February 28, 2008

I have traced out James Shay's siblings. By 1880, there was only 1 Shay descendant from David & Sarah living in Ohio. That person was their granddaughter Gracie who was a school teacher and would remain unmarried the rest of her life. Below is a list of supposed cousins of Jane Rebecca Shay. Just for the chart below, I will go with the assumption that our James Shay is the same James of Crawford Co., OH. David & Sarah had 3 children who left Ohio - the only children to have living descendants.

1861 - James Shay migrates to Missouri
1868 - John Shay migrates to Kansas
1876-1879 - Isabella Shay Bishop migrates to Kansas then afterwards to Nebraska.

Children of David Shay & Sarah Warden

1. Benjamin W. Shay (b. 1833 OH | d. 1876 Wyandot Co., OH) - No Descendants
m. Adaline Sawyer on 7/25/1861 in Crawford Co. OH
(1). Unknown Infant (deceased)
(2). Gracie Shay (b. abt 1863 in Crawford Co. OH) Never Married - No Issue

2. Isabella C. Shay (b. 7/15/1836 OH | d. 7/7/1916 Jefferson Co., NB) - Descendants settled in Nebraska
m. Henry Bishop on 2/6/1862 in Crawford Co.
(1). Chauncey Allen Bishop (b. 10/17/1862 in Crawford Co., OH)
(2.) Sarah Irena Bishop (b. 2/9/1864 in Crawford Co., OH)
(3.) Minnie Josephine Bishop (b. 7/26/1867 in Crawford Co., OH)
(4.) Jasper Charles Bishop (b. 3/8/1871 in Crawford Co., OH)
(5.) Austin Joseph Bishop (b. 3/3/1873 in Crawford County, OH)
(6.) Harper Henry Bishop (b. 1/30/1876 in Crawford Co., OH)
(7.) Perlia Iona Bishop (b. 8/10/1879 in Cloud Co., Kansas)

3. James M. Shay (b. abt. 1837 or 1838 OH / d. bef. 1870 Scott Co., MO) - Descendants settled in Pennsylvania
m. Margaret Mayberry bet. 1860-1861 in Ballard Co., KY or Scott Co., MO
(1.) Mary Shay (b. abt. 1861 in Scott Co., MO)
(2.) Nancy Shay (b. abt. 1863 in Scott Co., MO)
(3.) Jane Rebecca Shay (b. 11/26/1866 in Scott Co., MO)

4. Mary S. Shay (b. abt. 1840 OH / d. 9/1/1865) Never Married - No Issue

5. David J. Shay (b. abt. 1842 OH / d. 6/5/1867 Crawford Co., OH) No Descendants
m. Lillie A. Walter on 3/1/1866 in Crawford Co., OH --- No Issue

6. William Shay (b. abt. 1844 OH / d. 11/30/1864 Franklin, TN - Killed in Battle) Never Married - No Issue

7. John W. Shay -- (b. 5/8/1846 OH / d. 9/16/1918 in Cloud Co., KS) - Descendants settled in Kansas
m. Francessa Neill on 12/2/1877 in Cloud Co., KS
(1.) John Benjamin Shay (b. 10/12/1878 in Cloud Co., KS)
(2.) Jesse Edgar Shay (b. 3/12/1880 in Cloud Co., KS)
(3.) Fannie Shay (b. 10/27/1881 in Cloud Co., KS)
(4.) George William Shay (b. 5/3/1886 in Cloud Co., KS)
(5.) James David Shay (b. 1/27/1888 in Cloud Co., KS)

8. Stephen Shay (b. abt. 1848 OH / d. 1870 in Crawford Co., OH) Never Married - No Issue

I looked into Franklin Withrow and his wife named Mary b 1861 of Scott Co., MO. This Mary born on 2/17/1861, wife of Frank Withrow was the daughter of Clobert Reider & Katherine Smith. I found her death certificate on the website for the Missouri State Archives. Its frustrating to hit dead ends. I doubt though if Mary Shay ever married because she is listed as deaf and dumb in the 1870 census. She might not have been considered good marriage material for Frontier life in the 1860's, however I could be wrong. She isn't listed with her sisters in the 1880 census. Mary was either sent away, married off, or deceased by 1880.

I do not know of any Heath connection that Oriel Seeley might have had. I remember a lady from the Potter Co., PA historical society asking me once if I had a Sarah Heath in the family. I could not find any Sarah Heaths anywhere. My only guess is that there could be a Heath connection from one of Nehemiah Heath's siblings. Nehemiah (father of William Heath) was the 3rd child out of 12 children. Most of his siblings were born in Rock Glen, Wyoming, New York and there could have been plenty of Heaths spreading out in the surrounding counties.

Thats all I have for now.

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You done alot of research here -- this makes sense - I believe one of the land patent grants was for Ironton which is located on the west side of Missouri - near Kansas.

My only thoughts were - when did Rebecca Jane Peal file the pension papers for James' civil war pension - does this fit in with our scenario. I always wondered why she filed on James' pension and not Stephen's - I believe he fought for the "other side" --

We might have some time next week to continue searching the deed records out for the properties.

I've really enjoyed this "search" for our descendants.

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Rebecca J. Peal filed for James Shay's pension papers or received them on Jan 30, 1894. By then, Jane was married and living in Potter Co., PA and Mary & Nancy whereabouts are unknown. I do not know if the Confederate widows received the same type of pension if any as the Union widows did. She may not have been eligible for Stephen's pension because he might have been confederate. Also maybe widows were only allowed one pension even if they were widowed more than once. Rebecca might have had a better pension from James then from Stephen.

James Shay had to be deceased before July 20, 1870 because Rebecca was widowed by the time of the census...she had only turned 18 years old the previous November. Since James' first wife Margaret died in January 1868, he probably waited a year to remarry and then married a 17 year old Rebecca. They were probably married a year or less when he died. No children born to this union.

Considering that Mary Ashley Winthrow was widowed with 3 children, she might have pushed for the union between James & Rebecca. I do not know if Rebecca's mother, brother and sister came to live on the Shay farm after James' death or before. Even after Rebecca remarried, the family stayed on the farm and James' daughters left to start their own life. I wonder what type of relationship James' daughters had with their step-mother and her family and if they got along with Rebecca's second husband who was confederate from North Carolina?

I believe the Ashley family that shows up in Scott Co., census near the Shays are brothers of Mary Ashley Withrow, mother to Rebecca. Also there are other Withrows that show up in Scott Co., that do not come off of Mary and her husband Frederick Withrow, father of Rebecca. I think they may be Frederick's brothers and their families. Both the Withrows & Ashleys come from Kentucky. I wonder if either side are related or tied into the Mayberry family.

I guess the key is to find a descendant who happened to record lots of family oral history. According to the census, Rebecca, her mother and siblings could not read or write. They probably did not record key events in family bibles or on paper. The Scott County Historical Society did not have much info on the Shays, they might have more on the Withrows & Ashleys. I will see if I can get them to send me a list of Scott Co., marriages in the 1870's & 1880's. We might be able to track Mary & Nancy Shay. If they married in the county, their surnames would have been written down.

This research is fun, I will be stopping in Steuben Co., & Potter Co., this weekend. Its only a 6 hour drive for me and I will spend most of Mon 3/3/08 in the court houses and historical societies of both counties doing research. I have more research I would like to do on the Heath side & Amidon side. I will talk to you later.


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There's a woman Janeth Hargis - you may remember seeing her name on the Scott MO GEN Website - I think she is Rebecca Jane Peal's niece (maybe "great niece") - just from reading the different comments on several sites. I've tried contacting her by email - maybe it's time for a letter.

There's also another woman (Cline) that has done alot of research in Scott County but again she hasn't responded to my email.

I've sent and received a lot of emails from ancestry.com members that had family trees - but in most cases it hasn't turned up any thing new.

I've also thought about putting an ad in the local newspaper.

BTW - did you read the bio on one of the Bishop's that was on the website you directed me to -- I wonder if he was related to Isabella's husband.