Wood County, West Virginia Biography of STEPHEN CHESTER SHAW This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 536 Wood STEPHEN CHESTER SHAW. While he never accumulated riches, Stephen Chester Shaw distributed the wealth of his lifetime endeavor and his influence generously throughout the long period of his residence at Parkersburg, where he was justly esteemed as one of the city's foremost and most beloved men. He was born in Lewis County, New York, in 1808, son of Philip Shaw. As a boy his health was delicate, and after reaching manhood physicians held out only a brief expectancy of life for him. To find a more equable climate he started South in 1832, but traveled only as far as Parkersburg, where he found the circumstances that combined a congenial atmosphere and eventually enabled him to live usefully for nearly fifty-eight years. Though an utter stranger, he secured employment in the office of the Circuit Court clerk. At that time John Stephenson was clerk and also kept a hotel. Stephen C. Shaw served as deputy clerk several years, and during that time married Fanny Edelen. The capabilities perhaps that brought him employment in the county clerk's office at first was his skill as a penman. While there he acquired a broad range of legal knowledge, particularly in drawing up legal papers, and subsequently for many years he made a regular profession of chancery work, probating wills, settling estates, and also acting as expert accountant. At the beginning of the Civil war in 1861 he espoused the Confederate cause. Though past military age, he would have gone into the army but for feeble health. His blood relatives were all on the Union side. Stephen C. Shaw could never have achieved the position of a man of wealth. He always had burdens that required all his income to satisfy. Besides supporting his own family he helped to rear a number of other children, and his love and devotion to his friends caused him to endorse a great deal of paper, frequently leading to losses. He was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and this church was benefited both by his advice and writings. He was a strong believer in temperance and organized the first Good Templar Lodge at Parkersburg. The social side of his life was also represented by membership in the Masons and Odd Fellows. Stephen Chester Shaw died at his home in Parkers- burg in 1891, and though thirty years have elapsed his memory is still green there. The next to the youngest of his six children is Robert M. Shaw, who was born on Friday, March 13, 1847, and has lived all his life in Parkersburg. He attended public schools but at the age of twelve went to work to earn his own living, being employed as a printer's "devil." At eighteen he entered merchandising, and was in that line for twenty years and for twenty-eight years was on the road as a commercial traveler. For several years past Mr. Shaw has been general manager of the two plants of the White Star Laundry Com- pany. He has been identified with the Parkersburg Chamber of Commerce, is a Mason, has been a life-long democrat, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1868, at the age of twenty-one, he married Ann M. Logan, daughter of Randolph Logan. Of the nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. Shaw four daughters and two sons are living.