Annals of Newberry, Part Two by John A. Chapman, page 626-28
John Windell Shealy was the first of the name that came from the old country to this. A man named John Adam Epting
brought over a small colony from the city of Heidelberg, consisting of Shealy, Leitzey, Setzler, Cromer and Myer,
in the year 1763. They were all Lutherans, and were among the founders of the present St. John's Church. John Windell
Shealy married Miss Epting, daughter of Mr. Epting, the pioneer of the colony, in the year 1770, and settIed near
where W. C. Shealy now lives.
The fruits of this union were twelve sons and one daughter. I can give the names of only eight of these sons; the
others I have never learned. Windell, William, Adam, John, Henry, Matthias, David and Andrew. Of these, William,
Windell and David married Wertses; Andrew married a Miss Sawyer, and the daughter a Mr. Quattlebaum. Whom the other
sons married, if they ever married, I am unable to say.
Mr. Shealy, the pioneer, died in the year 1814, and was
buried near the place where he first settled. He lived long enough to see all his sons fully grown; and they were
all strong, robust men. They stood six feet in height, and the least and lightest one of them weighed 175 pounds.
In those days, when men defended themselves, on all ordinary occasions, with the weapons given them by nature,
these twelve brothers, if they felt their rights assailed, could have given any other twelve, or more, a lively
tussle.
Mr. Shealy owned all the lands in and around Little Mountain at that time, and settled not a few of his children
on them; hence this is tbe Mecca of the Shealys. Within a few hundred yards of the residence of Mr. W. C. Shealy
is the spring of fresh, cool, clear, bubbling water used by the original John Windell Shealy, and it still has
in it a portion of the gum placed there by Mr. Shealy over one hundred and twenty years ago. The men of this family,
like others who are the salt of the earth, are farmers, cultivators of the soil, and attend to tbeir own business
and let others alone. Some of them are preachers of the gospel, ministers in the Lutheran Church - they are all
Lutherans - and one is a teacher of youth, whom I have heard mentioned as a man of large brain and heart, but of
small body, like my friend Squire Padgett of Edgefield.
This part of Newberry before, and even after, the war was regarded as the poor portion of the county; but it has
been made to bloom as the rose, and is now regarded as the most independent portion. This result has been brought
about by
hard and strenuous labor. There are Shealys who started after the war without means, who are now independent. Could
the original Shealy rise from the grave, and from the tops of the
highest hills look over the surrounding country, no doubt he would be filled with wonder at the great and beneficent
change
The forests have given place to well cultivated fields; schools flourish; churches are established, and the 'Word
is dispensed to waiting and willing souls; the country is prosperous and happy; and much of this good is due, under
divine Providence, to the Shealys and to the example set by them.
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