BIO: John Sheely, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2010.  All rights reserved.
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http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.

                              CHAPTER XLIX.

         LOWER ALLEN TOWNSHIP AND BOROUGH OF NEW CUMBERLAND.

496  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

  JOHN SHEELY, farmer, P. O. Shiremanstown.  The grandparents of our 
subject were Andrew and Barbara (Barnhort) Sheely, the former born 
August 11, 1752, the latter November 6, 1753, and were married August 
31, 1777.  Andrew Sheely was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and 
helped to fight the battles which gained the American people their 
independence.  Their children were Adam, John, Andrew, Ann M., Michael, 
Christian, Frederick, Barbara, and another son Frederick (both of the 
name died during boyhood).  Of this honored family a number yet 
represent the name in this county.  On our subject's maternal 
grandparents' side was John P. Cromlich, born in 1797, and his wife, 
Margaret Sipe, born in 1807, who had ten children:  John, Frederick, 
Susannah, May, David, Catharine, Elizabeth, William H., Jacob and 
Samuel.  The father of our subject, John Sheely, was born on the farm 
now owned by David Oyster in 1781.  He was married to Elizabeth 
Cromlich, probably in 1804, as the first child, Andrew, was born in 
1806; the other children were Frederick, Barbara, Elizabeth, John, 
Benjamin, Samuel, Susan, Annie and Catharine.  About the time of his 
marriage John Sheely's father, Andrew Sheely, purchased and presented 
him with the fine farm on which his grandson now resides, and on which 
all his brothers and sisters were born.  The Sheelys were all men of 
herculean frame, and have been noted agriculturists from the date of 
their coming, and have been very prosperous, each of the brothers now 
residing in the county counting their wealth by the thousands.  John, 
Jr., has remained a bachelor, not from lack of personal charms, but 
because he was so wedded to his agricultural pursuits that matrimony 
was forgotten until his habits were so firmly fixed that he had no wish 
to become a benedict.  The home farm is owned in partnership by 
himself, Benjamin and the heirs of Samuel Sheely, whose widow, Mary 
(Cromlich) Sheely, and sister-in-law, Catharine, are housekeepers, the 
farming being managed by John Sheely and the two sons of his brother, 
John H. and Jacob M.  The finest steer in Cumberland County is now 
their property, and special attention is given to the breeding of fine 
stock and poultry.  The Sheelys are noted as moneymakers and savers, 
and are withal men of the strictest integrity and uprightness.