Elizabeth Sarah Shelton was the last Shelton ancestor of mine to actually carry that name. She was the daughter of a Baptist minister, born in Kentucky about 1808. When she was a young girl her older sister Magdalene married John C. Hearn, and a few years later Elizabeth married John’s brother William. They lived their lives as a farming family in Kentucky, and they were my fourth great-grandparents.
What’s going on?
What was happening as Elizabeth and William began their adult lives in around 1830?
- The town of Chicago was organized, population 200. Saa-lute!
- Joseph Smith published The Book of Mormon, then got tarred and feathered in Ohio.
- Zerobabel Gay died in Tennessee, only about 70 miles away from Elizabeth and William.
- Nat Turner was arrested and executed in Virginia.
- Joseph Greenock retired from the British Army and was making shoes.
- England ramped up opium sales in China.
- Charles Darwin sailed on the Beagle.
- Newlyweds George and Maria Trier, my third great-grandparents, emigrated from Althornbach to newly-incorporated Buffalo, New York.
- Ada Lovelace met Charles Babbage.
Elizabeth Shelton was the daughter of Asher and Mary Green Shelton, born near Sandy Creek in what is now Butler County, Kentucky. When she was very young the family moved to what is now Todd County, near the Pond River.
In Todd County the Sheltons were members of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church. We don’t know much about the Hearn family, but since these churches were so strict they would expel you for communing with Presbyterians, it might be reasonable to assume that the Hearns were also members of the Church.
Elizabeth and William Hearn were married February 16, 1826. Elizabeth was under 18 and therefore had a certificate with her father's consent; William was at least 18 years old, probably just by a few months. Asher Shelton was licensed to perform marriages and officiated three of his sons' weddings, but did not officiate any of his daughters’ weddings. That might be because the father of the bride has a role in the ceremony.
The Children
William and Elizabeth Shelton Hearn’s children were:
- Cinthelia Ann (1830) married William Louis Simons, and ended up in Texas. They are my ancestors, so more on them later.
- Emma Amarillis (1832) married William Adams, and they farmed in Kentucky.
- Bellretta Jane (1834) married her cousin Virgil T Shelton, son of Elizabeth’s brother Crispen (1807-1887). They farmed in Kentucky and both died in their 50s, in her case from Typhoid.
- John Carson (1836). Shall we call him Johnny? In 1860 he was a bartender, in 1870 he was a widower with a young son, and later he married a woman 20 years younger and had a second family.
- Mary E (1837) never married. She lived with her mother and Gus until her mother died, and then lived with Gus and his family.
- Franklin (1841), died young.
- William Gustavus (1846). Married late in life to Allora Burrow. He ended up in Detroit living with his son William Garth Hearn, an autoworker. Gus died there in 1931.
Middle names in this era are funny. Some people had one, some didn’t. But for those who had one, it was an inseparable part of their name. William Hearn didn’t have a middle name, but his brother John C. Hearn did, so he was never just John Hearn. And in his case the initial was never spelled out, either.
It is tempting to think that Elizabeth and William’s son John Carson Hearn was named after his uncle. In fact Uncle John C. Hearn died just about when Johnny was born, so maybe the child was named in his memory. On the other hand, Johnny might have been named after local notables; for example the Justice of the Peace who married Elizabeth and William was named Daniel Carson. Or both might be true; John C. himself may have been named for one of those Carsons, who may have been extended family.
Splitters
In 1834, William and John C. Hearn joined their father-in-law Asher Shelton in establishing their own Baptist congregation. They met in their own church until 1850, when they started meeting in school houses. After Asher’s death the congregation merged with another nearby congregation.
Also in 1834 William Hearn received a 108 acre land grant. The watercourse is listed as “Pond R & Clifty”. That presumably means the land was drained by the Pond River, near the Sheltons’ property. I don’t know what Clifty refers to but there is now a nearby post office by that name. Over the next 20 years William received a few other grants, usually smaller and always in the Pond River area.
The Census
The 1830 Census only identified the head-of-household by name. Everyone else was just counted up in various categories. In 1830 William Hearn had a household of just three: one male 20 to 29 (William), one female 20 to 29 (Elizabeth), and one female 5 to 9. That could either be an otherwise-unknown child, or a mistake. The latter seems likely, since Cinthelia was born in February 1830 and the census was taken in June, so she should have been counted. Possibly there was some confusion between “5 months” and “5 years”, or the enumerator just marked the wrong column.
In 1840 there were seven people counted in the household, presumably accounting for William and Elizabeth, John Carson, and the oldest four daughters. There were no slaves.
In the 1850 Census all the children aside from Franklin appear, and are now named individually. In addition there’s a 16-year-old farmhand named Pleasant Garrett. In this Census there was a column that asks the value of real estate owned, and in William’s case it’s $800.
In the 1850 census there was a separate document for counting slaves called a Slave Schedule. It named only the owner; the slaves themselves just had demographics. William Hearn appears in the 1850 Slave Schedule holding three slaves, a man and woman in their 50s, and an 18-year-old man.
By 1860, William lists the value of real estate at $5000, and the value of his personal estate at $4000. That seems extraordinary. Only the two youngest children, 13-year-old William G and 20-year-old Mary E are still at home, and both are marked as having attended school in the past year, even the 20-year-old.
William Hearn also appears in the 1860 Slave Schedule, claiming two women in their 50s, one 18-year-old woman, and one 29-year-old man, in two slave houses. Only the 29-year-old man is even potentially the same person as in the 1850 Census. None of the children who have moved out appear to hold slaves.
Words and Deeds
William Hearn appears many times in the surviving deed books of Todd County, partly because he bought and sold property, and partly because in the 1850s he served as the Sheriff of Todd County.
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| Todd County Deed book from 1855, listing William Hearn as Sheriff and his son-in-law William Louis Simons as his deputy. From FamilySearch (free account required). |
Elizabeth also shows up in the deed books, most notably when the couple is selling property. When a couple sold property, the wife had to explicitly drop her dower rights to it. For example in 1849, William and Elizabeth sold five acres to James Black. The deed noted that they relinquished all rights to the land, followed by a separate statement:
We George L C??? & George F Glenn Justices of the Peace for said County do hereby certify that Elizabeth Hearn the wife of the within named William Hearn this day personally appeared before us in our Court aforesaid who being examined privily and apart from her husband as the law directs voluntarily of her own free will and consent relinquished her right of Dower to the premises conveyed in this deed and the same is certified to Clerk of the County Court of Todd for record where the premises lie.
These statements always duly record that the wife was examined separate from her husband. Interesting, but it's hard to see how it could have been effective in protecting her rights.
Ken Shelton wrote that in addition to being the Sheriff, William was appointed a Tax Commissioner in 1840, and was licensed to sell liquor from his home.
William Hearn died some time before the 1870 Census. According to my mother, he died in 1868. I don’t know what she based that on, but it’s as good a date as any. William and Elizabeth executed a real estate transaction together in 1868, and when it's recorded in 1869 the ambiguous wording could suggest that only Elizabeth was around to certify it. Ken Shelton says William is buried in the Shanklin Cemetery along with his son Franklin (1841-1847), so a marker there might have supplied a date.
The Widow Hearn
In 1870 the widow Elizabeth was living with her son William Gustavus, who was now listed as the 23-year-old head of household. Daughter Mary was 31 and living with them, as was a 17-year-old farmhand named Joseph D Perry and a 35-year-old woman named Mary A Shelton. I don’t know what her relation to Elizabeth was. Nearby was a 35-year-old Mayfield Shelton who I think was Elizabeth’s third cousin, also descended from Ralph Senior. These Sheltons clearly stick together.
This Census also collected literacy information, specifically the ability to read and separately the ability to write. Both Elizabeth and young Mr. Perry were marked as able to read, but not able to write.
By this point some of Elizabeth’s other children had moved 120 west to Ballard County, Kentucky, which sits nestled up to the Ohio River, across from Southern Illinois. Son John Carson Hearn was living there as a 35-year-old widower with a 6-year-old boy, along with his sister Cinthelia Hearn Simons, now a 40-your-old widow herself, and her five children.
In the 1880 Census Elizabeth, William and Mary were still living together, but now they had joined John Carson and Cinthelia in Ballard County. Living with Elizabeth was Cinthelia’s son William Hearn Simons and his young wife Alice Morris Simons, my 2nd great grandparents. They must have been newlyweds. John Carson lived down the road, and Cinthelia and four of her kids had a place of their own a little further along.
Four doors down from Elizabeth, my 4th great grandmother, was Armistead F. Howle, Alice Morris Simon's grandfather and my 4th great-grandfather. He was living there with his former slave Sarah and their daughter Louisa, as well as Armistead's grandson Alvin, Alice's brother. Louisa lived a long life; she was born a slave, and died while the Supreme Court was deciding Brown v Board of Education.
The 1890 Census was lost, and we have no other records for Elizabeth Shelton Hearn after 1880. There is no record of her death or burial.
Previously: Asher and Mary Green Shelton
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