***********************************************************
JOSEPH SHAW AND MARY CATHERINE HAMILTON
Joseph Shaw, and his wife, Mary, lived only a mile or so from the little town of Shiloh on a farm, yet it was a farm so well managed as to supply almost all the needs of Joseph Shaw and his family. One of the earliest settlers of Shiloh, this man of independence was to live out his days, and his daughter who lived after him long years on the same farm. Joseph Shaw first acquired land near Shiloh in 1852, coming to Louisiana from Mississippi. Almost one hundred years later his daughter, Lelah Shaw Reeves, was still living on this land. Today her descendants own the same land. If the old home is weather beaten, if the once productive land lies idle, the knowledge is in the minds of some that once here was a growing family, thrifty, and industrious in its living of those times. Joseph Shaw, as a young man in Mississippi, had married a girl named Carolyn Lynn, and to them were born three children: Mollie, Sallie, and Joseph, Jr. Some of the oral history of the family claim that he was a widower with three small children when he came to Shiloh, but there is evidence in one old record that Carolyn Lynn died in 1858, thus making it probable she lived five years in Union Parish with Joseph on the land he bought in 1853. In these same early years at Shiloh, a little girl named Mary Catherine Hamilton played and perhaps helped her mother in the home of Henry W. Hamilton at Shiloh. She was to be the second wife of Joseph Shaw, and the Mary in the Shiloh home of "Mary and Joseph." Joseph Shaw bought 160 acres in 1853 from J.G. Fuller, who had bought it from James Edmunds. It was part of 370 acres bought by James Edmunds in 1846 from Phillip May. From this land, a man and his family took substance of a good life, and when the man was gone, it still provided for his family. For him a livelihood was food and shelter for himself and his family, and to keep the farm intact and in his possession. Ahead were years to live through when the world such as the South was used to disappeared forever, and the farmer faced a shortage of money, crop failures, insect pests, and in retrospect to us very bad times. Lelah Shaw Reeves said year later, her father let his slaves go, though the daughter of one of them lived some forty years of the twentieth century on the place of Joseph Shaw. It was on December 22, just before Christmas in 1858, Joseph Shaw married Mary Catherine Hamilton. Records from an old family Bible list her as being born March 2, 1842, so that would make her seventeen when she became the second wife of Joseph Shaw. Their first child, John Thomas, was born July 31, 1862. In her later years, Lelah Shaw Reeves said her father was home in 1865 after four years of long weary fighting in the Civil War, but unhurt. Yet in those years, he no doubt came home on furlough to visit his family. Lelah, herself, was born February 16, 1865, the eldest daughter of Mary and Joseph, who now the war was over, could build up their farm, working side by side. There were yet to be born four girls and another son. What was life on this farm like for the family of Mary and Joseph? According to their daughter, Lelah, her father was stern and upright with his children, believing they should be seen and not heard. All the family went to church at Shiloh, nor was their much frivolity in the family. They grew up devout in their church work. Christmas meant a piece of candy and an orange, but no toys. Lelah Shaw Reeves did not have a doll to play with in her childhood. Her four younger sisters must have been live dolls to her, as she helped her mother, though the term baby-sitter was unheard of in those days. The elder girls simply cared for the smaller children routinely while the mother did the multitude of tasks found on a farm, outside and inside the house. The Shaw children, during those terrible years of re-construction went to school taught by their grandfather, Henry Hamilton, at first, the later to the Concord Baptist Institute at Shiloh. Lelah would often ride a mule bare-backed to Shiloh for mail, for there was a post office established in 1852 in the small town. As the children grew up and times got better, Joseph began shipping his own cotton down the stream of the Cornie to Trenton or Monroe. Sometimes the family would go to Stein's Bluff (where the Cornie birdge is at present), and picnic, trade at the store there, and watch the steamboats come up the Cornie. The family did not do much trading for they raised everything, including plenty of vegetables and meat. They even made sugar by letting syrup drip through cloths. The sugar crystals were allowed to bleach, the were pulverized. At age 16, Lelah Shaw Reeves, was baptized at Shiloh. Early memberhip lists of the church of 1869 show two Mrs. Mary Shaws. The second Mary Shaw must have been the wife of Joseph, Jr., whose wife was Mary Ann, perhaps Culbertson. The third child bornn to Mary and Joseph was Kittie, born May 5, 1868. Kittie did not marry and died in 1900. In 1871, the girl, Nina, was born and at the age of 19, on November 23, 1890, married John Powell. The fourth girl, Ellen Roberta, was born August 26, 1875. She marrried Tilman Kelley, sone of Georgia Penter and William Kelley, on December 4, 1895. She was later the second wife of Will Lewis, and she died October 27, 1918. The fifth daugther was Alma Estelle Shaw, born March 24, 1897, and she was married to Starling P. Tabor on January 22, 1903. Alma Estelle Shaw Tabor died April 11, 1955. The last of the Shaw children was a son, Robert Fredrick Shaw, born August 26, 1882 and married Fannie Brooks, daughter of Jack and Sabrina Butler Brooks in November of 1902. Fred Shaw died in 1953, andd was likewise, as the other Shaw's, buried in the cemetery at Shiloh. Some of the younger children of Joseph and Mary were still quite young, when their oldest full brother, John Shaw, married Ellen Lee on September 6, 1885. She was the daughter of Dan and Mary Edmunds Lee. Already married at that time, when her brother Fred was born, Lelah Shaw's marriage September 2, 1881, had preceeded that of her brother, John. Her husband, William J. Reeves, was the only member of his family to come to Louisiana. John Shaw died in 1924, but Lelah Shaw Reeves lived until 1948. What of the three children of Joseph and his first wife, Carolyn? Joseph Shaw, Jr. married to a Mary Ann, died October 9, 1897 leaving a small estate, and was survived by his wife and the following children: Eula Lee, Vice Eugene, Aja, Martha M., and Effie, all majors and one minor daughter, Jodie. Mary Ann Shaw was appointed tutor for this minor daughter. Sallie Shaw married William Knott on October 8, 1872 with Rev. Jonathan Milner performing the ceremony. The Knott family were early settlers of Shiloh. One of them, John C. Knott, postmaster in 1854 at Shiloh, maried Martha, daughter of James Edmunds and were the parents of William, whose marriage to Sallie Shaw produced children: John, Robert, Joseph, Mattie, and Luda. Mollie, sister to Sallie and Joseph, Jr. married Henry Anderson, who died shortly after Nellie's death in 1873, when their son, Wiley Henry was born. Wiley was reared by his grandparents, Joseph and Mary Shaw.
***************************************************************
The above appeared in "The Gazette," Farmerville, LA, probably in vol. 51, as part of Edna Liggin's "Shiloh Sketches."

Mrs. Joseph "Caroline Lynn" Shaw

She was the daughter of Matthew Lynn and Mrs. Ali Brasfield Shaw
who were married in Wake County North Carolina. Ali was the dau.
of Revo. War soldier, John Baptist Shaw of Wake County, North
Carolina.

Matthew Lynn Sr. (The progenitor of the Union Parish Lynn family)
died in eighteen hundred forty two. He left his wife and minor
children under the guardianship of Samuel Shaw. Ailey died around
1850 as gleaned from legal evidence.

Book A, pg. 339 dated 15 Dec. 1845 in Noxubee County probate court,
Special term came into open court:
CAROLINE A. A. LYNN
who made choice of Samuel Shaw as her guardian who was bound
unto Judge of Probate for $1000. with Wooten and Matthew Lynn, Jr.
as his securities.
It is interesting that Joseph Shaw was living in the home
of Samuel Shaw in 1850 Noxubee Co. Miss. census.

Matthey Lynn was a man of property and other holdings. Book E.
page 354 probate records dated 29 Dec. 1845 appraised the value
of his slaves.
Wiley Lynn drew Crusey $550.00
and received 87.50

Caroline Lynn drew
Adaline 325.00
and boy, Elijah 350.00
and pays back -37.50

Louisa Lynn drew
Beck 550.00
and infant George 150.00
and pays back -62.50

Matthew Lynn drew
Clary 500.00
and received 137.50

The foregoing was duly recorded the 11th. day of March, 1846.

This does not include the holdings and properties left to his
other children.

1850 Noxubee Co. Miss Census
844/844 Samuel Shaw 42 born in NC
Elizabeth 35 born in NC
JOSEPH 23 (born 1827 in NC)
(He is to young to be the son of Elizabeth, who was also the
half sister of Caroline Lynn.)
Wiley 22 NC
Isiah 20 NC
The following children were all born in Mississippi
Elizabeth 16
Robert 12
Jefferson 10
William 6

The 1860 Noxubee County Census show the
children of Joseph Shaw and Caroline Lynn who
were sent back to Mississippi after Caroline died
in 1857 in Union Parish, La.
Samuel Shaw 57 NC
Elizabeth 50 NC
All of these children were born in Mississippi
Thomas 18
William 14
*MARY SHAW 12 years old
*SALLIE SHAW 8 years old
**JOE SHAW 3 years old BORN IN LOUISIANA

It appears that Joseph Shaw was a close relative of Samuel Shaw.
Elizabeth Lynn is to young to be his mother plus she was a half
sister of Caroline.

Both Ali and Matthew Lynn had children by their previous marriages.
Each had their own holdings and properties. The records will speak
for themselves.

# # #