FAMILY HISTORIES

Boone County Arkansas Genealogy Trails

DESHIELDS FAMILY

Contributed by Reta DeShields Parton

William Jasper DeShields and wife, Martha Elizabeth McBride DeShields traveled the Oregon Trail in 1855. They started the trip in 1839 with thirteen to fourteen wagons leaving the area of Beech Grove (McBrides Creek/Duck River), Tennessee for Oregon. Probably left in the spring of 1839. They had to stop for one of the wives to have a child in the fertile valleys of Northern Arkansas, close to Yellville, Arkansas and what is now Bull Shoals. That stop lasted until the Spring of 1855 when they left for Oregon. They arrived in September 1855 at Oregon City, Oregon. They settled in Clackamus County and raised their Arkansas born children.
The family consisted of: William Jasper DeShields, b. 1808 in SC; Elizabeth McBride DeShields, b. 1808 in TN; Martha Elizabeth DeShields, b. 1836; d. 1842 AR; William Jasper DeShields, b. 1838 TN, went to California; Pleasant L. Sanders DeShields, b. 1840 AR, married Ann Welsh in OR; Lemonslee Elizabeth DeShields, b. 1843 AR, married John Joseph Pinkley in OR; Martha Minerva DeShields, b. 1846 AR, md. Samuel Thompson in OR; James Kill Polk DeShields, b. 1851 AR, md. Lucy Marshall in OR.


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