Merced-Calaveras County CA Archives Biographies.....Shaw, William Henry Harrison 1868 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 9, 2006, 12:44 am

Author: John Outcalt (1925)

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON SHAW

   The son of an honored pioneer and himself a native son, William Henry
Harrison Shaw is one of the progressive and substantial citizens of Snelling,
where he has resided since 1895. He was born at West Point, Calaveras County, on
April 26, 1868, being the second in order of birth of the thirteen children of
W. S. and Henrietta (Stipe) Shaw. The father was born of Scotch-English
parentage in Missouri, on February 11, 1835, and coming West in 1861, located
near Sacramento, where he worked in the mines on the Calaveras River. He had
been accompanied across the plains by Mr. Callameans, there being about one
hundred wagons in the train. Henrietta Stipe was born in Virginia, August 13,
1850, of German parents, and she came with her parents from Iowa, landing near
Stockton. At Jenny Lind she was married to Mr. Shaw and they started out
together on the old Griffith ranch on the Merced River, ten miles below
Snelling, in 1873. In the fall of 1874 they moved to Hopeton, where Mr. Shaw was
employed on the Ruddle ranch, and in 1880 they went to Washington Territory, but
came back to Merced County in the fall of 1891, where they were occupied in
extensive grain farming for eleven years. Mr. Shaw was a Democrat, a man highly
respected among his fellow-citizens, and was greatly mourned when his passing
occurred at Hopeton, on February 23, 1893. Mrs. Shaw died in 1917, likewise
missed by her friends and family. In 1923, those who survived the parents were:
Sam H. H. Shaw, of Snelling; W. H. H. Shaw of this review; Mrs. E. H. Halstead,
of Snelling; Mrs. Dora A. Bloed, of Snelling; Thomas P., also of Snelling;
Rachel Poor, of Brewster, Wash.; and R. W. Shaw, a rancher near Snelling.

   About forty pupils, with but one teacher in attendance, comprised the student
body and faculty of the Hopeton School where Mr. Shaw gained his elementary
education. Being reared as a farmer's son, he worked out on ranches as a plow
boy, and later on the Bill Grade ranch, driving eight- to ten-animal teams. Upon
removing to Snelling in 1895, he ran a freight team from Merced to Snelling and
Merced Falls, continuing in this business for seven years. Upon the completion
of the Yosemite Valley Railroad he was appointed by the American Railway Express
as agent at Snelling, and he served from May 21, 1906 until January, 1921.

   A fine three-and-one-half-acre plot in Snelling, upon which a residence has
been erected, comprises the home place of Mr. Shaw. He has developed his ranch
into a splendid income property, it being devoted to berries and fruit, which
are shipped to the Yosemite Valley in the open season, and also sold at Merced
Falls. He receives good prices, and has little trouble in disposing of his
produce. He has harnessed the water in the old Montgomery ditch, which runs
through his place, using water-wheel power to lift the irrigation water to a
tank seventeen feet above the ditch. This contrivance he made with his own
hands. An eight-foot wheel runs the force pump with a ten-inch stroke, affording
ample water for fire protection on the ranch.

   Mrs. Shaw was formerly Jessie Alice Kauffman, a daughter of the late D. J.
and Sarah Kauffman, and was born in Virginia. They came to Washington Territory
in 1879 and to Fresno, Cal., in 1891, where they were prosperous farmers. In
Fresno, on June 20, 1896, she was united in marriage to Mr. Shaw and their union
has been blessed with the birth of two children: Nina, who resides with her
parents, and Floris, who is stenographer with the Sperry Flour Company in
Fresno. Mr. Shaw is a Democrat in national affairs but he stands for broad
community development. He contributes generously to all worthy church
organizations, and is a Past Grand and Past District Deputy of Willow Lodge, No.
121, I. O. O. F., having belonged since January 28, 1893; and is also a member
and Past Chief Patriarch of Snelling Encampment, No. 83, I. O. O. F. He has
belonged to the Woodmen of the World at Merced for over twenty years.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
WITH A
Biographical Review
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
JOHN OUTCALT

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/merced/bios/shaw219gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/

File size: 4.9 Kb