Nevada Genealogy Trails Washoe County Michael Shields Biography

MICHAEL SHIELDS, a retired farmer of Reno, has been a witness of the development of the western states from the year 1856, and has been a resident of Washoe county, Nevada, since 1871. He was born in county Cavan in the north of Ireland on the 13th of August, 1837, and was educated on the Emerald Isle. However, he attended school to some extent in Connecticut, having when sixteen years of age crossed the Atlantic to the new world and taken up his abode in the Charter Oak state. He came for the purpose of seeing America, intending to return to his native country, but was so well pleased with this land, its opportunities and its prospects that he has never recrossed the water to the Emerald Isle.

In Connecticut he learned the trade of carriage painting, and in 1856 came to California by way of the isthmus, arriving in San Francisco in what was the golden age of the state. That city was then a comparatively small place and the buildings erected there were crude, having largely been put up merely for temporary use. Mr. Shields made his way to Sacramento and began working in a livery stable, in which he remained for a year. On the expiration of that period he removed to Coloma in Eldorado county, where Marshall first made the discovery of gold. There he was employed in a grocery store from 1857 until 1871, being in the services of Robert Bell, and in the latter year he arrived in Nevada.

In this state Mr. Shields turned his attention to railroading, being first employed as a freight conductor and afterward as a passenger conductor on the Southern Pacific Railroad, running between Truckee and Winnemucca. Two years later, with the money that he had been able to save from his earnings, he purchased a farm in Washoe county five miles from Reno, comprising one hundred and eighty-five acres of rich and arable land. He then turned his attention to the cultivation and development of his property, and remained an enterprising and prosperous agriculturist of the community until 1901, when he sold his property and took up his abode in the city, where he now owns and occupies a nice brick residence located on Second street. He had been married in 1887 to Miss Annie Murphy, who was born in the town in which his own birth occurred. They had been neighbors from childhood, and the friendship of early years was cemented by the ties of marriage. Four children have been born to them: Minnie, now the wife of James F. Hailey, a newspaper publisher in Truckee, Nevada; Bessie, Clara and John, all at home. Since becoming a citizen of the United States, Mr. Shields has given his political support to the Republican party, and while residing in Eldorado county he served as constable and as deputy sheriff, while in Washoe county he has also filled the position of deputy sheriff. His social relations connect him with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he was made a Mason in Acacia Lodge No. 92, F. & A. M., at Coloma, California. He now affiliates with the Reno Lodge No. 13, F. & A. M., and has taken the Royal Arch degrees in the chapter. The family are all members of the Roman Catholic church. Mr. Shields has had no occasion to regret his determination to remain in the new world, and has profited by the opportunities afforded in this country where effort is not hampered by caste or class. His life has been one of unfaltering diligence, and as the years have passed he has steadily advanced toward the plane of prosperity.