Tensas Parish, Louisiana History
Writings of Josiah P. Scott                         
Submitted by Edith Ziegler, March 2002
Extracted from the Tensas Gazette of 1936
http://usgwarchives.net/la/tensas.htm

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Mr. R. D. Shelly and Sister Move to Natchez

     The oldest mercantile establishment in Tensas parish 
changed hands recently when Mr. R. D. Shelley and his sister, 
Miss Ida Shelley, sold the stock of goods in their store on 
their place "Barcelona", to Mr. Leslie May and leased the store 
building to him.  Mr. May will operate the business for his own 
account.  Mr. May is brother-in-law to Mr. E. L. Collins, and 
was associated with Mr. Collins at the Goldman store for quite 
a while.  His friends wish him success in his venture.

     As stated, the Shelley store on "Barcelona" is decidedly 
the oldest mercantile business in the parish, being in constant 
existence under one name, for 67 years!  The business was 
established in 1869 by Mrs. Minerva Shelley, mother of the 
brother and sister mentioned, and was conducted in the name 
of "Mrs. M. Shelley" until her death, June 5, 1889, and since 
in the name of "Estate of M. Shelley."  For 67 years this store 
has been operated at practically the same stand, the original 
store room becoming too small, the present addition, made 
necessary by expanding trade, became a component part of the 
original structure.  For two-thirds of a century this business 
has operated regularly six days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, 
closing only as a mark of respect and sympathy when deaths 
visited the home of friends in the neighborhood.  In this long 
period no creditor has ever lost one penny on this firm.  In 
days of flood and pestilence as well as in times of plenty the 
Shelley store has stayed open for business, leading one to 
believe that, like "Tennyson's Brook", it would "go on forever".

     However, it is a long lane that has no turning, and an end 
must in time come to all things.  Following the mother's death, 
in 1889, the business was continued by the son and two sisters, 
Miss Sarah and Miss Ida.  Miss Sarah, really the head of the 
business, as Mr. Shelley devoted most of his time to the 
plantation, died May 10, 1931.  The store and residence adjoining 
have been burglarized several times of late years, on one 
occasion the burglars entering the bedroom of Miss Ida Shelley 
and tieing her to her bed to prevent her arousing her brother, 
asleep elsewhere in the house.  In view of these alarms and their 
advancing age - Mr. Shelley is in his 82nd year and Miss Ida her 
77th - their friends finally induced the brother and sister to 
dispose of their store business and entrust their farming interests 
to younger hands and take up their residence at Natchez, where 
they have bought a lovely and comfortable cottage at No. 500 Orleans 
and Commerce streets, and to which they moved this week, and where 
they will expect to see their Tensas friends as often as they visit 
Natchez.

     The stock in the Shelley store was certainly the oldest in 
this parish and in a great way resembled "An Old Curiosity Shop."  
While modern goods were kept constantly on hand the unsalable 
items were also preserved and when Mr. May inventoried the stock 
before buying he found much that was more antique than modern.  
Some half dozen pairs of brass toed shoes said to have been in 
stock some 65 years, and as many of a certain feminine article, 
unknown to present generation, but popular maybe in the days of 
our grandmothers, and called "bustles", a corset or two, maybe 
several, while a "hoop skirt" equally as old, were brought from 
long-ago hiding places.  Most of the unsalable goods were kept 
by Mr. Shelley and stored in one room of the large house, but a 
few of the items mentioned are yet on display at the store and 
may prove an attraction to sight-seers.  Mr. May has painted 
the store front and the interior and has put in a large stock 
and the store is most attractive and comfortable.

     The parents of Mr. and Misses Shelley were born in Clinton 
county, Kentucky, the father, R.D. Shelley, Sr., May 23, 1819 
and the mother Minerva Neathery, August 13, 1823.  The father's 
death occurred in Catahoula parish, in March 1864, while serving 
in the Confederate army; the mother, at the present home, on 
"Barcelona", June 5, 1889.  The parents came from Kentucky to 
Louisiana and settled in Tensas parish in 1859.  The father 
entered the Confederate army in 1861 and the burden of rearing 
and educating three children fell on the lone shoulders of a 
devoted pioneer mother, but to whom work was no stranger.  With 
her face to the rain she labored early and late, raising her son 
to useful and honorable citizenship, with at least a high school 
education, obtained for the best part at Jefferson Military 
College, in Adams county, Miss., and the girls to(sic) refined 
and elegant ladies, of the old school, but with whose education 
and training in the gentler arts were happily combined, the more 
practical usages of domesticity.  There never lived more 
honorable people than the Shelley family.  The three preferred 
celibacy that they may remain unseparated; they loved each other 
and their friends; they lived the simple life, and like Tennyson's 
"Village Blacksmith," could always "look the world in the face for 
they owed not any man."

     The mother located on "Helena" plantation in 1869 and operated 
a store until 1871, when she took up residence, with store, in the 
present home on "Barcelona".  In 1872, with some ambition to branch 
out, she opened a store at Waterproof when that town was located 
about opposite Texas Road.  This business continued only about 
two years.  A kinsman, Mr. Abner Smalley, also from Kentucky, 
antedated her in business at Waterproof several years and enjoyed 
the distinction of being the first merchant to engage in business 
at Waterproof, but the mercantile business of "M. Shelley" and 
"Estate of M. Shelley," as already said, is recognized as the 
oldest business of like nature in Tensas parish, being 
continuously in operation under the one firm name from 1869 to 
1936-67 years.  The business of N.B. Hunter, at Waterproof, is 
probably next oldest, being established in 1871.
     In leaving Tensas parish, where they have spent their lives, 
to make their home at Natchez, Mr. and Miss Shelley carry with 
them the love and good wishes of everybody in Tensas parish.  In 
their long stay with us they have borne their part of all that has 
made for public good, have rejoiced with their friends in their 
happinesses and grieved with their friends in their sorrows and 
out of their bounty have given liberally in all calls from 
distressed humanity.  In comfortable circumstances, they now retire 
from active life and will spend their remaining years removed from 
their scene of labor and among what we hope will prove more 
pleasant surrounding.  And again we say they carry with them to 
their new home the love and good wishes of hosts of friends in old 
Tensas, which we know to them will ever be the dearest spot on 
earth.

     Mr. E.R. Butts of "Helena" plantation, a faithful friend and 
neighbor ever since his residence here, and who has for years been 
Mr. Shelley's counselor and aid, will see after the planting 
interests and he and Mrs. Butts will visit them often in their 
Natchez home, as they did in their Tensas home, thereby brightening 
their lives and making less painful the breaking up of home in the 
late evening of life.  

May happiness be their portion is our prayer.