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



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