Genealogy Trails
SHELBY COUNTY INDIANA
BIOGRAPHIES

Isaac Shelby
    About 1,100 British troops led by Major Patrick Ferguson were camped atop the mountain, and the commander declared that " even the almighty can not drive me from it. "
So it was on October 7, 1780 when Isaac Shelby helped lead buckskin-clad American sharpshooters to victory, driving the British from Kings Mountain, which paved the way for the defeat of the British troops under Lord Cornwallis. This was his most noteworthy wartime accomplishment.
Born on December 11,1750, Isaac Shelby seemed destined to become a soldier. His father served with distinction in the French and Indian War. In 1774 Isaac served as lieutenant in his fathers company at the battle of Point Pleasant.
    Moving to Travelers Rest, Shelby completed his stone house in 1786. In 1783 he was appointed a trustee of Transylvania Seminary. He also worked as a surveyor and was High Sheriff of Lincoln County. He belonged to the war board appointed by Congress to provide defense of the frontier,and participated actively in the ten conventions that led to Kentucky's statehood in 1792.
    After his victory at King's Mountain, Shelby returned to Kentucky and married his childhood sweetheart Susannah Hart on April 19,1783. On his wedding day a historian described Shelby as " a heavy rugged fellow, with a ruddy face, firm lips, and a resolute eye.
    Isaac Shelby was equally at home on the fields of battle or in the halls of government. Shelby was known for his common sense, diplomacy, and self-control, making him a likely choice to lead the transformation of Kentucky from primitive wilderness into American statehood.
A member of the 1792 convention that drew up Kentucky's first constitution, Shelby was elected governor and took office on June 4th. During this term he pushed for improvement of the Wilderness Road making it safer and more navigable. After serving four years he declined re-election and retired to his Lincoln County farm, known as Traveler's Rest, to farm and raise cattle.
    For sixteen years Shelby prospered from the sale of horses and mules to southern cotton planters. When the war of 1812 broke out, Kentucky called on its 61 year old hero to serve a second term as governor. Shelby responded by organizing and leading an army of Kentuckians that defeated the British at Thames, Canada in 1813.
His efforts earned him a resolution of thanks and a gold medal from the United States Congress. He refused because of age, an offer from President James Monroe in 1817, to serve as Secretary of War. His last public service came in 1818 when he joined Andrew Jackson to draw up a treaty with the Chicksaw Indians for 4,600 square miles of land in western Kentucky and Tenessee, known as the Jackson Purchase.
    After his second term as governor, Shelby returned to his beloved Travelers Rest to farm, and his home was open to any soldier who passed by it. He died of Apoplexy on July 18,1826, while sitting with his wife on his front porch and was buried at Travelers Rest on a spot he marked for his grave.
    We do not know by whom or when our township received its name of Shelby. There are no fewer then nine counties in the country named after Shelby.
Isaac Shelby's actions in 1813 at the battle of Thames occurred at a time when the nation was in a crisis. The whole western frontier was menaced by a savage foe, aided and supported by British intrigue, our first army captured, and the Michigan territory in possession of the enemy.
    He became the rallying point of patriotism. It was his unauthorized though judicious step which he assumed upon his own responsibility, of calling out mounted volunteers that produced the memorable victory on the Thames.
    Its assumed that in 1818 Isaac Shelby and his accomplishments were known throughout the Michigan Territory and to those persons surveying the township now known as " Shelby."


JOHN T.   SKINNER
    John T. Skinner was born in Brookville township near his present residence some sixty-seven years ago, a son of John and Isabella' (Ewing) Skinner, and a grandson of Thomas Skinner. Thomas Skinner entered land in Dearborn county, Ohio, prior to 1812. He was born in 1760 and died in 1843. His widow, Anna (Caton) Skinner, was seventy-five years of age at the time of her death, which occurred in 1852. She was from Shelby county, Indiana. John Skinner was five years old when his parents came to Indiana. In 1812 he entered five hundred and forty acres, which included all the land west of the present farm of one hundred and fifty-six acres, and extended to the Indian boundary. This selection proved to be a wise one, as it is now considered the best in the township. He was a Methodist and a liberal supporter of the local church, known as the Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal Church. He died in 1897, at the age of seventy-nine years.
    John T. Skinner was the oldest of five children, viz. : John T., Nancy, William H., Mary Jane and Ellen, deceased. The father was married a second time, to Mrs. Priscilla Toman, whose death occurred in 1893, when she had arrived at the age of seventy years. Their children were Isabella,Katie, Henry (deceased), Emmett, Winfield Scott, Laura and Winn. Our subject worked on a farm until he reached his twenty-fourth year, when he married and began to work on his present farm. He was married in 1856 to Catherine Bell, a daughter of John and Margaret Bell, natives of Maryland and former prominent residents of Brookville township. John Bell died August 10, 1893, at the age of eighty-five years; Margaret died August 22, 18S9, at the age of seventy-three years. They had the following children: Richard; Catherine; Silby; Andrew; Thomas; Henrietta, wife of Henry Remy; Ellen, deceased, wife of John Copse. Mr. Skinner is a hard-working, industrious man, an excellent neighbor and possessed of high moral principles. He has never been connected with any religious body, but is a man of sterling worth. In politics he is a Republican.
    OWEN C. WASSON
Owen C. Wasson. Because of the success which has attended his efforts, his commercial soundness and acumen, his spirit of public helpfulness and his good citizenship, the career of Owen C. Wasson, of Peru, offers an encouraging example of prosperity and position gained through a proper utilization of ordinary opportunities. Since entering upon his independent life, numerously vocations have attracted the activities of Mr. Wasson, but he has made steady advancement in each, and is now the proprietor of a well-established hardware and implement business at Peru and one of the city's substantial business citizens.

Mr. Wasson was born on a farm in Shelby County, Indiana, October 23, 1877, and is a son of George W. and Martha A. (Craig) Wasson. His great-great, grandfather was John Wasson, a native of Kentucky and early settler of Bartholomew County, Indiana, where he passed his life in farming enterprises. George C. Wasson, the son of John Wasson, was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, and was a young man when he went to Bartholomew County, Indiana. In 1837 he migrated from that county to Shelby County, and there continued to be engaged in farming during the remainder of his life and died. Among his children was John Wasson, the grandfather of Owen C. Wasson. He was born in December, 1832, in Nicholas County, Kentucky,. and was five years old when taken to Shelby County, Indiana, where he was reared and educated and where his life was passed as a farmer. He was an energetic, industrious man, who made the most of his opportunities, and who occupied a place in his community as a reliable and dependable citizen. In politics he was a democrat, and his religious faith was that of the Baptist Church. Mr. Wasson married Mary Jane Goodwin, who was born in 1832, in Decatur County, Indiana, and died in August, 1907, in Shelby County, Indiana, the same year as her husband's death, and at the same age as he had attained. They were the parents of the following children: George W.; Susan, deceased, who was the wife of W. H. Phillippi, a farmer of Indiana; James, who is a retired farmer and resides at Burney, Decatur County, Indiana; Charles, who resides near Burney and is engaged in farming; Henry, who is a farmer of Shelby County, Indiana; Benjamin, who resides in the same community as an agriculturist; Marietta, who is the widow of Patrick Smith, who was a farmer, and resides at Hope, Indiana; and Ella, who is the wife of J. R. Phillippi and lives on a farm in Shelby County, Indiana.

George W. Wasson, father of Owen C, Wasson, and postmaster at Peru, was born July 14, 1853, in Shelby County, Indiana, and there was reared to maturity, received a public school education, and was brought up to agricultural pursuits. The year 1883 saw Mr. Wasson's arrival in Kansas, for on November 13th of that year he located at Independence, but two weeks later removed to Elk City and in the following spring began farming in that 'locality. He remained there for three years, with an ordinary measure of success, and then removed to near Hale, in Chautauqua County, where he farmed for nine years from the spring of 1887. In 1896 he located within four miles of Peru, to the northwest, and continued his agricultural operations there until 1907, then spending a year in Oregon and Idaho. Returning to Kansas, he bought a farm one-half mile north of Peru, on which he resided for five years, and then took up his residence in the city and for a time was employed in his son's hardware store. From April, 1914, he was employed as assistant postmaster at Peru until August 4, 1916, when he was appointed postmaster to succeed his son. He is a democrat and a stanch supporter of his party's principles, and is fraternally connected with Peru Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America.

In 1876, in Shelby County, Indiana, Mr. Wasson was married to Miss Martha A. Craig, who was born in that county, July 11, 1851. To this union there have been born three children: Owen C.; John, born in September, 1879, who died July 12, 1880; and Fred, born January 8, 1881, who is general salesman for the Continental Supply Company and resides at Wichita, Kansas.

Owen C. Wasson received his education in the public schools of Montgomery and Chautauqua counties, beginning at the latter when he was nine years of age, and was reared on his father's farm, on which he continued to make his home until he was twenty-two years of age. At the age of nineteen years he began teaching school, a vocation which he followed for six years in Chautauqua County, but in the meantime was .furthering his own education by study. When he was twenty years old he entered the State Normal School at Emporia, where he was a roommate with Edward Fisher, who afterward became representative to the Kansas Legislature from Chautauqua County. Mr. Wasson did not remain at the normal school long, as he contracted an eye affection and accordingly returned to his home, and when he recovered resumed his activities as a teacher and continued to thus engage until the spring of 1903. At that time he accepted a position with the Interstate Oil and Gas Company, at their offices at Peru, but during the winter of the same year left and entered the employ of the National Supply Company, with which he continued to remain until January 18, 1904. At that time a position presented itself in the railway mail service, and Mr. Wasson continued as a clerk in this branch of the United States mail until April, 1912, and during this long service lost only six days. When he left the mail service Mr. Wasson again settled down at Pern, where he bought the hardware store of H. R. Davis, situated on Main Street. This establishment carries a full line of hardware and agricultural implements, and also handles furniture, harness, etc., and is the only business of its kind at Peru. Mr. Wasson owns his store building and the two adjoining lots, as well as a storehouse for his goods. He does business in a modern way and carries an up-to-date stock, which

compares favorably with those to be found in the stores in the larger cities. He is also the owner of his own home in the south part of the old Town of Peru, and has a farm of eighty acres located J !i miles from the city. His reputation in business circles is an excellent one and rests upon an honorable business career featured and characterized by honest and straightforward dealing. Mr. Wasson is a democrat. He has not been an office seeker, but from April 1, 1914, to October 1, J916, served in the capacity of postmaster of Peru. He belongs to Vesper Lodge No.. 136, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Peru Lodge No. 106, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Otoe Lodge No. 148, Improved Order of Red Men; the Railway Mail Association, and the Mutual Benefit Association of Railway Mail Clerks. He formerly belonged to the Modern Woodmen of America.

On April 26, 1900, Mr. Wasson was married at Winfield, Kansas, to Miss Minnie J. Foltz, daughter of J. W. and Elizabeth (McLain) Foltz, who reside on their farm near Peru. To this union there have come six children, born as follows: John W., May 28, 1901; Effie Mildred, June 38, 1903; Emmett Arthur, June 20, 1905; George W., June 3, 1907; Charles Frederick, October 18, 1913; and Martha Elizabeth, December 1, 1915.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans By William Elsey Connelley
HENDRICKS, Mrs. Eliza C. Morgan
HENDRICKS, Mrs. Eliza C. Morgan, social leader and philanthropist, born near North Bend, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, 22nd November, 1823. She is the widow of the late Vice-President Thomas A. Hendricks. Her father was Hon. Isaac Morgan. The love of nature, which is one of Mrs. Hendricks' characteristics, was fostered by her early surroundings. The large and attractive homestead, in which she first saw the light, adjoined that of Gen. William Henry Harrison, and both dwellings were noted for their fine outlook. Mrs. Hendricks is connected with some of the leading families of Cincinnati, and it was in that city she made her debut in the social world. She was married 26th September, 1845, and since that time she has resided in Indiana. Her first Hoosier home was in Shelbyville, in which place her husband was then engaged in the practice of law. They removed to Indianapolis in 1860, where he practiced for some years as a member of the law firm of Hendricks, Hord & Hendricks. Mrs. Hendricks was fond of domestic life and was the administrator of the household, saving her husband from all unnecessary annoyance or responsibility, and in many other ways was she his true help-meet. Her husband depended much upon her judgment. Often, while an occupant of the gubernatorial chair when perplexed over applications for the pardon of criminals, did he call her into the conference, in order to avail himself of her intuitive perception of the merits of the case. Mrs. Hendricks' love of nature leads her to spend much time in the culture of flowers, in which she has much success. She has a great penchant for pets. Her fondness for horses led to that close observation of them which made her a good judge of their qualities, and it was she, not her husband, who always selected the carriage horses. A few years after her marriage, her only child, a bright and beautiful boy, died. Mrs. Hendricks was not only the light of her husband's home life, but, wherever his official duties called him, he was accompanied by her, and when he twice visited the Old World, in quest of health, she was his faithful companion. The great sorrow of her life was his death, which occurred in November, 1884.  Since that event she has sought assuagement for grief and loneliness in a quickening of activities, especially in the lines of charity. Her most prominent philanthropic work was her persevering efforts, with other earnest women, to establish a "Prison for Women and Reform School for Girls." In answer to earnest and persistent solicitation on their part, the State Legislature made an appropriation, and in 1883 the building was erected. That institution has, from its beginning, been under the entire control and management of women. For some years it was the only one of its kind in the country. Mrs. Hendricks has, from its beginning, been the president of its board of managers. Before her marriage she connected herself with the Methodist Church. Her husband, the son of an elder in the Presbyterian Church, was strongly Calvinistic in faith. They both had a leaning toward the Episcopal form of worship, and together they entered that communion. Mrs. Hendricks is now living in Indianapolis.
(Source: American Women, by Frances Elizabeth Willard, Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, Vol 1, 1897. Transcribed by Marla Snow)

B. F. Hawkins
B. F. Hawkins, deceased, was born in Shelbyville, Indiana, January 18, 1828, a son of William Hawkins, a native of Delaware. The father was educated for a lawyer, but never practiced, and was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court of La Porte County, Indiana, and held that office fifteen years, or until he came to Texas in 1848. He was elected the first Chief Justice of Ellis county in 1850, at the time of the organization of the county. He was a man of even temper, good habits, a member of the Methodist church, and died in the county in March, 1869. Our subject’s mother, nee Anna Eddy, was a native of New York, and daughter of David Eddy, a farmer and teacher by occupation.
     B. F. Hawkins gained but a meager common-school education, receiving the greater part of his training from actual contact with the world and in the Clerk’s office with his father. He became familiar with public business early in life, and at the age of twenty one years he moved to Ellis county, where he was actively identified with the organization, settlement, growth and development of the county from the time of his coming until his death. The county was established by the Legislature in the winter of 1849-50, there being barely 100 legal voters in the county. Nine commissioners, of whom Mr. Hawkins was one, were appointed to organize it, and after locating the county seat, the election for county officers was held in August, 1860, and Mr. Hawkins was elected county Clerk. For nineteen years he continued to discharge the duties of the office, having been elected ten times, for a term of two years each. In 1869, having been identified with the Confederacy, he was removed from office by military authority, on the ground that he was an impediment to reconstruction. He at once became a salesman in the dry-goods house of George F. Marchbanks, at Waxahachie, but a year later began merchandising for himself, and so continued until the fall of 1875. The State then succeeded to the administration of its own affairs, and he was again elected by the people to the office of County Clerk, which position he held by successive re-elections until his death, which occurred April 23, 1891. It is doubtful if there is another instance in the State where one has held office for so great a length of time and so uninterruptedly. Certainly there is not an instance where a public officer has ever given such universal satisfaction, or who carried with him to the grave the entire friendship and love of so many of his fellow citizens. He was an exceedingly pleasant, affable gentleman, kind and accommodating to all alike, attentive to the duties of his office, ready at all times to give advice to those who sought his counsel, and willing to share his all with those who stood in the relation of friendship to him. He was not a politician in the partisan sense of the word, but possessed pronounced political convictions, never hesitating to take a stand on any question of public note. In earlier years Mr. Hawkins was a Whig, but after the downfall of that party he cast his fortune with the Democrats, and ever afterward voted and acted with that party. He was a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight of Honor, and for many years was a steward in the Methodist church, of which he was a worthy member and did much toward promoting the interest of the church as well as the social and educational interests of the entire community.
     Mr. Hawkins was married February 24, 1848, in La Porte, Indiana, to Miss Mary A. Pinnell, a daughter of Wesley Pinnell. She was born in Virginia, January 30, 1828. Her parents died when she was young, and she was then taken by her uncle, Francis C. Pinnell. She was subsequently taken by her sister, who resided in St. Joseph county, Indiana, where she finished her education. The children born of this union were: Alice T., born December 4, 1848, is now the wife of J. F. Mulkey, of Dallas; Martha E., born in July, 1851, is the wife of W. A. Calfee, of Waxahachie; Mary M., born in February, 1854, was the wife of John B. Dale, now deceased, and she afterward married Mitch Gray, and resides at Dallas; Eddy P., a sketch of whom appears in this work; Emma E., wife of C. A. Arnold, of Waxahachie; and Frank Lee, an attorney of Waxahachie. The following proceedings occurred on the death of Mr. Hawkins:
     "In memory of B. F. Hawkins, late County Clerk.
     "To the members of the Bar and county officers of Ellis county, in an adjourned meeting assembled:
     "We have again met to express our profound sorrow at the death of our esteemed friend, B. F. Hawkins, late county Clerk of Ellis county, who on the evening of April 28 last, ended his usefulness and passed from our midst to the unknown realms, whose mysteries each mortal must in time explore.
     "The undersigned committee, appointed heretofore on behalf of the bar and county officers of said county, to draft resolutions expressive of their high esteem for our late county Clerk, and their sense of the loss which the bar, his fellow friends and the county has suffered by his death, beg leave to submit the following:
     "1st. That in the death of B. F. Hawkins we have each suffered a personal loss, and our county has been deprived of a faithful public servant, whose efficiency will for all time be apparent from the public records which are so largely the work of his hands, and which will stand as examples to his successors of what can be accomplished by earnest faithfulness to public trust.
     "2d. As a public officer, as a citizen and as a man, our deceased friend, for we are each proud to claim his as a friend, always filled the fullest measure of duty, and his memory deserves to be cherished by the Bar of this county, and his example in public life merits emulation by his fellow-officers and particularly his official successors.
     "3d. That we tender the family of the deceased our sympathy in their bereavement, and direct that they be furnished by the secretary of this meeting with a copy of these resolutions.
     "4th. That a copy of these resolutions be presented to the County Court of our county, with a request that they be spread on the minutes of said courts as a lasting testimony too one who for so many years performed the duties of Clerk of said Court to the entire satisfaction of the Court, the bar and the public.
     "Anson Ralney, M. B. Templeton, J. E. Lancaster, G. C. Groce, J. P. Cooper, Committee.
     "Said resolutions being presented were unanimously adopted, and the chairman was appointed to present the same to the county Court at its ensuing session on this the 2d day of May, 1891, with request therein embodied, and afte address by Judge J. W. Ferris, A. A. Kemble, B. F. Marchbanks and Rev. R. M. White, in memory of the deceased, the meeting was adjourned.
               "M. W. McKnight, Chairman.
               "Y. D. Kemble, Secretary.
                    "May 2, 1891.
     The presentation of the above was accompanied by appropriate remarks, and the proceedings were ordered spread on the records. The County Judge, B. McDaniel, expressed his hearty concurrence in the sentiments set forth in the preamble and resolutions, and as a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased it was ordered that court adjourn until the following Monday morning.
[Source: Memorial and biographical history of Ellis county, Texas, Book, 1892; pgs 239-241; digital images, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth33018 : accessed May, 2011), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Public Library, Dallas, Texas; Transcribed by Andaleen Whitney]






Return To The Main Index