Graves, born 1862

Simeon Graves, born 1865

Elicy Shelton Graves died in December 1866, Simeon, her husband, in 1871.  Their daughter Catherine, born 1861, wed Cale Wright of Calhoun, Tennessee.  He was Agent for Southern Railway there.  They had several children.  Among these were daughters Minnie, Ella and Savannah Wright.

Minnie Wright, daughter of Kale and Catherine Shelton Wright, was born in Calhoun in 1881.  She died in 1969.  She wed Karl D. Saulpaw of Calhoun.  Their children were:  George L. Zillah, Hattie, Pyott, Henry Bernard, Elizabeth Ann, Karl D. Jr., Doris, and Caleb Jackson.  Karl D. Sr., born in Tennessee in 1877, died in California in 1948.  Both Minnie and Karl D. are buried in the Saulpaw section of Calhoun cemetery, as are George L., Hattie, Pyott and Henry Bernard.

George L. Saulpaw, son of Karl D. and Minnie Wright Saulpaw, was born in 1905.

Zillah Saulpaw, daughter of Karl D. and Minnie Wright Saulpaw, was born about 1907.  She wed ________ Bryant of Chattanooga.

Hattie Saulpaw, daughter of Karl D. and Minnie Wright Saulpaw, born 1910, had Virginia S. who married ________ Taylor.

Pyott Saulpaw, son of Karl D. and Minnie Wright Saulpaw, was born in 1912.

Henry Bernard Saulpaw, son of Karl D. and Minnie Wright Saulpaw, was born in 1914, attended Calhoun High School with this scribe, was good athlete.  Moved to Chicago and was on the police force there, died in Calhoun about 1980.

Elizabeth Ann Saulpaw, daughter of Karl D. and Minnie Wright Saulpaw, was born about 1916, wed ________ Raimonde of Calhoun.

Karl D. Saulpaw Jr., son of Karl D. and Minnie Wright Saulpaw, was born at Calhoun in 1920.  He wed Dorothy Spearman of Delane, Tennessee, has gained eminence in the legal profession, being Clerk of Federal District Court, the highest ranking Federal officer in Knoxville, Tennessee.  He attained the rank of Major in military service in World War II.  He resides with his wife and younger children in the city, is named in Who’s Who of Tennessee for 1961.  His children are:  Karl D. III, Glen W., Sarah Ann, James and Charles.

Doris Saulpaw, daughter of Karl D. and Minnie Wright Saulpaw, was born at Calhoun in about 1922.  She wed ________ Brown of Knoxville.

Caleb Jackson Saulpaw, son of Karl D. and Minnie Wright Saulpaw, was born in Calhoun about 1924.

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Since the Graves family of McMinn and Bradley Counties, Tennessee was so closely tied in with the family of James Shelton(8), it  might be of value to include here background data on this family.  McMinn County will records indicate that the head of the Graves clan, Christopher Graves, died there in the fall of 1838, that his wife Nancy survived him, and that his eldest son Union Graves was appointed administrator of his estate.  They had several children:

Union Graves, born 1814

Simeon Graves, born 1820

Vilena Graves, born 1821

Jacob Graves, born 1823

Lucinda Graves, born 1825

Christopher Graves, born 1826

Elizabeth Graves, born 1832

Nancy Graves, born 1836

A sketch of the census of McMinn County, Tennessee, of 1830 shows one Chris Graves.  It does not include a family.  He is not found in a later census, but Nancy is shown in both 1840 and 1850 as the head of the family.  That of 1840 compares with the above listing – Males, 1 10-15 and 1 15-20; females, 1 under 5, 1 5-10, 1 15-20, 1 20-30, and 1 40-50 (Nancy).  The census of 1850 shows the three younger children still at home, plus one child, also named Nancy, one year old.  It shows Nancy herself to be 55 and that she was born in North Carolina.  All the children were shown as born in Tennessee.  It occurs to me that this Nancy Graves might be the sister of James Shelton(8), daughter of Roderick(7), shown in the census of Buncombe County, North Carolina as one of the two females under 10 years of age, a possibility considered because of the aforementioned apparent close ties between the two families in those days.  The families lived in close proximity, there was exchange of land, there was intermarriage, friendship, etc.  It has previously been suggested that James’ sister Nancy married Buck Lawson, as it is known that one of his sisters did, but further study indicates that it might be the other sister shown in the 1800 census as being under 10, possibly one named Elizabeth or Elicy.

Union Graves wed Margaret _________ from North Carolina in about 1838.  He was shown as a farmer, born in Tennessee.  Among their household in 1850 were Christopher Graves, age 11, Elizabeth Hacker, age 12, and Alfred Hacker, age 9.  Margaret may have been his second wife and she too may have been widowed, having been previously wed to ________ Hacker.

Simeon Graves, son of Christopher and Nancy (Shelton) Graves, born in 1820, wed Elicy Shelton in 1849.  He died in 1871, presumably during a lawsuit involving the settlement of the Christopher Graves estate.  Their children are shown on the preceding two pages.

Vilena Graves, daughter of Christopher and Nancy (Shelton) Graves, wed Jacob Sharp at 23.  He is shown in the Bradley County, Tennessee census of 1850 residing next door to Jacob and Ursula Shelton Cantrell.

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Jacob Graves, son of Christopher and Nancy (Shelton) Graves, was born about 1823.  He died without children or having wed. 

Lucinda Graves, daughter of Christopher and Nancy (Shelton) Graves, was born about 1825.  .  She wed William Smart of Arkansas. 

Christopher Graves, son of Christopher and Nancy (Shelton) Graves, wed Elizabeth Shelton, born June 10, 1836, on August 6, 1853, on August 6, 1853, the daughter of James(8) and Sarah Hooper Shelton.  For further data on this family see page 98 on Elizabeth Shelton.

Elizabeth Graves, daughter of Christopher and Nancy (Shelton) Graves, was born in 1832.  She wed Isaac Smart.  This was likely Isaac’s second marriage , as he is known to the census of 1840 with:  Males, 1 un 5, 1 5-10;  1 20-30; females, 1 20-30.

Nancy Graves, daughter of Christopher and Nancy (Shelton) Graves, was born in 1836.  She wed John McInturf.  There were children of this union and many descendants.

John E. and Lucinda Perrin Shelton were married on August 12, 1853.  He was born in McMinn County on September 4, 1829, the son of James(8) and Sarah Hooper Shelton.  He and Lucinda had 10 children:

James Shelton, born 1854

Samuel Shelton, born August 23, 1856

William Shelton, born November 21, 1857, died June 14, 1878. 

Benjamin F. Shelton, born January 10, 1860, died Feb. 11, 1909

Felix Shelton, born March 5, 1862, died April 1, 1896

Sarah Elizabeth Shelton, born August 10, 1864, died Jan. 4, 1947

Catherine Shelton, born December 20 1866, died Aug. 19, 1961

Virginia Muncy Shelton, born August 30, 1869, d. Jan. 13, 1900

John Shelton, born July 12, 1872, died December 28, 1872

Jasper N. Shelton, born July 2, 1874, died July 23, 1903

All of these, excepting James, Sarah Elizabeth (Dolly) and Catherine are buried in the Shelton plot in the cemetery on the James Shelton home place, as are John E. and Lucinda.

The census of 1860 shows 5 in the John E. Shelton household:

John E. Shelton, farmer, age 30

Lucinda Shelton, age 24

James Shelton, age 6

William Shelton, age 3

Bartholomew Shelton (later Benjamin F.), age 3 months

James Shelton, eldest of the 10 of John E. and Lucinda, born 1854, wed Easter Moore about 1875.  They had daughter Jane born 1877.  Easter died that year, likely in childbirth, is buried in the cemetery on the homeplace.  1880 census shows James’ family to consist of –besides himself—wife Esther and daughter Jane.  It is presumed that Esther was the daughter of George Moore, a sister of James’ first wife.  The census of 1860 shows an Esther Moore, age 7, and an E. Moore, age 3, in the George Moore household.  No further record at hand of daughter Jane.  James and Esther had a son, Leon Shelton, born about 1881.  James having reportedly moved out west and died out there, possibly to Texas.  His sister, Catherine Shelton Henninger, wrote in 1851 that she knew nothing of the whereabouts of nephew Leon, that he might be living somewhere.  Easter and Esther Moore, daughters of George and Rebecca Moore, were John E. Shelton’s neighbors.  They were aunts to Sam Moore.  Sam tended the John E. Shelton farm for years as had his father 

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William.  This family, census of 1860, consisted of the following:

George Moore, farmer, age 40, born in Virginia

Rebecca Moore, age 38

Margaret Moore, age 15

William Moore, age 13

Mary Moore, age 11

Rebecca Moore, age 9

Esther Moore, age 7

E. Moore, age 3 (presumed to be Easter)

Tennessee Moore, age 3 months

Samuel Shelton, farmer, age 20

William Shelton, farmer, age 18

Records at hand do not include any further information on Samuel and William Shelton.  It is not unlikely that they are sons of Rebecca Moore by an earlier marriage.  They may be grandsons of John M. and Rebecca Shelton Shelton who were wed in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, on March 17, 1794.

Samuel Shelton, son of John E. and Lucinda Perrin Shelton, was born August 23, 1856, died exactly 4 months later.

William Shelton, son of John E. and Lucinda Perrin Shelton, was born November 21, 1857, died June 14, 1878.

Benjamin F. Shelton, son of John E. and Lucinda Perrin Shelton, was born January 10, 1860.  He wed Lena J. Finley, born April 24, 1868 in about 1896.  He owned a general merchandise store at Gudger in McMinn County, Tennessee.  They had no children of their marriage but raised two of her sister’s children, Wilford and Sarah Dodson.  He died February 11, 1909.  Lena survived him by many years, having spent many of her later years with a sister-in-law, Sarah Elizabeth Shelton (Dolly) Saulpaw, also widowed at the old John E. Shelton homeplace.   Lena died September 9, 1942 in Dayton.  She is buried beside Benjamin F. (Jeff) in the family plot in the old Shelton Cemetery.  This writer remembers cousin Lena as a fine and gently lady.

Felix Shelton, son of John E. and Lucinda Perrin Shelton, was born March 5, 1862.  He died April 1, 1896, age 34.

Sarah Elizabeth (Dolly) Shelton, daughter of John E. and Lucinda Perrin Shelton, was born August 10, 1864.  She wed Henry D. Saulpaw, born in Tennessee September 10, 1850 in about 1897.  They lived on the John E. Shelton farm, a portion of the original James Shelton(8) homestead, which Henry purchased from the other heirs.  They had no children of their marriage but adopted Henry’s brother Tom Saulpaw’s younger daughter Allie as a baby when her mother died.  Dolly and Henry raised her.  Allie was born October 12, 1903.  She married Douglas Tipton in about 1934.  They had one child, Sarah Adelia Tipton, born August 9, 1935.  Sarah wed Willis Park on August 20, 1952.  They have 2 sons.  Douglas and Allie are both deceased, he about 1959, she in 1977.  Dolly died January 4, 1947.  Henry September 17, 1933.  They are buried in the Saulpaw section of the Calhoun, Tennessee cemetery.  The old John E. Shelton home still stands and the old barn as well, but both with the farm have been sold out of the family.  Henry Saulpaw was an Engineer of Bridges.

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John and Lucinda’s daughter Catherine (Kate), born December 20, 1866, was by any yardstick “quality folk”.  Words could scarcely depict the fine and beautiful character of this lady.  As she approached 90, she was still driving her ancient Chevy and quit then because the car wore out, not the driver.  She was Mrs. James F. Henninger, having wed him on May 15, 1888.  Following their marriage they lived at Dayton, Tennessee.  Mr. Henninger was in the mercantile business, was born in 1853.  In Dayton there were seven children born, and in August 1914 they moved to Statesville, North Carolina.  His business having declined in Dayton, he planned to move to a new site.  On a visit to his daughter, Elba, a dramatics teacher at Greensboro College for women, she recommended he consider sites in several of the thriving towns in that area.  He found a suitable site in Statesville and set up business and moved his family there.  A letter at hand from Kate Henninger to her cousin, Mrs. Maud Farmer Casey, wife of Dr. Sa. A. Casey, of Lebanon, Missouri, has some interesting history of her family as well as of that of her Uncle Bill Shelton’s family, that of her Aunt Catherine Shipley and of the Hoopers:

Statesville, N. C., Wednesday September 6 (1950).  I am so happy to receive your good interesting letter.  It makes me homesick to see you and to know you just like I would really love to.

I have been so sorry that I could not insist that you and Dr. Casey make us a visit.  It was one time I did wish for my big house, but I was glad Ruby was there and you had the opportunity of meeting each other.  Only wish you both could have been the other members of my family.

Before I try to answer any of your questions, I want to tell you that when you make that trip to New York, if you go anyways near Statesville, do please stop and make me a visit.  Or if you go near or by way of Chicago, Ruby and Gus would love to have you stop to see them.

As for making you a visit, nothing would make me happier, but I have a family that has taken me over, and while they do not say so (to my amusement) they think I am too old to be gadding around over the country even to see my Cousin Maud, which I’d adore to do.  I do sincerely thank you both, but you will just have to come to see me.  So keep that in mind when on the trip to the big city.  When I received your letter, Bess and I were on the mountain with Sophia for a few days, at Roaring Gap, a very delightful place to relax and “look unto the hills for needed strength.” 

I’m sending some picture of my family as you requested which you may keep with the exception of one or two which I will designate.  But please allow me to do a little more family gossiping before I try to dig up a little ancient Shelton history.

See page 87

Catherine Shelton

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My son’s only son, also my only child, has located in Statesville.  He is a young MD, will be connected with one of the hospitals, and planned to open his own office, but as he is subject to call to military service felt that it would be wise to be connected with a hospital until he knew what the war was going to do with him.  His granny (with others) thinks he is a very fine young man.

I’m afraid I will not be of much help in your search for date of the Shelton family, as I was so young when my grandmother and parents passed on.  They were the only ones that could have told me very much.

As I recall, Naomi was the only child of the first wife, and she married John Robinson (actually Robertson) of Cleveland, Tennessee, (I think I am correct.).  Her grandson – Gid Robinson – is now an old man, a few years my senior –

I remember Bill Hooper, a cousin who lived on Candas Creek.  I think he was my second cousin, had sandy hair, blue eyes, was stockily built.  I also recall that Uncle Sam and I went one Sunday to a “big meeting” in the neighborhood where some of the neighbors lived that were our relatives.  We were guests in the home for dinner.  Bill was there and I do believe that he was a nephew or son of our host.  Also they were our relatives; perhaps Bill’s father was a son of either John or Jim.  I was just a young girl and all of it made very little impression.  They were very well-to-do farmers.  I will try to find out through Aunt Viola if any of the family are still living on the old Hooper place.  It is not so far from Grandfather’s and our old home.  I also think that Bill had a younger brother Charlie.

I do not recall seeing any of the Farmers except the name of your grandfather connected with the Shelton family, and I think the Hoopers were our grandmother’s relatives, perhaps brother or nephew. 

Aunt Catherine and Uncle Dick Shipley may have lived on Candas Creek, but as I recall them they were living in Charleston, Tennessee.  They had two daughters, Mollie and Muggie, a few years older than Dollie and me.  They moved from Charleston to either Oklahoma or Kansas.  I do not know whom the girls married.  I recall Catherine (my aunt) as being a very beautiful woman, rather tall, I would say five feet six or seven inches, black eyes, black curly hair hanging in long curls shoulder length, as she often wore it that way.

One particular incident that stands out in my memory was a visit she made to my father’s family.  I couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years old.  ‘Twas in the winter; one night it snowed, and one morning my father and older brother took Aunt Catherine quail hunting.  They went horseback as quail were not afraid of horses.  For catching the quail they had a net shaped like a long funnel, I suppose 20 or 25 feet long.  There were hoops fastened within the funnel every seven or eight feet to support the net.  The end where the birds would enter was about 2 ½ to 3 feet in diameter.  A smaller funnel fastened within the mouth of the funnel and fastened to the outer hoop extended into the longer

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funnel, tapering down to a small funnel opening.  About 10 or 12 feet long extending from either side of the mouth of the funnel there were wings for about 20 or 25 feet.  On or in these wings ever so often, 6 feet or so, were sharpened sticks fastened to the wings also to stick in the ground diagonally from the mouth of the net.  When a covey of birds was located, the net was set or located.  The folks – or hunters, I should say – would get behind the birds with some space between the riders and drive the whole covey of birds into the net.  They would seldom fly, because everyone would be very silent and the horses did not frighten them.  Birds had no more judgment than to go through the smaller into the larger net and usually the whole drove was captured.  The kill was climaxed at the dinner table that night after mother had done her expert culinary job.

Excuse the reminiscences, I suspect Dr. Casey could have described this mode of trapping quail much better than I, but perhaps he is more humane and would have used his trusty gun, for I always did think this netting business was just plain barbarian.

But back to the Hoopers!  Aunt Catherine – Her eyes were black, complexion like thin cream.  Our grandmother was also black-eyed, and so was my father; his hair was black, also curled.  I think the Hoopers, all that I ever say, had that creamy-like complexion.  Uncle Bill was very like Grandfather in looks, blue eyes, fair skin – but hair I think black, tall, really fine looking, incidentally was captain in the Union Army.  (The remainder of this paragraph of Kate Henninger’s letter is omitted as it is quoted earlier on page 57 of this book.)

Back to our Mountain Hoopers.  A man by the name of Lee Hickey married a cousin Hooper, is living in the copper area neighborhood in the mountains near Ducktown, Tennessee, known now as Copperhill.  A great deal of copper is still mined.  This man Lee had one child, (I do not recall his name), who may or perhaps has sons still in the neighborhood.  Anyway, Lee Hickey married our cousin, but do not know how close.  Lee Hickey visited at our home frequently.  Us children used to say Lee Hickey was hungry, but I guess he just had a sociable disposition.

The Hooper family that Uncle Sam and I spent the day with on that Sunday did have several children, but seeing them only that once and so many years having lapsed since then, I just can’t recall a single name.  I can’t help believing that the father of the Hooper at whose house we ate that day was Grandmother Sarah’s brother.  I am going to see if I can get in touch with any of that family, but I’m not very hopeful that I can.

I’m so sorry that you will get so little information.  I do want to tell you a little story my Grandmother Perrin told me of our Grandmother Sallie.  (This paragraph is omitted too, since it is quoted earlier, starting middle of page 23.)

I think she was a brave woman with a will of her own, don’t you?

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I’m sorry that I could not give you something that would at least give you a lead.

The pictures were made on our golden wedding anniversary, 15 May 1938.  Mr. Henninger passed away on September 28 following, Elba 21 November 1941.

For a parting shot, I remind you both to stop on your way to New York.  I mean a visit.  Love, K. S. Henninger

James Francis and Catherine Shelton Henninger had the following seven children:

Elba Henninger, born April 1, 1889

Sophia Henninger, born June 13, 1891

Alice Elizabeth (Bess) Henninger, born December 24, 1892

Alemeda (Meda) Henninger, born March 4, 1895

James Shelton Henninger, born December 4, 1897

Ruby Catherine Henninger, born May 13, 1900

Mary Frances Henninger, born November 10, 1903

Elba Henninger did not marry.  She died November 21, 1941, at age 52.  She gained renown in fine arts, having been dramatics instructor at Greensboro College, Greensboro, North Carolina, when she passed away.

Sophia Henninger married Flake F. Steele, a widower, in 1921, who had a son, Flake, Jr.  They resided in Winston Salem, North Carolina.  Her husband died in 1952.  They had two sons, Francis Montgomery, born 1923, and William Perrin, born 1924.  Both were in military service in the second World War.  Montgomery was on Leyte in the Philippines, and Perrin, an Ensign in the Navy, also served in the Pacific area.  Montgomery wed Elaine Boggess in 1848, an Alabama girl.  They had four children:  Leslie, born 1949, who wed Ronald Jameson; Jeffrey Boggess, born 1950, who wed Gina        ; Richard Benson, born 1952 and Elaine Henninger, born 1954.  They reside in Statesville.  William Perrin married Marilyn Joyce Yost of Bremerton, Washington, on September 10, 1946.  They had a son and two daughters:  William Perrin, Jr., born 1947, who wed Peggy Harwood and and William Scott and Perrin Harwood; Elizabeth, born 1954, who wed Richard Browder and had Jeremy; and Marilyn Yost, born 1956, who wed David Paschal in 1977.  William Perrin and Marilyn were divorced in 1976 and he wed Sarah Gainey in 1977.  In 1977 Sophia had a severe heart attack but recovered nicely.  She died, though, in August 1982 at 91, having been strong and active the years before even driving her late model car.  Her home was in Winston Salem.

Alice Elizabeth (Bess) Henninger did not marry.  She had a career in nursing.  She made her home in Statesville.  Bess has been responsible for the health and care of many of her kin and others, particularly in the infant stages, stayed with her mother and saw to her welfare until Kat’s death in 1961.  Bess died in 1979.

Alemeda (Meda) Henninger married Henry C. Privette in 1914.  They had a son and 2 daughters:  Henry C. Privette, Jr., born about 1915; Catherine Elizabeth Privette, born October 2, 1916, who died in 1947; Frances Alemeda Privette, who was born on September 9, 1926.

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Henry C., Jr. was in military service in World War II.  After his father’s death in the early 1940s he resided in Washington, D. C. with his mother.   Catherine Elizabeth Privette married B. F. Shields and lived in Washington, C. C.  She died May 6, 1947, leaving two small children.  Frances Alemeda Privette, born September 9, 1926, married E. M. Pearson.  She is talented in voice.  They have three daughters, Catherine, Ruth and Patricia, the latter two being twins.  Alemeda married the second time in 1962, this time to R. B. Pearson, brought her back to Statesville for interment.

James Shelton Henninger married Nell Baylor in 1921.  They located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, near his home.  They had son Joseph Baylor Henninger, born November 11, 1923, who wed Carol Plish from Wisconsin in 1946.  Baylor and Carol had four children:  Judith Carol, born December 23, 1948, who married D. H. Greely; Joseph Baylor, Jr., born April 1, 1950; James Walter, born 1960, who wed Loraine White and had Jeremiah in 1976; and Jane Henninger, born 1962.  Joseph Baylor Henninger, Sr., is a physician in his grandmother Kate Henninger’s hometown of Statesville.  He was the pride and joy of his grandmother and doubtless of his own mother and father, being a competent and lovable physician, still looking after the health of his aging Aunt Frances and other members of the family.  His father, James Shelton Henninger,  died November 19, 197, his mother, Nell Baylor Henninger October 9, 1975. 

Ruby Catherine Henninger married Augustus M. (Gus) Lewis on December 10, 1930.  They made their home in Chicago for 30 years where Gus was employed.  They had no children.  They resided in Statesville, North Carolina.  Ruby sustained a back injury in a fall several years ago and was somewhat invalided, wearing a heavy back brace.  They reportedly enjoyed their retirement in the old home town, frequently traveling with kin and friends to the mountains or to the seashore.  Gus busied himself in making fine furniture and looking after Ruby.  Gus was an artist in his trade, being able to copy exactly a fine piece of furniture from memory without having taken any measurements.  This scribe and Mrs. Paul had the privilege in 1979 of visiting in their home and enjoying their splendid hospitality.  Both Ruby and Gus passed away in 1982, Ruby in May and Gus in November.

Mary Frances Henninger married John G. McLean in 1926.  They had no children.  He died in February, 1937.  Mary Frances lives near the homeplace in Carolina, now the last survivor of the children of James Francis and Catherine Shelton Henninger.

Catherine Shelton Henninger died August 19, 1961, after a three-months stay in the hospital.  She had fallen and broken her hip on May 17 that year.  The bone healed without complications but she had lost her will to fight and just wasted away.  She was approaching her 95^th birthday.  Her Jim, whom she had wed in 1888 down in Tennessee, had preceded her by many years, he having died on September 29, 1938.

Virginia Muncy Shelton, daughter of John E. and Lucinda Perrin Shelton, was born August 30, 1869.  Jennie, everyone called her that, died by her own hand on January 13, 1900.  Her age was only

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30.  Her despondency had been indicated earlier in a letter she wrote to her Uncle Sam Shelton following a break-up with her sweetheart.  Other facets of Jennie’s life that perhaps contributed to her depression were the untimely death of her brother a few years earlier at 34, being Felix.  Now she was 30 years old living at home with a younger brother.  Perhaps she has sensed a weakness in the family strain, for it was only three years later that Jasper, the younger brother, passed away at 29 and nine years after that Benjamin F. (Jeff) passed away at 49.  There seemed to be an affinity for an illness among the males characterized by a wasting away of the body.

Jennie’s sisters were both married and happy.  Her father and mother dead, she had felt some security in having her Uncle Sam as guardian to lean on, and this security seemed shattered when her uncle at a mature age took unto himself a wife.  From all accounts, Jennie should not have despaired.  She was a lovely woman.  Her letters indicate that she was both refined and intelligent, and photographs at hand confirm reports of her beauty.  There was no suggestion that she may have been ill.  But she shot herself.  It was with a shotgun in the abdomen.  She remained alive and lucid for some hours afterward.  She is buried in the family plot on the James Shelton (8) homeplace.  Consideration had been given by the membership of the nearby church at Chestnut Grove to the building of a new church.  Jennie had been greatly interested in this project.  Ostensibly, by her deathbed request, the portion of the John E. Shelton estate that was hers was to be sold to the other heirs and the money raised to be used to build a new church.  The edifice was dedicated to her memory and named The Jennie Shelton Memorial Methodist church, South.  It was completed in 1901 and stands in the northern line of the old John E. Shelton farm, which was part of the original James Shelton (8) homestead.  Through the years Jennie’s sisters, Dolly and Kate, spoke of their great love for their younger sister, and had he who attended church at Jennie Shelton Memorial never read the inscription written in white letters on a deep red background on the stained glass window reading:

Virginia Muncy Shelton

August 30, 1869 – January 13, 1900

She hath done what she could.

We still would have known her anyway.  The church is now abandoned, the windows and pews removed, the building sold to a neighbor by the Conference.  The dedication window and the one across from it of like coloring, the latter which had the inscription “God is Love – 1901:, have been saved.  Incidentally, at the Shelton Family reunion in 1982 of the Sam and Viola Shelton descendants a drawing of names was made to determine who would own the dedication, and their youngest son B. F. (Pete) Shelton won.

John Shelton, son of John E. and Lucinda Perrin Shelton,  was born July 12, 1872.  He died 5 ½ months later on December 28, 1872.

Jasper N. Shelton, son of John E. and Lucinda Perrin Shelton, was born July 2, 1874.  He died July 23, 1903.  He was at Hots Springs, Arkansas, where he had gone presumably for treatment, and on becoming bedridden, he was taken to the home of his cousin, J. A. (Jim) Shelton – son of William C. – whose home was there, where he died.  Though never of robust health, Jasper worked some in his Uncle Sam’s store as clerk and some on the farm.  He is buried in the cemetery on the home

See page 93

Photo of Paul Shelton

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James and Sarah’s daughter, Jane Shelton, born December 25, 1830, married Nathaniel Farmer in Bradley County, Tennessee, on March 15, 1846, when she was 15.  He was five years older, evidently to the day, the records indicating that both were born on Christmas Day.  They had several children among whom were the following:

Richard Farmer, born 1846

Henry Farmer, born 1848, died in Nashville, Tennessee

Caroline Farmer, born October 1850

Simeon Farmer (called Sim), born 1856

John Louis Farmer, born March 8, 1858

Andrew Jackson Farmer, born 1861, no issue

Catherine Farmer, born 1862, no issue

Thomas Jefferson Farmer, born 1865, no issue

Richard Farmer enlisted in the Union Army November 11, 1861, at age 15.  He served with his uncle, William C. Shelton, who was Captain of Company B, 7^th Infantry, and later of Company A, 8^th Infantry.  The records of these outfits are covered on pages 27 through 31 of this book.  Richard was discharged in December 1864 at age 18.  Maud Farmer Casey (Mrs. S. A.), to whom this writer is indebted for this information, had among her papers Richard’s Army discharge, which she stated she would like to give to his descendants, Maud being his niece, daughter of John Louis Farmer.  Richard married Martha Ross.  They went to Arkansas to live, had at least one child, a son James Henry Farmer of Webber Falls, Oklahoma.

Caroline Farmer married John Baff.  They lived in Nauvoo, Iowa.  They had four children:  Myrtle, Mayme, Anna and Edward.  Anna married Dr. George Fegers.  They had two daughters.  There is no further record at hand of the other three children.

Simeon Farmer went west and the family lost track of him.

John Louis Farmer married Helen Tilithia Taylor on November 8, 1886.  They had three children:  Walter Shelton Farmer who wed Jesse Louise Spears; Raymond Louis Farmer, who married Gladys Davidson; and Maud Helen Farmer, who wed Dr. Shadrick Allen Casey.  Of these neither Raymond Louis nor Maud Helen had children.  Walter and Jesse Spears Farmer had three children.  They were Raymond Taylor Farmer, Stanley Gordon Farmer and Naomi Ruth Farmer.  Raymond Taylor had son Raymond Shelton Farmer born March 12, 1939.  Raymond Louis Farmer (the first) was an outstanding lawyer.  He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in law.  He died December 10, 1942.  Maud Helen married Dr. Shadrick Allen Casey, lived at 429 N. Madison Ave., Lebanon, Missouri.  She died March 10, 1963, was survived by Dr. Casey.  It is noted that Sharon Farmer, great-granddaughter of Jane Shelton Farmer, wed in Lebanon, Missouri November 26, 1959, she being the daughter of one of Walter and Jesse Farmer’s sons, Raymond Taylor or Stanley Gordon Farmer. 

Nathan and Jane Farmer left Bradley County, Tennessee, in about 1866 for Neosho, Missouri, where Jane’s brother Louis Shelton lived.  He had gone there some years earlier and had done well, acquiring considerable land.  He had written an appeal to his sister and

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Brother-in-law to come to him.  They never made it to Neosho, though, ran out of money at a place east of Rolla and traded a feather bed for conveyance into Lebanon, a town some 90 miles east of Neosho.  Even with that, Nathan boasted that he beat the railroad into Missouri, that having taken place in 1869.

Maud Farmer Casey in writing about her father, John Louis Farmer, who was son of Jane and Nathan and grandson of James Shelton (8), told of having reared his smaller brothers and sisters:  “My father, John Louis Farmer, for many years had a large grocery and meat market.  He was a very fine man, innately a gentleman, going his unassuming way, helping all who asked lest ‘they might have hungry children’.  His mother died when he was thirteen and one half years old.  He was the main support of the family, as his father was sick most of the time.  The only regret that he ever expressed was that he had worked all summer for money for his school year and then did not get to go, as his father needed the money.  After all those years his voice would break and tears fill his eyes as he told of his great disappointment.  He reared his brothers and sisters and then his own family.  He was always happy and full of the joys of living in doing so.  We find he helped many as he traveled along life’s path.  We learned of his many kindnesses through others. His face was always beaming with kindness and goodwill and love for his fellow man.  He died May 19, 1950.  His wife Helen had died on February 27, 1920.

“The best portion of a good man’s life; His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.”

John Louis Farmer returned to McMinn County, Tennessee, the land of his birth, the fall of 1936 for a visit with his Uncle Same Shelton.  He brought with him his son Walter Shelton Farmer and Walter’s wife and family – son Raymond and daughter Ruth.  This writer remembers his visit and can confirm that which his daughter wrote of him. He was a gently fellow with a twinkle in his eye.  He was sandy haired and blue eyed like his Uncle Sam, somewhat stockily built and of medium height.  We loved him very much and enjoyed his visit, as we did that of Walter and family, the children being of an age with this writer.  On her return to St. Louis, Ruth, then about 12, wrote of the enjoyment they had experienced in visiting Sheltola, the home of Sam and Viola and family.  This letter is at hand.  Her father was a Baptist minister.  This was John’s first trip back to Tennessee in the seventy years since his family left for Missouri.  He enjoyed being with his uncle and seeing again the place of his birth some 78 years before, they having left in about 1866.  He recalled seeing General Wheeler’s cavalry pass for days crossing the Hiawassee River on their way to the Battle of Chickamauga during the Civil War.  He and his uncle visited together, roamed over the farm and lived again their lives of seventy years before.  He regretted not seeing his cousin, Dolly Shelton Saulpaw, who was away visiting her sister Kate Shelton Henninger and family in Statesville, North Carolina.

Following is a letter John Louis Farmer wrote to his Uncle

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Sam Shelton a few months after he returned to Lebanon, Missouri:

Lebanon, Missouri, December 18, 1936.  My dear Uncle Sam:  Having received your kind and welcomed letter of the 12^th, I will endeavor to write you.  I have just received a letter from Walter and Jesse and they are all well.

I am very glad to know that you and your family are all well.  We are all well at present.

Well, I am very glad indeed to know that you found your purse which had been lost so long.  A person feels good over anything they find; that’s why you felt so good.

Well Uncle, we went over Cumberland Mountains – four miles up and four miles down.  We ran into a belt of popcorn.  They didn’t have any but the lady said Ben White just below them had a field of popcorn.  Walter and I went up to the house and spoke to the man and we asked him did he have any popcorn.  He said to us who told you I had popcorn.  I said to him your neighbor told us you had a field of popcorn.  Well I have none to sell.  I have sold all my corn for eight cents a pound and don’t talk to me about it.  I can’t sell you none.  But there is a banker over then in bottom has twenty acres of corn but you can’t buy and from him.  He has about four thousand pounds to the acre and he said four times twenty would be eighty thousand pounds.  But you can’t buy any of it.  So we kept on going until night overtaken us.

And we came to Guthrie, Kentucky.  We had to get gas.  We asked at the filling station about popcorn.  Yes he said we have lots of it here.  We asked him what it was worth per pound, said about five cents and seven cents per pound.  It was night then.  I asked him to give me his address and I have him my address, and he told me he would send me some sample of the corn, and we have bought nineteen hundred pounds of him.

Well, Uncle Sam, tell Paul and Pete I’ll write to them later.  Tell them all I send my best wishes and regards to all.  Tell Aunt Viola Maud is just wild because she couldn’t get to come.  Also when we got to Walter’s house there were about a dozen letters on his table asking him to come, calling him Reverend Farmer and Brother Farmer to help them in the revival they were now having.

Well, paper all out.  Goodbye to all of you.  Write soon.  As ever, your nephew, John L. Farmer.

Nathaniel “Dude” Farmer, born in South Carolina December 25, 1825, died in Lebanon, Missouri, February 6, 1901.  He wed Jane Shelton in Bradley County, Tennessee, March 15, 1846.  He enlisted in the United States Army at Calhoun, Tennessee, on November 1, 1847, for service in the war with Mexico.  He was discharged August 11, 1848.  Jane Shelton Farmer died in Lebanon, Missouri, on October 21, 1871, in childbirth.

Though not proved, there is evidence that the Farmers of Bradley County, Tennessee, came originally from a colony of them in North Carolina who were Quakers.  Nathaniel’s father was William Farmer.

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His mother’s name is not at hand.  The 1840 census shows that a William Farmer lived in Bradley County, the family then including the following:  Males 1 40-50, 1 30-40, 2 15-20, 2 10-15, 2 un 5; females 1 40-50, 2 un 5.  The census of 1850 shows a William Farmer age 60, his wife Ann age 50 and son William age 16, farmers all born in Tennessee and living in Bradley County at about the same place as above.  As indicated in the 1840 census, there were apparently a total of 10 children, and size of the family at home being diminished by marriage or death in 1850 to one child.  William Farmer evidently died in about 1860 as he does not appear in the census that year.  That census shows an Annie Farmer age 55, possibly William’s widow, living with Abner Berdick and wife Emeline and their 10 children.  The fact of Nathaniel Farmer having been born in South Carolina as indicated above would seem to contradict this William as Nathaniel’s father unless the census of 1850 is in error.  The family may well be that of Nathaniel’s father, as there is a William among Nathaniel’s brothers, and there are other children, both male and female.  Maud Farmer Casey lists Nathaniel Farmer’s children as follows:

     Nathaniel (called Dude)                    William

     Aquilla or Equilla (called Quil)           Sarah (called Sally)

     Amos

This shows the four sons and one daughter.  Sarah wed John Hooper and lived on Candas Creek in Bradley County.  She was born in 1827, her husband the same year.  Their home was close to the Abner Berdick home named above where one Annie Farmer, possibly Sarah’s mother, resided.  John and Sarah Farmer Hooper had several children.  Among them were Betsy, Andrew, William, Deltha and James Hooper.

There is no record of James and Sarah Shelton’s son Lewis ever having wed.  He died in Greenwood County, Kansas in 1864.  Lewis, no doubt, was named for James’ brother Lewis who is said to have gone to Missouri “and died there”.  It is noted that although his name appears as Lewis in all the data at hand, James (8) in writing names of his children in about 1835 spelled it Louis.  Significantly, Jane Shelton Farmer named her son John Louis supposedly for her brothers John and Lewis Shelton.  The circumstances of the death of James’ son Lewis or Louis are not known by this scribe.  It happened during the war and may have been involved with the conflict, although there is no record at hand of his having been a soldier.  Evidently Lewis’ sister Ursula Shelton Cantrell and her family lived with Lewis and stayed on there in Greenwood County after Lewis died until Ursula died and her husband Henry Jacob Cantrell married again.

Ursula Shelton wed Henry Jacob Cantrell in 1849.  This the 10^th of James (8) and Sarah’s children, too was only 15 when she wed, emulating her older sister Jane.  Like Jane and her husband Nathaniel Farmer, Ursula and Jacob set out for Kansas.  But unlike her sister, who made it to Neosho, Missouri, Ursula and Henry made it all the way to her brother’s place in Greenwood County, Kansas.  Ursula died in about 1862.  The census of Bradley county, Tennessee, shows these two in that county in 1850 next to Jacob Sharp, she then being 16:

     Jacob Cantrell, age 22, farmer, born in Tennessee

     Usley Cantrell, age 16, born in Tennessee

This writer wasn’t able to find them in later census of either

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Bradley or McMinn Counties, Tennessee, they evidently having moved out west in the late 1850s.  Nor does this scribe have the names or dates of birth of their children.  There were at least two surviving children, as James Shelton (8) in a will which he wrote in 1868 referred to the children of Mrs. Cantrell.

Elizabeth Shelton, born June 10, 1836, wed Christopher Graves on August 6, 1853.  They had children, but Elizabeth died January 3, 1858.  A son James, born November 7, 1857, died at an early age.  Christopher Graves is shown living in Bradley County in 1860 with no one except himself occupying his dwelling.  Next door, however, residing with one W. M. Brackett and family were two children who may have been his and Elizabeth’s:

     N. B. Graves, age 6, born in Tennessee

     Jane Graves, age 4, born in Tennessee

One of these survived.  There is a James Graves shown in the census of 1870 (page 137) as being 14 years of age in the family headed by Simeon Graves, brother of Christopher, but now shown with the family previously.  This would correspond with Jane above and may be an error in name, this person now living with an uncle.  Only one of Elizabeth’s children survived.  In James Shelton’s will, which he wrote in 1869, shown pages 47, 48 and 49 of this book, there was included this item:  “To my daughter Elizabeth Graves, I gave $400 in her lifetime, and I design no more of my estate given to her surviving child.”  In the diary of Sam Shelton, who was the same age as N. B., there are frequent mentions of Ponie, his friend and confidant who came frequently to visit with Sam in the evenings.  In July 1878 Ponie married Nellie Clementson.  They had sons Leonard Graves of Spring City who became a Baptist minister and E. M. Graves of Knoxville.  Leonard, born about 1879, wed Elizabeth Leuty in about 1900.  They had two daughters:  Mrs. Thomas Castleberry of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Leutina Graves of Spring City, and they had three sons:  James L. Graves, Henry Mercer Graves and David Lynn Graves, all of Spring City.  Among their grandchildren is granddaughter Virginia Ann Castleberry.  There are letters at hand from the Reverend Leonard Graves in response to letters from my mother, who invited him to come to our church, Shelton Memorial, to preach. 

Catherine Shelton, born July 20, 1842, the twelfth and last of James and Sarah Hooper Shelton’s twelve children, was married to Richard N. Shipley September 17, 1857, at barely 15.  Richard N. was born in 1834.  They had at least three children:

     James Shipley, born 1859

     Mary Shipley, born 1861

     Ad Shipley, born 1863 (probably Adeline, a female)

The latter two are shown in the census of Bradley County, Tennessee, for 1870, while James who was shown in the McMinn County census for 1860 is not shown in the later census.  He is presumably now dead.  Reference is made to the two daughters in letters at hand.  One of these, quoted pages 40 and 41, from Dick Shipley to his brother-in-law, John E. Shelton, states “    we are all well except the little girls have the whooping cough,

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though they are not bad off..."  The other letter is from Catherine Shelton Henniger (Mrs. J.F.), quoted pages 86-90.  In this she states:  "Aunt Chaterine and Uncle Dick Shipley...had two daughters, Mollie and Maggie, a few years older than Dollie and Me...I do not know whom the girls married..."  Although there is no further record at hand of the two girls it is presumed that they grew up and married in Newton County, Missouri where they moved with their parents in the early 1870's.  In the 1860 census there was shown also in their home one Delida Shipley, age 15, likely Dick's sister.

Samuel White Shelton, eldest of James Shelton’s children by his third wife, Jane Wood Shelton, born October 1, 1854, wed Mary Viola Hardin in Meigs County, Tennessee, on October 25, 1899.  They had ten children, eight sons and two daughters:

James Hardin Shelton, born August 22, 1900, died March 17, 1968.

Mary Elizabeth Shelton, born September 4, 1902, died April 7, 1980.

Samuel White Shelton, Jr., born October 5, 1904.

Nancy Catherine Shelton, born December 16, 1906.

John Syrus Shelton, born February 16, 1909, died August 4, 1966.

Joseph Davenport Shelton, born July 8, 1911.

Charles David Shelton, born April 22, 1913.

Arthur Paul Shelton, born August 4, 1914.

Robert Luke Hardin Shelton, born March 10, 1917.

Benjamin Franklin (Pete) Shelton, born July 22, 1920.

It will be noted that the above names are mostly those common within the James Shelton (8) branch of the clan.  Arthur Paul was originally William Paul and so recorded but changed later on a whim of sister Mary who persuaded her mother to change the name to Arthur Paul.  One wonders whence the name Robert.  Perhaps it was originally intended to be Roderick.  The other given names Luke and Hardin were for his mother’s cousin.  All of James’ sons, excepting Lewis and Cyrus, neither of whom wed or had children, named  a son James, in most every case the first born.  At least three of his daughters did likewise, making a total of at least seven grandsons named for him.  Since it was the wont of families in those days to pass the name of the father down to the son, one wonders why James (8) didn’t name a son Roderick after his father.  James’ brother David did name a son Roderick.  Among James’ grandchildren were six Catherines, five Johns, four each named Sarah and Elizabeth, three named Mary and Benjamin, two of William, Samuel, Nancy, Andrew, Daniel, Virginia and Caroline.  Other names among the grandchildren common to earlier generations of the James Shelton (8) line were Cyrus, Joseph, David and Jane.

James Hardin Shelton, eldest of Samuel and Viola Hardin Shelton’s ten children, was born August 22, 1900, at his mother’s home at Goodfield near Decatur in Meigs County, Tennessee.  He was Quartermaster in the United States Navy in the World War.  He served in the Atlantic off Scotland on a mine layer during the war and on other vessels in the Pacific afterward.  He was for a time on Yangtze Patrol in the interior of China.  Out of the Navy in 1931 he returned to China and went into business in Shanghai on Rue du Consulate.  Here he wed Dah Hee, a native of that city.  They had

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Photo of Saw W. & Viola Hardin Shelton 1899

one child, a daughter, June Marie Shelton, born in Shanghai. Dah Hee died and he married Elsa Fischer, a Norwegian, there. During World War II, Jim was interned in the Japanese prison camp at Pootung. At the end of the war he returned to this country and to the home place, bringing his daughter with him. Here, following a short tenure in Merchant Marine service and having divorced Elsa, he lived out his life. He died March 17, 1968, is buried in the cemetery on the home place. James, having lost a leg resulting from an infection from a crushed toe in an accident in the Maritime service, took up residence at Sheltola and cared for his aging mother until her death in 1957.

Jim and Dah Hee Shelton’s daughter June Marie, his only child, was born in Shanghai, China on June 10, 1934. She came with Jim, her father, to Tennessee after the war, in 1945, at age 10. She lived for a time with her grandmother at Sheltola while her father was in the Maritime Service. She later went to live with her Uncle John and Aunt Mary Emily in Charleston, Tennessee. Here on July 2, 1954, she wed Thomas Oliver Sorrells. June, talented in music, is the pianist for her church and frequently entertains with her music, especially in family get-togethers. She and Tommy reside in Charleston. He is with Bowaters Paper Company across the river in Calhoun. June is an aide in the teaching program at the public school in Charleston.

June and Tommy have 2 daughters, Mary Louise and Anne Marie Sorrells. Mary Louise was born in Cleveland, Tennessee on October 3, 1958. She wed Michael Eugene O’Hern in Charleston on August 15, 1981. Mike was from Fullerton, California and after a sojourn in California they moved back to Tennessee in 1985. Mike is in school at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville studying chemical engineering. Mary Lou and Mike are talented musicians and sing in their church choir. They have two children, Adam Michael and Aaron Thomas O’Hern. Adam was born in Fullerton, California on November 7, 1982. Aaron was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on February 1, 1986. Anne Sorrells was born in Cleveland, Tennessee on October 11, 1961. She wed Perry Bernard Harmon in Charleston on July 28, 1983. Perry graduated from the University of Tennessee in Veterinary Medicine the spring of 1986, has set up practice in Southaven, Mississippi, just out of Memphis. Anne, too, is talented in music, sings and plays beautifully. They have Emily Ann Harmon, born in Knoxville, Tennessee on February 18, 1986.

Mary Elizabeth Shelton, second child, eldest daughter of Samuel White and Viola Hardin Shelton, was born at the home of her parents on the Hiwassee River in lower McMinn County, Tennessee on September 4, 1902. She married William Herman Schultz, Jr. (Pokey) at Cleveland, Tennessee on October 4, 1922. Mary was secretary to the Cleveland-Bradley County Chapter of the American Red Cross until her retirement in 1969. Pokey was retired from the position as City Building Inspector of Cleveland. They had son William Herman Schultz III (Bill), born in Cleveland on August 17, 1923. Bill wed Ina Grace Johnson (Joni) in Texas on December 16, 1946. Bill is retired from the teaching profession, first as Principal of Bradley County High School and more recently from a preparatory school, both in Cleveland. Bill was appointed in July, 1984 as interim mayor of Cleveland to fill out the term of Mayor Colbert, who resigned. Bill was elected last year in his own right to serve as Mayor of Cleveland. Joni Schultz serves as a teacher in the public schools, is active in church and civic clubs.

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               Bill served as an officer in the U. S. Air Force in World War II. They have Robert Johnson Schultz and Mary Jennifer Schultz. Rob was born in Cleveland on November 28, 1949. He wed Lydia Albright in Athens, Tennessee on November 17, 1972. They have Jonathan Fahrny Schultz, born Cleveland on July 20, 1974 and Amelia Catherine Schultz, born April 19, 1978. Rob is on leave from Bowaters Paper Company of Calhoun.  Lydia teaches in the public schools of Bradley County. Mary Jennifer (Jeni) Schultz was born on July  28, 1953. She married Robert Lee Taylor at Cleveland on August 9, 1975. They have Mary Elizabeth Taylor, born  May 9, 1982. Both Bob and Jeni teach in the Cleveland schools. Rob and Lydia and Bob and Jeni and their respective families have homes in Cleveland. On the following page is a write-up from the Cleveland, Tennessee Daily Banner on Bill’s appointment as Mayor of Cleveland.         

    Exquisite paintings and handmade ceramic pieces adorn the home on 14^th Street in Cleveland where Mary and Pokey lived, there by her hand, but these were only two of Mary’s hobbies. She did gardening, canning, cooking, quilting, crocheting and sewing. In her “spare time” she served as a Red Cross volunteer. She and Pokey “kept house” at their home at 233 14^th Street, NW, for 48 years.  

See page 102- picture

James Hardin Shelton & Mary Elizabeth Shelton

See Page 103

A newspaper article concerning Bill Shultz

Although civic work and hobbies consumed much of her time, Mary’s family was not neglected. Her own family as well as others of the clan were frequent dinner guests at their home on 14^th Street. At Christmas the grandchildren and great-grandchildren were recipients of homemade candy. The whole family benefited from her bountiful garden during the summer months. Mary had lived in Cleveland since her marriage in 1922, but many of her paintings are of the home where she was raised on the banks of the Hiwassee River. She has made paintings of the home place for her sister Catherine and for each of her six surviving brothers. She and Pokey owned half interest in the old James Shelton (8) homestead, the other half being owned by one of her brothers, Sam, Jr., and his wife Lois.

            Sheltola, as it is called, was a thousand acres originally; that is until the TVA took the larger and better portion of it. The Hiwassee River wended its way through the farm. There were a church, a general store, tenant houses, a blacksmith shop, barns, stables and other buildings, and there were orchards and pastures and fertile land for corn and wheat and cotton and gardens. The house was a three-story with high ceilings, spacious rooms and a porch half way around at both the first and second floor levels. There were huge oaks to provide shade and a constant breeze on the warmest days, the house being on the high ground overlooking the bottom land and the river. Steamboats plied the river carrying freight to and from the general store and on to Charleston and Calhoun from Chattanooga. A photo of Sheltola is shown on page 140. Across the river from the farm today is the B&B Marina, down river from Charleston.

            Mary, with her natural talent, developed her skills in the domestic arts of quilting and sewing at home. In the early days on the farm much dependence was placed on making ones own clothes and those of others in the family less versatile. A wife might even make for her husband an entire suit by hand.

            Roads in the area were sometimes impassable in the winter and it was a long way to the nearest school. So Mary and other members of the family and some neighbor children were tutored at home by a cousin or someone qualified to do so. Mary attended a boarding school at Athens at an early age, and later with kinfolks in Birmingham, Alabama.

            Mary enrolled at Centenary College in Cleveland, the school being at the site presently occupied by Lee College. She began her art studies here, and some of the paintings she made there for a time graced the walls at Sheltola, and many borrowed therefrom now hang in the living rooms of brothers and nephews and nieces. Some adorn the walls in the home which she shared with Pokey.

            Mary joined forces with the Red Cross in 1944. They needed a secretary and she accepted. Though not trained in this type work, she demonstrated her versatility and became proficient in handling problems that beset that institution in war times. Her son Bill recalls that the ‘phone rang at all hours of the night with families seeking assistance in contacting service men. When Mary came to retirement she was executive director at Cleveland. This was in 1968. At this time the National Red Cross gave her a citation for exemplary, dedicated service to the organization. For the next 11 years until her death she served as hospital volunteer with the Cleveland chapter.

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            The hours as a volunteer did not fill her day, so she began working in a local ceramics shop. Here in the new endeavor her artistic ability was again demonstrated. When the place burned down she began making pieces in her kitchen at home. But a short time prior to her starting her work at home, she was working at the cutting machine at the ceramics shop and got her index finger in the way of the blade. She left the end of the finger at the machine, got in her car and drove to the doctor, perhaps having applied a tourniquet to control the bleeding. At the doctor’s office the medic asked her where the cut-off portion was. She said she hadn’t thought to bring it, so she got in her car and went back to the shop and retrieved the digit. The doctor sewed it back on and in time her finger was about as good as ever.

            Mary continued making ceramic pieces in her home, and she at age 77 began painting again. There is hardly a home among the descendants of Sam and Viola, though scattered to the winds, where there is not a painting or a beautifully decorated ceramic piece created by her and admired by all who come that way. If Mary had a specialty in her painting, it was in historical landmarks. She has painted such structures as the Craigmiles building, the old court house, the Cleveland public library in her city, and Shelton Memorial Church, the old James Shelton (8) home place, Sheltola and many other places of interest from the past. She also made lamps, soup toureens, family crests on pitchers, mugs, vases, etc., dish sets and other ceramic objects. Most of her work went to members of her family. Her work has been shown at various craft fairs, one of her ceramic pieces having won first place in a Chattanooga craft display.

            Mary was always taking on new projects, always learning. Shortly after her seventy-fifth birthday, she took on the project of teaching her son Bill to roller skate, she having mastered this activity in her early youth while skating to and from her school in Birmingham, living then with her Aunt and Uncle there. Even though with teaching Bill she took a fall and broke her arm she was undaunted. The next year she was water skiing with the best of them on Watts Bar Lake at her sister Catherine’s place.

            Mary and Pokey celebrated their fifty-seventh wedding anniversary on October 4, 1979, one month after her 77^th birthday. She continued to remain active, though Pokey would have made her curtail her activities if she had listened to him. Mary did not neglect the spiritual aspect of her life. She was a long time member of Broad Street Methodist Church where she taught a Sunday School class for 25 years and where she and Pokey were faithful members. Mary was a veritable angel of mercy, attending not only her family when they were sick, but kin and friends and anyone who needed her. She was there to lend a helping hand, to bring flowers and gifts to comfort and console. One suspects the angels sang when she arrived on that September morn in 1902 and again as she returned to be one of them in April in 1980. She went to join them on April 7, that year, her remains interred in Cleveland City Cemetery among her beloved Schultzes there. Pokey followed her on December 9, 1984.

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See page 106

Mary Schultz obit

            Samuel White Shelton, Jr., third child, second son of Sam W. and Viola Hardin Shelton’s ten children, was born October 5, 1904 at the home of his parents on the Hiwassee River in lower McMinn County, Tennessee. He was a college professor, retired as of 1970. He attended school at Hiwassee College, Emory and Henry College, Peabody College and Duke University, working toward a doctorate in Mathematics, having been elected to Phi Beta Kappa honorary fraternity. He went back to his alma maters to teach, returning first to Hiwassee and thence to Emory and Henry at Emory, Virginia. Hiwassee College at Madisonville, Tennessee, a junior college, where he graduated in 1924, had been the alma mater of his father who had graduated exactly fifty years earlier, and before that his great uncles and following him younger brothers and a sister and at least one nephew and one niece. Sam taught Mathematics and Physics at Hiwassee, was a very popular teacher, and before moving to Emory and Henry in 1936 was for a short time Dean of the college at Hiwassee. He had graduated from Emory and Henry in 1926. As a teacher there he was head of the Mathematics and Physics Department, and was there during World War II when there was an influx of officer candidates whom it fell his lot to instruct. He left Emory and Henry in 1945 and began a career at Northwestern State University at Natchitoches, Louisiana. He retired from Northwestern in 1970 after 25 years with the institution. Following that he was asked to fill in some at the local high school, which he did for a year or so. His teaching career covered some 45 years.

            Sam married Lois Still, born May 28, 1910, at Knoxville, Tennessee on April 10, 1941, at her home in Knoxville. They have Samuel White Shelton III, born in Knoxville February 4, 1943, and Lois Patricia Shelton, born June 27, 1944, also at Knoxville. Sam III married Geraldine K. Smith on February 11, 1967 in Baytown, Texas. They have Michelle Lynn Shelton, born Landstuhl, Germany on September 14, 1968, where Sam III was Captain in the U. S. Army; and Timothy Shawn Shelton, born Baytown, Texas September 26, 1969. Lois Patricia Shelton (Patty) wed Henry Ernest Walls, Jr., born August 21, 1941, in Nachitoches on April 13, 1968. They have Cynthia Lynn Walls, born November 25, 1969 in Montgomery, Alabama, and Julie Rebecca Walls, born in Natek, Massachusetts, June 17, 1972. Sam III has recently moved to a Louisiana base where he is serving as an army Major in the legal department, having moved there from tours at various posts. Patty and family reside in Charlottesville, Virginia where Ernie is a practicing civil engineer.

            Sam, Jr. and Lois reside in Natchitoches, a beautiful city on the Red River and noted especially for its annual Christmas festival featuring beautiful lighting and ornamentation. They own a farm outside the city where Sam has done light farming. He also had a garden and enjoyed tennis. Lois works in ceramics in which she’s quite talented. They own half the old Shelton homestead at Sheltola. The other half formerly owned by his sister Mary Schultz has been passed down to her son Bill. Sam at 83 is ailing at this writing.

            Nancy Catherine Shelton, fourth child, second daughter of Samuel W. and Viola Hardin Shelton’s ten children, was born on December 16, 1906 at the home of her parents on the Hiwassee River in lower McMinn County, Tennessee. She wed William Franklin Whitaker, born December 23, 1907, on June 30, 1932 at Athens, Tennessee. Catherine, now retired, taught in the public schools at

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Calhoun and Athens, as did her husband, Bill, deceased as of December 16. 1978, he having retired as Superintendent of City Schools of Athens. They have daughter Mary Ann, born Cleveland, Tennessee on November 23, 1939, and son William Franklin, Jr. (Chip), born Athens April 13, 1945. Mary Ann wed Richard Kubala at Athens on July 1, 1967. They have Steven Michael, born Cincinnati on May 21, 1969, and Kenneth Scott Kubala born July 4, 1972 in Phoenix, Arizona where they took up residence prior to his birth. Chip wed Beverly Durham at Sarasota, Florida July 20, 1975. They had Melissa Renee’, born March 5, 1977 in Florida. Beverly has Dana and Adrienne by an earlier marriage, and Dana now has Christopher. They now reside in Jacksonville, Florida where Chip is Regional Sales Manager of Ford Motor Company. He served in the Army in Korea as Specialist 4. Dick is with Honeywell Industries. Mary Ann teaches in the public schools.

            Catherine has her home in Athens and a cabin on Watts Bar Lake near Ten Mile, Tennessee, an embayment of the Tennessee River. She spends winters in Phoenix and visits Chip and family in Florida. But she spends time with her art in which she is very talented. Her home in Athens is next door to brother Joe and his wife Sue. Catherine’s place on the lake is a summer gathering place for the clan for boating, swimming, skiing and fishing. Mary Ann and Dick have a cabin on the lake nearby.

            John Cyrus Shelton, third son, fifth child of Sam W. and Viola Hardin Shelton’s ten children, was born on February 16, 1909 at the new home of his parents, Sheltola, Calhoun, Tennessee on the Hiwassee River in lower McMinn County, a stone’s throw from the old home that James Shelton (8)  built in 1820, the first to be born at Sheltola. He married Mary Emily Bean, born March 22, 1913, at Niota, Tennessee on August 14, 1934. They lived at Charleston, Tennessee where John was elected as first mayor of the town when it was incorporated in about 1955. He was postmaster there at the time of his death on August 4, 1966. He is buried in Bradley Memorial Cemetery. He was active in Masonic work, having been Worshipful Master of the Charleston Lodge, and he and Mary Emily were both in Eastern Star, John having achieved the position of Worthy Patron in that Order. Mary Emily remains active in the Order. She retired from teaching in the public schools at Charleston in 1978. Following retirement she was frequently called back to teach in Bradley County schools and was active in her church and other groups until her stroke in January, 1979. She has to some extent recovered from her stroke to the extent that she again drives her car but is still considerably limited in her activities. She lives at home in Charleston near her niece, June Sorrels, and Tommy who see to her welfare. Mary Emily and John had no children of their own but kept and raised Jim’s daughter June through her pre-teen and teen years.

            Joseph Davenport Shelton, fourth son, sixth child of Sam W. and Viola Hardin Shelton’s ten, was born July 8, 1911 at the home of his parents, Sheltola, Calhoun, Tennessee. He married Savilla (Sue) Prince at Chattanooga on October 1, 1938. Both Joe and Sue taught in the high schools of McMinn County, Joe

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having retired recently as Principal of Calhoun School and Sue as teacher at McMinn County High School in Athens. They have son Joe Max Shelton, born August 28, 1939; Douglas Sidney, born June 13, 1943; James Luke, born March 12, 1945; and daughter Linda Gay Shelton, born July 29, 1947, all at Athens. Max married Alice Crofts at Cleveland, Tennessee on September 10, 1960. They had Suzanne Crofts Shelton, born in Memphis on September 4, 1967. Max and Alice were divorced, and in 1978 Max wed Sally Weir of Memphis. They have Adam Weir Shelton, born December 26, 1979 and John Kent (Jack) Shelton, born December 22, 1981. Max graduated in Law from the University of Tennessee and has a noteworthy practice in Memphis. Sid wed Roberta Ann Limpert on May 13, 1978 in New Jersey. They have Terry Limpert Shelton, born September 26, 1979; Lynn Roberts Shelton, born December 5, 1982, and Sandy Prince Shelton, born July 26, 1987. Sid is an Electrical Engineer, and he and Roberta both are with Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. Sid flies his own plane and makes occasional runs back to Tennessee in his craft. Jim wed Margie Ann Fisher in Athens on June 29, 1968. They have Laura Fisher Shelton, born August 18, 1972 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where Jim was with Dow Chemical Company. Jim and Margie Ann are now divorced, and Jim’s company has relocated him to northern Michigan. Gay wed Walter Robinson, Jr. at Calhoun July 3, 1966. They have Letitia Susan (Tish) born August 6, 1967 and John Walter Robinson III (Jay) born May 16, 1970, both at Cleveland, Tennessee. Gay and John were divorced, and on February 15, 1975 Gay wed Emmet Mulvehill. The family resides in Mobile where Gay is in sales and the children attend school.

            Joe and Sue remain active, though Sue was stricken some months ago with slight paralysis. Joe is an A-1 gardener, having a large garden in both Athens and at their old home site in Calhoun, some 12 miles down the road. Also, when his elderly neighbor became somewhat incapacitated, he took on his garden, too. Besides her housework and growing flowers, Sue spends much time entertaining grandchildren of which they have nine. They live next door to sister Catherine Whitaker, and they spend some time at Catherine’s place on the lake, boating, fishing, swimming, etc. A visitor to Joe and Sue’s house is apt to depart with a car load of garden produce in growing season.

            Charles David Shelton, fifth son, seventh child of Sam W. and Viola Hardin Shelton’s 10 children, was born April 22, 1913 at the house of his parents, Sheltola, Calhoun, Tennessee. He wed Lorane Agnes Baker, born August 16, 1918, in Bradley County, Tennessee on June 8, 1940 at Riceville, Tennessee. Dave is retired from US Postal Service at Cleveland where he was a rural carrier. Earlier he ran a country store at Etola, Tennessee and was for a time in hardware sales, was in politics once whereupon he ran for county office – County Court Clerk, I believe, a position held in the early days of the county by Uncle John Harrison Robertson, who was the first of that position in Bradley County. Lorane is retired as teacher in the public schools in Cleveland. They have daughter Janice Fay Shelton, born December 1, 1948. Janice married Patrick Hundley of Jackson, Tennessee in Cleveland on March 26, 1970. They have David Shelton Hundley, born Cleveland March 13, 1975. Janice and Patrick were divorced and she wed Dickie Norton of Cleveland in that city on June 27, 1975. They have Daniel Shelton Norton, born October 3, 1980. Janice teaches in the public schools in Cleveland; Dickie has an insurance agency. Dave served in the army in the European Theatre in World War II. A private first class, he was wounded in action near the Rhine River on March 20, 1945, having been on duty overseas for a year prior to his being wounded. Dave and Lorane make their home in Cleveland as do Janice and Dickey. Dave is active in church work and civic clubs, is a top-notch gardener. See page 110 for an article from the Cleveland paper about Dave.

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See Page 110

A newspaper article about C. Dave Shelton of Cleveland, TN.

            Arthur Paul Shelton , sixth son, 8^th child of Sam and Viola, was born August 4, 1914 at the home of his parents, Sheltola,  Calhoun, Tennessee. Paul retired June 15, 1981 after more than 40 years with Southern Railway in civil engineering in track and bridge work. He retains a professional engineering license in both Georgia and Tennessee. He wed Virginia Marie King, born May 21, 1921 in Findley, Ohio on March 14, 1943. They have Caroline June, Arthur Paul, Jr., and Ralph King Shelton. Caroline June, born January 6, 1944 at Camp LeJeune, New River, North Carolina, wed Joe L. Williams, Jr. in Knoxville, Tennessee on March 18, 1965. They reside in Doraville, Georgia. Caroline is counselor-teacher at the High School in Decatur, Georgia. Joe is associate pastor at Norcross First United Methodist Church. Paul, Jr. was born on August 4, 1947 at Knoxville, Tennessee. He wed Ellen Anne Leibrock at Newport, Tennessee on July 5, 1970. They recently moved from Sugar Land, Texas to Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Paul, being with Phillips Petroleum Company, was moved from the Houston Office to the headquarters in Bartlesville. He has legislative and regulatory responsibilities in Transportation. Ellen , a qualified librarian, has a Masters Degree in Library Science and recently completed advanced work in this degree at the University in Tulsa to get certification in Oklahoma. Her degree is from the University of Glasboro in New Jersey. She is school librarian. Other activities include looking after their daughter of eight and keeping house. She is an outstanding tennis player, having won many trophies in the sport. They have daughter Jocelyn Suzanne Shelton, born in Temple, Texas, December 20, 1978. Paul Jr. served as Specialist 4 in the army in Vietnam with distinction, having been wounded in action on May 9, 1969, having won besides the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star with V-Device, the Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal   ( 3 times) and other honors for heroism in military action. He entered service in June,1968, was released from active duty in March ,1970, and honorably discharged June 1, 1974. Ralph wed Michela Margaret Russo, born March 23, 1955 in Springfield, Virginia, at Arlington, Virginia on August 27, 1977. Ralph is a pharmacist at Baptist Hospital in Memphis, having taken a degree in Pharmacy from the University of Tennessee there. He is presently studying at Memphis State University on requisites toward a doctorate in Math. Michela, having a Masters Degree from the University of Tennessee, is an instructor in Nursing at Baptist Hospital. Ralph and Michela have a home in Cordova, Tennessee, a town on the east side of Memphis. Ralph, a trombonist, plays in the Germantown Orchestra. Paul, Sr. served in World War II in the U. S. Marines as an Engineering officer in the Pacific area. Paul and Virginia spend time in civic and church work, travel some, golf, and Paul writes some.

            Robert Luke Hardin Shelton, seventh son, ninth child of Sam W. and Viola Hardin Shelton’s ten, was born March 10, 1917 at the home of his parents, Sheltola, Calhoun, Tennessee. He wed Lorrain Wallace, born February 26, 1925 in Winters, Texas on November 24, 1948. Bob retired as Director of Athletics-Assistant Superintendent of Schools of the City of Dallas in 1977, he having served for many years in Education, first  in Tennessee, then in Texas. In his home state he was Principal of Charleston High School for a short time. He then went to Gaston Junior High and from there to Samuel High School in Dallas in

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1968, the latter with an enrollment of 2400 and a faculty of more than 100, which was a far cry from his initial assignment at Charleston where the enrollment was about the size of faculty at Samuels. Then in February, 1969, he was chosen as Dallas public schools athletic director. This appointment was written up in the Dallas papers. The following item with a picture of his was in the Dallas Times Herald on February 27, 1969:

SHELTON SELECTION PRAISED

By Tom Williams

It may come as a shock to those close to the situation, but the naming of Robert Shelton as the public school’s new Athletic Director received nothing but praise from the City’s head coaches.

Shelton was named Wednesday by the school board to succeed retiring athletic director A. A. Buschman, effective July 1.

“I think he’ll do an outstanding job,” said Samuel coach Harrell Shaver. “We hate to lose him here, but we feel we are going to gain a lot by having him downtown.”

Shelton is Principal at Samuel, a position he assumed last fall after ten years as Principal at Gaston Junior High.

“He’s a great guy to work for,” Shaver said. “He’s familiar with our athletic program and loves athletics. The job he is taking is administrative one, and you won’t find a better administrator.”

Although Shelton has been out of coaching and athletics since 1951, he has served in a coaching capacity at Winters and at Pleasant Grove High.

“He’ll be a good one,” said Bryan Adams’ Bob Cowsar, who was rumored to be in the running for the position. “He is the kind of person that can mix with coaches. He has an excellent background in athletics and I feel certain he’ll do an excellent job.”

The 51-year-old Shelton said he did not seek the position but was asked by Superintendent Dr. Nolan Estes if he would be interested in the job.

“I told him ‘yes’,” said Shelton. “I know the problems involved and would make a few changes. However, I won’t say what those changes will be until after I get downtown and acquaint myself with the position.”

The selection of Shelton came as a surprise. Mentioned prominently as a successor to Buschman were Herman Cowley and Ralph Fulton of the present athletic staff; Waymon Wilson, former Samuel Coach and now Principal of Edison Junior High School; Cowsar; and Charlie Fields, former Kimball coach and now Principal of Oliver Elementary School.

            ”I’m very pleased,” said Kimball coach Herb Harlan. He’s an honest man…a kind of guy you can go down and talk to. He knows our problems and I’m sure he’ll listen to them when they arise. As far as public relations are concerned, he can’t be beat in that department; he leaves a good impression with everyone he meets.” (See for write-up anent Bob’s and Bill Ellington’s induction into  McMurray College’s Athletic Hall of Fame.)

One of the city’s most experienced coaches, Raymond Mattingly at South Oak Cliff, feels that he will do an excellent job. “We used to coach against each other when I was at Bowie and he was at Winters,” said Mattingly. “He knows the coaching situation and what we face every day. I’m sure he’ll do an outstanding job.” Estes confirmed to the Times Herald Wednesday that Shelton was “our recommendation to succeed Buschman”. The board at its meeting Wednesday voted to accept Shelton. The job pays approximately $20,000 annually.

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Prior to Bob’s ten-year tenure at Gaston Junior High in Dallas, he coached at both Winters and Pleasant Grove High in Texas. After his retirement, Bob and Lorrain moved to Quinlan, Texas, a suburb on the east side of Dallas. Here they have a country home and some acreage. Their neighbors are the Ellingtons, Bob’s long-time friends, Bill having retired 4 years ago as Athletic Director of the University of Texas. They are mutually interested in farming. Bob has a 100-acre farm near Quinlan where he raises beef cattle. Lorrain teaches in the public schools, having for many years taught third grade at Garland. Bob’s most recent honor was his election to Texas’ Athletic Directors Hall of Honor, August, 1982, at a dinner in Houston.

Bob and Lorrain have 4 children: Thomas Steven, Vicki, Robert Wallace and Melissa Shelton. Tommy was born in Dallas on February 15, 1952. He married Debra Guerra in Dallas on October 5, 1985. They have Thomas Steven Shelton, Jr. born July 31, 1986 in Dallas. Tommy is with the police department of the City of Dallas. When then President Carter visited there Tommy was put in charge of the detail to guard the President, and he received his personal thanks for a job well done. A photo at hand is of the President shaking Tom’s hand. He has since been given the responsibility of guarding many VIP’s, included among them the King of Norway and Vice President Bush, each on a visit to Dallas. Vicki Shelton was born in Dallas on June 14, 1953. She wed Gary Lynn Scott there on April 14, 1973. They had no children, were divorced. Then on July 12, 1975, she married James J. White in Dallas. They have Robert Glen White, born in Dallas on November 3, 1979. Vicki, formerly a department store manager, now teaches part time at a junior college on microwave cooking. Jim is in air freight service. Robert (Bobbie) spends considerable time assisting Grandpa Shelton on the farm. Robert Wallace Shelton (Picker) wed LuAnn Vest in Dallas on November 3, 1979. Picker, a graduate of East Texas State, born July 15, 1956, recently became coach at Garland, Texas. They have Blake Thomas Shelton, born Dallas on November 25, 1981, and twin sons Robert Luke and James Landon, born March 6, 1985, named for their grandfathers. Melissa Shelton, youngest of Bob and Lorrain, youngest grandchild of Sam W. and Viola Hardin Shelton and youngest great-grandchild of James (8) and Jane Wood Shelton, was born in Dallas on April 18, 1962. Melissa, now 25, graduated from the University of Texas, she having been chosen 2 years in a row at her high school as homecoming queen. She is a physical education instructor. She wed Charles Michael Bartlett in Dallas on August 20, 1983. Bob served in the U. S. Air Force in World War II as an officer in the European Theatre.

Benjamin Franklin Shelton (Pete), eighth son and 10^th and youngest child of Samuel W. and Viola Hardin Shelton, was born on July 22, 1920 at the home of his parents, Sheltola, Calhoun, Tennessee. He wed Evelyn Inez Craigue, born September 16, 1922 in Banes Oriente, Cuba, November 3, 1943, at Knoxville,

Tennessee. They presently reside in Manchester, Tennessee where Pete was in the feed, grain and farm equipment business known as C & S Trading Post until recently. They have Anne Marie Shelton, born Miami, Florida November 9, 1944; Michael Edward, born Manchester February 3, 1950; Elizabeth Jane born there on January 19, 1954; and Peter Craigue, born there November 21, 1955. Anne Marie wed Leonard Runyons in Manchester August 18, 1967. They had Benjamin Shelton Runyons in Manchester February 3, 1970, Anne Marie and Leonard having been divorced in the meantime. On August 19, 1970 Anne Marie wed

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An article concerning Bob Shelton

Charles William Pender, born August 21, 1946, at Manchester. They have Daniel

Sheridan Pender, born September 16, 1971 and Edward Craigue Pender born same date in 1977, each at Decherd, Tennessee, the same day of the month as Grandma Inez. The Penders live at Decherd. Anne Marie, a graduate of St. Thomas School of Nursing in Nashville, Tennessee is employed as Supervisor of Nurses at the Franklin County Hospital at Decherd. Charles, recuperating from throat surgery, is with the U. S. Government’s aerospace facility at Tullahoma, Tennessee and is national representative of his professional engineering society, is renowned in his field for new concepts he has introduced into the aerospace program. Mike wed Dorothy Jean Alcorn, born January 16, 1951 near Manchester on June 6, 1971 in that town. They have Kimberly Denise, born October 3, 1975; Jake Michael, born November 18, 1976; Karen Diane, born May 25, 1978; Ryan Craig, born November 24, 1980; and Melissa Elaine, born February 16, 1982, all in Manchester. Mike is a practicing dentist in his home town, being a graduate of the University School of Dentistry in Memphis. Dorothy is a graduate in Dental Hygiene and works with Mike in that capacity.

            Betsy married Edward Neal Fulton of Fort Worth, Texas on July 29, 1973 at Tullahoma, Tennessee. They had no children, were divorced. Betsy graduated from the University of Alabama in Occupational Therapy and is practicing her profession in Oskosh, Wisconsin. Here she met Ray Zielke. They were married in Reno February 11, 1980. They have Katherine Craigue Zielke, born April 10, 1984, and Samuel Shelton Zielke, born August 21, 1985, both in Wisconsin. Peter wed Joyce Marie Moore, born September 24, 1956 at Manchester on August  24, 1976 in that city.  They have John Luke Shelton, born October 18, 1979 in Memphis where Peter was enrolled in the College of Dentistry at the University of Tennessee; Zachary Usher Shelton, born March 7, 1983; Joseph Heath, born April 30, 1985; and Emily Kate, born June 4, 1987, the three in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Joyce has a degree in elementary education and taught in Memphis public schools, continues on as such in Manchester. Peter and Joyce are both graduates of Middle Tennessee State University at Murfreesboro. Peter graduated from the School of Dentistry in 1982 and set up a practice with his brother Mike in Manchester. Benjamin F. (Pete) was a Naval officer in World War II in the Mediterranean Area. In his retirement he gives time to closing his business, and he and Inez travel considerably and play golf and enjoy their 14 grandchildren, all of whom, except Katherine and Samuel Zielke, live close by.

            The descendants of Samuel White and Viola Hardin Shelton enjoy a family reunion for three days every year in July at Fall Creek Falls State Park near Pikeville, Tennessee. This year there were 90 descendants and spouses present.

 The reunion is held in conjunction with the Joe Hardin reunion, both starting on

the last Friday in July. This year there were about 40 of Viola’s nephews, nieces & spouses there.

            On the next 25 pages are excerpts from the Unites States census records from McMinn, Bradley and other Tennessee counties and other references, all pertinent to searching records for James Shelton (8)

115

 See page 116

Photo's of James, Sam and Pete Shelton

            The above was taken from the Cleveland (Tennessee) Daily Banner for September 24, 1964. James Shelton (8), born Patrick County, Virginia in 1791, came with his father, Roderick Shelton (7) and family to Buncombe County, North Carolina (the portion of which is now Madison County at Shelton Laurel) in about 1795. In 1819 he came to McMinn County, Tennessee where he established the homestead on the Hiwassee River six miles downstream from the present site of Calhoun. He died here in 1879 and is buried on the home place. His son, Samuel White Shelton, born here in 1854, one of 17 children, was the youngest child to survive to old age. He inherited the home place, farmed the land and took over a country store nearby known as Raht on the left bank of the river which thrived for many years. He died in 1937 and is buried on the home place. Benjamin F. (Pete) Shelton, born 1920, the youngest of Sam’s 10 children, resides in Manchester, Tennessee. He retired as a merchant in the feed, grain and farm equipment business in 1982. He is the father of 4 children.

It is interesting to note that Samuel W. Shelton was held up by Jesse James when the stage coach on which he was traveling from Mammoth Cave , Kentucky to Cave City was stopped and the occupants robbed on September 3, 1880. (See write-up p. 405).

116

See page 117

A newspaper article about Raht Community and Dave Shelton

See page 118

Continues above article

Following is a description of Sheltola written by the author several years ago depicting how it was on a summer day:

A vantage point on the front porch commands a restful panorama. A quarter mile to the south is the Hiwassee River, the sheer bluff beyond rising 200 feet above the blue-green water. Upriver to the east the valley bends north and is hidden among the hills. Westward the river winds through fertile fields where now the corn is tasseling and the heat causes the atmosphere to waver.

On the porch of the old house, even on the hottest days, there is a welcome breeze. Atop the bluff in a dead tree, a hawk keeps his bailiwick, the bare limbs of his tree flaring to the wind. The huge bird regularly soars into the heavens, then spirals slowly downward to perch on the topmost branch, his view centered on a white, three story dwelling in a yard shaded by huge oaks and circled by a driveway.

Beyond, a road winds northward to the pike, then to town. A hawk’s eye could just discern through an expanse of forest the next house a mile away. Northeast are the barns and pastures, the spring and reservoir which supply water to the house. Northwestward, across the road are fields of ripening wheat. In the midst of the wheat is a square of green. Here the departed take their long rest.

The house is sturdy, built to endure weather and stand against the storms. The roof is steep, of shingles cut by hand from oak. Atop the house is a deck roof, enclosed by ornamental grillwork, and below are low windows. On the four sides of the house are gabled windows, affording access to the roof from the third story. There are two chimneys, and there is a spire at the southeast corner.

            Inside, the ceilings are high, and the hallways and rooms are large. In the first room off the hallway to the right, called the parlor, is a piano, and there is an oak chest holding picture albums, the family Bibles and other heirlooms. Over the fireplace photographs of familiar faces look down. Beloved paintings deck three walls, some by a family artist. On either side of the fireplace are book shelves.

The first room left is the sitting room, large and sunny, with expansive windows. Farther down the hall on the right is the dining room with a long table, space enough to sit a dozen easily, and a side-board equally commodious, and --through a swinging door -- the kitchen with its wood range. To the left opposite the dining room is another living room, serving also as a library and storage for bric-a-brac. This space was called Clint’s Room. I was told that in the early days of Sheltola one Clint Chambers, an itinerant, was frequently lodged here... A chandelier for gas lights and an open fireplace grace each room.

At the end of the hall a staircase leads to the second floor. Here there are four large airy bedrooms, a smaller one for the maid, and a bath room. A stairway gives access to the third story and on the to deck roof.

Porches at both levels extend across the front and part way along the sides. Walkways circle the house and slope down through the trees to the driveway.

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 See page 120

Photo's of Raht, Tennessee

See page 121

More photo's of Raht, Tennessee

 Census data pages 122 -144 are filed separately

Please follow this link to view those pages.

See Census Data

See page 140

Sheltola in 1908

See page 141

Steamboat on Hiwassee River with Shelton Farm in background

See page 142

East View of Sheltola

See page 143

Family group at the James Shelton homeplace winter 1905-1906

Following are Will and Estate Records of McMinn County, Tennessee of the Sheltons and related families and other items thought to be pertinent to the chapter on James Shelton (8) on the history of the clan:

            Shelton, Sarah, CR6, 4, July 1853. James Bonner, Esq. paid for holding inquest over body in year 1851.

            Shelton, Samuel, CR5, 168, 7 May 1844. Jesse H. Benton, Daniel D. Stockton, and George W. Million app. Com. to lay out year’s support for widow.

            CR5, 454, June 1848. Mrs. Mary Shelton, widow, consents that her two sons, Samuel aged about 8 and William C. aged 5 years the 26^th June 1848 be bound to Tapley Gregory.

            Shelton, John, CR4, 530, 4 Jan. 1841. Jeremiah H. Benton, Thomas Lasley and Charles Hester app. Com. to lay off support for year for widow Elizabeth.

            WBC 343, 347, 1 March 1841. Invt. of sale by Thomas K. Napier and Josiah Childers, adm. report of above comm.

            WBD 135, 13 April 1843. Sett. By Adams.

            WBE, 61, 13 Sept. 1849, sett. by Josiah Childers, one of adm.; paid heirs John C. and Joseph Shelton, John McGinly and T. K. Napier.

            Shelton, David, CR 16, 7, 8 May 1840, Thomas B. Smith vs Saml Shelton, adm. CR 546, 7 June 1841, Samuel Shelton app. Adm.

            Graves, Eliza, CC 2, filed 7 December 1866, filed 28 Jan. 1869; CC 342 filed 7 Sept 1872. Eliza, dau. of James  Shelton of Bradley County, widow of Edward Sharp, who died in Bradley County in 1847, and wife of Simeon Graves, died leaving husband Simeon Graves and children: Nancy, age 15, Elizabeth, age 13, Cindy, age 11, Lewis, age 9, Daniel, age 7, Catherine, age 5, Velena, age 4, and Simeon, age 1 (all ages in December 1866). Eliza and first husband Edward Sharp  had two children, Napoleon and Edward, Jr., who both died in Bradley County intestate and unmarried in 1864. (Daughter Nancy is not in this list of children.)

            Graves, Christopher, WBC 66, 5 Nov 1838 and 102 – 110 5 Jan. 1839. Invt. and sale by Union Graves, adm.

            WBD 449 April 1847: Sett. by same adm. CC 245 filed Apr. 16, 1856. Christopher Graves died leaving widow Nancy Graves who is still living.

            CC 169 filed 20 Apr 1868: Christopher Graves died in fall of 1838 leaving the following children: Union, Simeon who died during the law suit (1871), Vilena who married at age 23 to Jacob Sharp, Jacob deceased without wife or child, Lucinda married to William Smart of Arkansas, Christopher, Elizabeth married to Isaac Smart and Nancy married to John McInturf.

144

            Shelton, Lucinda to Charles Thompson 26  October 1841.

            Shelton, Malinda to Charles Martin 18 July, 1839.

            Shelton Polly, to Jonathan Hale, August, 1825.

            Shelton, William to Miss Beckett 2 August; 1854.

            Shelton, Elizabeth to Christopher Graves 25 November, 1850.

            Shelton, Catherine to R. N. Shipley 17 September, 1857.

            Shelton, Jane to John Harris 31 July, 1847.

            Shelton, John E. to Lucinda Perrin 8 August, 1853, married 12 August, 1853 by William

Walker.

            John E. Shelton will 16 October, 1875. Mentioned house and lot in Charleston. Requested his sons work the farm. Willed his wife, Lucinda, a child’s part of his estate. Should she remarry, however, she would not get a child’s part but would receive his Buckhorn farm where her father Samuel Perrin lived. Appointed A. H. Blevins and Kinsey Hooper as executors and guardians of his children.

            From Who’s Who in Tennessee (1961): Karl D. Saulpaw, Jr., born 11-2-22 Calhoun. Mother Minnie Wright Saulpaw,  Grandfather C. J. Wright. Children: Karl D., III, Glen W., Sarah Ann, James and Charles.

            Notes on Calhoun and Charleston, Tennessee:

            Calhoun, 73m. (893 alt., 300 pop.) on north bank of the Hiwassee River, was settled in 1819 and named for John C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War. Under their treaty rights the Cherokee Indians retained the islands in the Chestatee, Tennessee and Hiwassee Rivers. John McGhee wished to acquire one of these islands in the Hiwassee near here. He owned a rifle that was coveted by John Walker, a chief of the local Cherokees. Once the Indian remarked: “The Chief had a dream. He dreamed that white chief had given him his fine gun.” McGhee did so. Later McGhee, taking advantage of the Indian tradition that what was asked for under such conditions must be given, approached the Indian and remarked: “White man dream Indian give him fine Island.” After a period of reflection the Indian replied: “Big Chief give you island, but Indian no dream against white man no more.”

            Charleston, 74.6m (903 alt., 480 pop.) is opposite Calhoun in Bradley County on south bank of Hiwassee River. While this area was still Indian territory, the Ocoee having been ceded to  the United Sates in 1819 by the Cherokee, the Indian agency stood here. In the summer and fall of 1838 several thousands of Cherokees were herded together for the great removal to the land west of the Mississippi River. At Rattlesnake Springs, 2 miles south of Charleston, the last tribal council of the old Cherokee Nation was held. After this gathering in October, the Indians began their wearying trek into their lonely western exile escorted by soldiers of the United States Army

145

General Winfield Scott was in command of the troops who evicted the Cherokees. Attention is called to the site of the house and grave of Chief Jack Walker by a bronze tablet set in stone wall at 81.8m. The tablet reads: “Location of house and grave of Chief Jack Walker, greatest of his tribe and a servant of our country. Married 1824 Emily Meigs, daughter of Return Jonathan Meigs.” Chief Jack Walker lived at what is known as the Cherokee Farm. At an Indian council at Old Fort he was accused of treason by his tribesmen and was assassinated on his way home from the meeting. At about 40 feet east of his grave, a hackberry tree stands, a block of limestone to the west. During the War Between the States a detachment of Confederate Army conscriptors was headquartered at Charleston. They traveled about Eastern Tennessee soliciting enlistments. Posted in towns in Jefferson and Hawkins Counties was the following notice: FREEMEN; AVOID CONSCRIPTION. THE UNDERSIGNED DESIRES TO RAISE A COMPANY FOR CONFEDERATE STATES SERVICE, AND FOR THAT PURPOSE I CALL UPON THE PEOPLE OF JEFFERSON AND HAWKINS COUNTIES, TENNESSEE TO MEET PROMPTLY AT RUSSELLVILLE ON SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1862, AND ORGANIZE A COMPANY. BY SO DOING YOU WILL AVOID BEING TAKEN AS CONSCRIPTS FOR THAT ACT WILL NOW BE ENFORCED BY ORDER OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT. RALLY, THEN MY COUNTRYMEN, TO YOUR COUNTRY’S CALL. S. M. DENNISON OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY. CHARLESTON, TENNESSEE, JUNE 30, 1862.

            Following are notes from Claiborne County, Tennessee records at the courthouse at Tazewell taken on December 10, 1970, the deeds not complete, some having been destroyed in fire some years ago. Deed Records:

            In 1807 William Shelton granted to Thomas Shirley Deed Book B., p. 107. This was found in deed index only; copy of deed not found.

            In 1833 James Shelton et. al. granted to Hugh Graham Deed Book K, p. 229. This James Shelton shown as of Franklin County, Missouri. Many deeds are recorded involving Hugh Graham, evidently a land agent.

            In 1834, James Shelton granted to Hugh Graham, Deed Book K,  p. 291.

            In 1835 Jessie Shelton and wife granted to James Dickerson, Deed Book L, p. 143.

            In 1851, Joseph Skelton granted to Daniel McClure, Deed Book V, p. 17.

            In 1806, George Willis granted to William Shelton, Deed Book A, p. 258.

            In 1817, Thomas Johnson granted to Ralph Shelton, Deed Book E, p. 251. This property on Clinch River.

            Marriage Records:

            Eli Shelton wed Mabaley Moser in 1847, Book 2, page 107. There were no pertinent marriage records found prior to this date. These records were found to be in confusion.

146.

            Following are some early notes on Sheltons in Grainger County, Tennessee:

            Under Grainger County marriages: Crispin Shelton to Sarah Williams, October 1, 1811, witnessed by one Ralph Shelton.

            Under Grainger County wills: One Captain McGinnis, 1814-1815 to Crispin Shelton, 100 a. 1 wp, William Shelton heirs, 200 a.

            Following are some early notes on Sheltons in Rhea County and in Sale Creek in Hamilton County, Tennessee:

            On February 2, 1829 came David Shelton, and on his application it is ordered that he be permitted to keep an Ordinary in this county for one year. (Presumably a restaurant.)

            On January 13, 1830, the following advertisement of David Shelton’s tavern in Rhea County appeared in the Knoxville Register:

Morgantown, Tennessee

The subscriber wants cash, ‘tis true,

                  Which brings this note to public view.

In Morgantown a house and keep,

     Of public entertainment cheap,

State of Tennessee, County of Rhea,

             You may ride in the stage this way.

Corn, fodder, oats and whiskey, too,

            Sign of the bell, stands full in view.

Call, friendly travelers; call and see

                                                   Your humble servant I will be.

                                                                        David Shelton

            December 16, 1829

            Land conveyed 1/163 from Cosby and McClung to C. E. Shelton, December 19, 1829, 50 acres for $50.00, on both sides Sale Creek. Beginning on Russell’s corner S 21 degrees East 265 poles to Russell’s corner on Sale Creek at mouth of a branch; N 80 degrees East 30 poles to point near head of spring; S 15 degrees W 68 poles to point in Rogers line; with Roger’s line N 60 degrees  W and passing Roger’s corner 146 poles; and thence to beginning.

            Rhea County Court minutes 1829 – 1834. David Shelton authorized to keep an ordinary for one year with bond by Orville Paine and Nathaniel W. Wilson.

            On January 25, 1831, the Rhea County Court duly commissioned David Shelton as Surveyor of Rhea County, Tennessee. Bond with S. R.. Hackett, Orville Paine, Miles Vernon, William Smith and John Witt.

            November 9, 1831, Rhea County Court. Presentment vs Crispen E. Shelton for drunkenness. Guilty. Five dollar fine and costs and to remain in custody until fine and costs paid or security therefor given.      

147.

            Rhea County Court minutes 1829 – 1834. On November 8, 1832 Crispen E. Shelton duly commissioned as Surveyor of Rhea  County. Bond with Palatiah Chilton, Orville Paine and Caswell Johnson. Jesse Thompson sworn in same day as Deputy Surveyor.

            In February, 1833, C. E. Shelton was appointed Coroner of Rhea County. (This may be C. E., Jr.)

            Land conveyed 2/160 from William Hickman, Jr. and Sr. to C. E. Shelton January 14, 1833 for $1000.00, 200 acres on Cave Fork of Sale Creek, beginning on west bank, comes to Wm McGill; up creek to Benjamin Jones and C. E. Shelton corner, then N 75 degrees west 216 poles to a tree, then along meander of mountain 125 poles to McGill’s corner, then S 68 degrees E 196 poles to beginning.

            Benjamin Jones

            John Witt

            C. E. Shelton was dead by 1836. In the December session of Rhea County Court in 1836, H. Collins and S. R. Hackett laid off a years support to his widow and her minor heirs; one slave, 1500 pounds of bacon, 400 bushels of corn, twelve dollars worth of sugar, 12 dollars worth of coffee, five dollars for salt, ten dollars for leather, 60 pounds of cotton in the seed; flax, cotton and wool on hands.

            Sarah Shelton was the widow, Henry A. Shelton the son. In the sale was:

A large still cap and worm, $53.00;

small still cap and worm, $31.50

small barrels

staves for tubs

1 whiskey barrel (bought by John Witt)

Note on Hardy Hughes and William Hughes for 60 gals. whiskey

In the sale of the property of Crispen E. Shelton, deceased the following were buyers:

            Sarah Shelton, the widow                       Robert Boulton

            Henry A. Shelton, a son                         William Hickman

            Isaac Benson                                        Robert L. Gamble

            Peter L. Pharris                                                William C. Clengman

            William Bean                                        Anderson Jones

            Tilman Phillips                                       John Witt

            Isaac Burkett                                        Azariah Shelton

            Abraham Bryson                                   John Hughes

            Hardy Hughes                                       John Moyers

            James H. Stewart                                  Charles Witt

            David Dame                                         Hazard Bean

            William James                                       Henry Griffeth

            Land conveyed 1/100 from Henry A. Shelton and Crispen E. Shelton to Austin Shiflett December 3, 1849 in Rhea County in Cranmores cove on waters of Sale Creek, known as the Old Gilbreath Farm for $1000.00. Mentions the Gilbreath Branch and the old ford over Sale  Creek, a greater part of the 200 acre survey.

            On July 4, 1809 one Tom Shelton wed one M. J. Crawley in Sale Creek.

148

            Following note on Crispen Shelton in Bedloe County, Tennessee:

            Bledsoe County Chancery Court Records, Volume 2, 1836 – 1847, p. 177. One Crispen Shelton died intestate in 1836 leaving sons Azariah and Henry A. Shelton and Sarah Shelton as only heirs, shows Sarah as the widow and administrator.

            Note on David Carah Shelton, MD, of Marion County, Tennessee:

            B. 1868, Shelton’s Cove in Marion County; son of Richard Elijah and Mary Thatcher Shelton. Richard b. Marion County, 1838, Mary b. near Soddy, Tennessee on May 24, 1838. Richard Elijah was a doctor and practiced medicine in Soddy in 1860.

            The obituary of William Shelton of Chattanooga, Tennessee, who died January 22, 1919, appeared in the Chattanooga News:

            William Shelton, well-known citizen, dies suddenly, age 65. Member of county court for 8 years. Home 7011 Vine Street. Survivors, wife, four daughters – Mrs. L. A. Flynn and Misses Tennie, Avis and Ora Shelton, 2 brothers – A. Shelton and K. Shelton, 2 sons – C. E. Shelton and Henry Shelton, 2 sisters – Mrs. Sallie Fryar and Mrs. Jennie Little of Florida. Deputy Register under Sam Hickson for 4 years. Appraiser for Cogswelll and Smith. Funeral and burial at Silverdale. Teacher in county schools for several years. Cumberland Presbyterian.

            The obituary of McKenney (K., Dock) Shelton, brother of Wm. above of Chattanooga, who died  July 30, 1927 appeared in the Chattanooga Times: Death of K. Shelton, Hamilton County pioneer at age 63 at home on Cleveland Pike. Was special agent for Southern Railway. Born at old Shelton home in Silverdale February 13, 1864. Brother of Azariah Shelton. Member of Cumberland Presbyterian Church. A Mason. Survivors, wife – Mrs. Annie Quillian Shelton, daughter – Mrs. O. R. Burns, son – Frank T. Shelton, all of Chattanooga, sister – Mrs. Sallie Friar, brother – A. Shelton of Lakeland, Florida.

            The obituary of one Chris E. Shelton who died November 2, 1933 was carried in the Chattanooga Times.

            The Chattanooga News of July 20, 1901 had this item of interest:

            C. E. Shelton of Silverdale and later of Chattanooga, left for an indefinite visit to Colorado.

            From Census of Greene County, Missouri, 1870

                                                                                                                          Birth

Family No.                    Name                           Age  Occupation Realty Value      Place

154/158 George Shelton                          42         Farmer $1000/500           Tenn.

                        Elizabeth Shelton                       41                                                    “

                        William T. Shelton                     11                                                  Mo.

                        Mary M. Shelton                         8                                                   “

                        Tennessee F. Shelton                   7                                                   “

                        John C. Shelton                           5                                                        “                  

                        Harriet A. Shelton                 10/12                                                       “

149.

Family No.                    Name               Age  Occupation Realty Value   Birth

                                                                                                            Place

53/53   Elisha Shelton             59                     $1000/300         Tenn.

             Melinda Shelton                       55                                                 “

   Nancy McClure                       29                                                

 Julian McClure                                   10                           Mo.

                                               Samuel McClure                            8                                        

 End Chapter III

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