I'm finding a lot of wrong data for the SHELBYs across the Internet - ESPECIALLY among the various databases that are now available. I'm also beginning to recognize a lot of my own research scattered through them-without me being mentioned--

No telling at the moment just what all I'll place here-but want to at least try and counteract the worst of the wrong 'stuff' -based on original documents.

For instance-
One database is claiming that Evan Shelby was a knight and the family left Wales in disgrace, and his wife was Catherine Morgan Davies

Another has the right death time frame for Evan, but has him dying in Wales.

No, Evan did not have a middle name of 'Dhu'

The National Library of Wales - 9 January 1978, from G. M. Griffiths, Keeper of Manuscripts and Records, to Miss Lois Wiley in Abingdon, VA:
 ..."Your request for copies of entries from the tregaron parish register --
1.  1720, 10bris 23, Evanus fil. Evani Shelby, bapt. fuit.  (Please note that I have carefully checked the date, and that it is 1720, not 1719)
2.  1728, May 5, Moses fil. evani Shelby bapt. fuit.

28 Aug 2001--Ron Shelby sent a copy of the original Baptismal record for Evan Shelby Sr-found in the records in the National Library of Wales. Father's name, Selby Phillip

From Ron Shelby-Sept 2001
"Selby was buried in the local church yard on 26 June, 1731, and his name is recorded as "Shelby Phillip" at this time. This is a very clear record..Unfortunately, the graveyard filled up early in the 19th century, and all the pre 1800 gravestones were removed.
There appears to be no chance to find the exact burial site of Phillip or his headstone. So, while Philip is definitely Evan's father, his own origin is still a mystery. The fact that he was buried as a "Shelby" by the village priest was a surprise to me."

Catherine, according to the original marriage record, was Catherina Morgan

No, Evan and Catherine did not have a son James

No, Evan and Catherine did not have a daughter Mary/Hannah married to Vincent Hobbs

No, Evan and Catherine's son John (Capt) did not marry Louisa Looney

Not sure now if Evan and Catherine had a daughter Rachel-She may have been a niece-The original Bapt. record of St Caron's Church in Tegaron, clearly shows the Rachel Shelby baptized 21 Oct 1721, was daughter of Ricei Shelby...There is no other Rachel Shelby given.

No, Evan Shelby Jr did not die at Kings Meadow, TN -It didn't become Kings Meadow until many years after Evan's death.

No, Evan Jr did not serve with or under Gen Braddock, in July 1755 - nor was he a Captain at this time -- Work in progress

No, Evan Jr and Letitia Cox did not have a daughter Rachel who married Michael Liggett

Letitia Cox's mother Susanna's maiden name is unknown, it was not Davis/Davies - she was not a descendant of Princes Nicketti.

I have wondered from time to time as to why a copy of the will of Hugh Parker was among "The Shelby Family" papers-but hadn't followed up on it.
While [recently] working on the Chronology for Evan Shelby, Jr and Letitia Cox, it came to my attention again. Hugh died unmarried, and I have found nothing in the way of a family connection-So it must be business.
Hugh died closely to the time that Evan Sr did. Evan Sr's wife Catherine and their son Evan Jr, handled his estate..The Ohio Company was filing lawsuits against the estate up to at least 1754-55, for debts owed.

Will-3 June 1751, Hugh Parker of Frederick County in the Province of Maryland, Merchant... Everything was left to his 3 nephews [after debts, etc are paid]:
John, William and Thomas Frohock "to share and share alike...I do make and Constitute my trusty and well beloved friend Col Thomas Cresap of Frederick County in the Province of Maryland and Mr Jeremiah Warden of the City of Philadelphia, merchant, my Executors of this my last will and Testament, dated 3 June 1751..Hugh Parker signs. Witnesses: Jarvis Hougham, Daniel Cresap, Nathan Wells (his mark) and Barny Curran.

Carolina Cradle-Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier, 1747-1762, by Robert W. Ramsey, publ University of NC Press, Chapel Hill, 1964.
p113- "...Hugh Parker, a wealthy merchant of Prince Georges (later Frederick) County, Maryland, and a key figure in the trading activities of the newly organized Ohio Company.
Hugh Parker's will is recorded in Maryland Hall of Records, Annapolis, MD... [No Shelby's are mentioned]

The Ohio Company: Its Inner History: Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1959, by Alfred P. James. The author incorrectly deciphered the name as "Trohock" [Note-this is the book in which I was able to pinpoint the date of Evan Shelby Sr's death, and the references to the lawsuits against his estate]

Drums in the Forest: The Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1958, by Alfred Procter James and Charles Morse Stotz. [Includes maps and photos of Fort Pitt, and Forts of the French and Indian War...]

The Ohio Company of Virginia and the Westward Movement, 1748-1792: A Chapter in the History of the Colonial Frontier: Glendale, Calif, by Arthur H Clark Co, 1939.

Books are all available through interlibrary loan. You can also find out more about the Ohio Company on the Internet..

Ezekial Cox married Sarah Rose, about 1749 in Maryland - Ezekial was brother to Susannah Cox who married Evan Shelby, Jr
Ezekial and Sarah also had a daughter Susannah who married John McFarland, Jr, only child of Capt John McFarland and Rachel Shelby-Rachel later married Phillip Pindall/Pendell/Pindell.

Cass Knight Shelby (CKS), 1947 MSS., p185
"....John Buchanan sold the tract called "Sapling Grove" to Evan Shelby and Isaac Baker of Maryland after they arrived on the Holston early in 1771.
Buchanan, however, gave the purchasers no deed to the property, since he had not then received a patent for it, nor was the patent issued until Dec 23 1779, after Buchanan had died. In the meantime both Baker and Shelby themselves died and it was not until 1796 that the former's heirs got title to his half of the property and 2 Nov 1799 that Evan Shelby's heirs were given a deed to his half, these two deeds being made out by the exc's of William Preston, dec'd (for Shelby, see Washington Co, VA deed book #2 p223) William Preston was the exc for John Buchanan.

Documents Relating to Colonial History of State of New Jersey Vol XXIV & Vol V 1762-1765. Call Pr & Publ Co 1902
p530 [Newspaper abstract]
Capt Evan Shelby obtained a Bond of me, the subscriber, for 1651 in the year 1761 and payable in the year 1763, which Bond have paid part, as appears by the Indorsements on the
same, and the remainder have receipts for the Bond was perfected in MD; I have reason to apprehend he has already assigned it, either in NJ or PA. This therefore is to warn every person from taking any assignment on said Bond as I will not pay any part of it having as before observed, cancelled the whole.  Signed Joseph Warford.

Shelby, McDowell, Deaderick Anderson Family's by Anna M. Moon, p16:
A letter to Judge Sam C. Heiskell from an old citizen of Bristol tells the following- "Abt 1870, 5th St, Bristol, TN was opened and it became necessary to remove the bodies in the cemetery adjoining the First Presb. Church. In this cemetery were the remains of Gen Evan Shelby. Interested parties removed the remains of their own dead, but Gen Shelby's bones were taken up and placed in a common box and were locked up in the City Calaboose [jail] but a few steps away for safekeeping. Just how long they remined there I do not know.
I was a boy of 13 years, and remember distinctly of having the skull in my hands. The bones were then reinterred in the East Hill Cemetery which is located in the State of VA & TN.
Gen Shelby's remains now sleep in the of old VA and his grave is now covered with the iron slab that was placed on his grave when 1st buried."

Letter written by Mr Charles H. Slack, in the 13 June 1925 issue of the Bristol News...CKS- 1947 MSS  p189 includes the whole article...
"Gen Shelby's bones were transferred from the jail to the P. O. then the city cemetery in VA. Then in May 1896 with the Civic Ceremonys, laid to their final rest."

What is now Bristol, Sullivan County, TN - Letter dated Aug 1929 to CKS from Mr Thomas W Preston, President of the King Printing Company, whose plant stands on the north side of Shelby Street nearly opposite the Lutheran Church, said that the fireplug at the southwest corner of Shelby and Fifth is on the exact spot occupied by the original grave. This would place it near the northern line of his property.

The cranberry iron slab that serves as a marker, was obtained from Colonel King's iron works and is the same kind as was later placed on Kings grave. Both are coffin shaped. Shelby's marker bears the inscription: "General Evan Shelby died December 4, 1794 aged 74" cut into the iron. The marker was transferred from the original grave to the new one in the military section of East Hill cemetery at its western end.
Evan's widow Isabella, remarried within five years to Alexander Droomgoole - they moved from "Sapling Grove" to Abingdon, VA

First Generation

1.  Washington BARROW was born on 5 Oct 1807 in Davidson Co, TN.
Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century.

page 84
BARROW, WASHINGTON, lawyer, congressman, was born Oct. 5, 1817[sic], in Davidson County, Tenn. He was a lawyer by education and profession, and in 1841 was appointed American charge d'affaires to Portugal. He was a representative in congress from Tennessee from 1847 to 1849. He died Oct. 19, 1866, in St. Louis, Mo.  In 1841 in Portugal;
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/po/com/11147.htm

Name: Washington Barrow
State of Residency: Mississippi
Title: Chargé d'Affaires
Appointment: Aug 16, 1841
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 28, 1841
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, 20-Feb 24, 1844 In Mar 1850 in Nashville, Davidson Co, TN;
http://www.nashville.gov/mhc/markers1.htm

Site of Original Gas Works
The Nashville Gas Light co., founded March 1850, with General Washington Barrow, President, built first gas works in Tennessee for manufacturing gas from coal.  First street lamp was lighted Feb. 13, 1851, at Second Avenue, North, and Public Square.  First gas stove was used in 1894.  Natural gas piped from Texas was first used in Nashville on August 5, 1946.
Location:  800 Second Avenue, North  Before 1866 in United States;
Name: Barrow, Washington  Birth - Death: d1866  Accession Number: 241576

Source Citation: Biographical Annals of the Civil Government of the United States. During its first century; from original and official sources. By Charles Lanman. Washington, DC: James Anglim, 1876.(BiAUS) Name: Barrow, Washington Birth - Death: 1807-1866 Accession Number: 241577
Source Citation: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1971. The Continental Congress (September 5, 1774 to October 21, 1788) and the Congress of the United States (from the first through the ninety-first Congress March 4, 1789, to January 3, 1971, inclusive). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971. Biographies begin on page 487.(BiDrAC)
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989. The Continental Congress, September 5, 1774 to October 21, 1788 and the Congress of the United States from the first through the one hundredth Congresses, March 4, 1789, to January 3, 1989, inclusive. Bicentennial Edition. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989. Biographies begin on page 507.(BiDrUSC)
Civil War High Commands. By John H. Eicher and David J. Eicher. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. Use Name Index to locate biographies.(CivWHC)  He was buried in Oct 1866 in Nashville, Davidson Co, NC/TN.
Buried in the Dr John Shelby vault in the old Nashville City cemetery.  He died on 19 Oct 1866 in St Louis, MO.  He was in Various places.
==============
Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949
Biographies, page 819
BARROW, Washington, a Representative from Tennessee; born in Davidson County, Tenn., October 5, 1807; received a classical education; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1827 and commenced practice in Nashville; Minister to Portugal from August 16, 1841, to February 24, 1844; editor of the Nashville Republican Banner 1845-1847; elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1849); was not a candidate for renomination in 1848; president of the Nashville Gas Co. in 1848; member of the State senate in 1860 and 1861; prominently identified with the Confederacy during the Civil War and was arrested by order of Gov. Andrew Jackson March 28, 1862, and imprisoned in Nashville; released the following week by order of President Lincoln; resumed newspaper interests; died in St. Louis, Mo., October 19, 1866; interment in the vault of Dr. John Shelby on a private estate in East Nashville, Tenn.

Washington BARROW and Anna M SHELBY were married on 27 Sep 1827 in Davidson Co, TN.
Anna was the oldest daughter of Dr John and Anna Mariah (Minnick) Shelby, born in Sumner Co, TN in 1813. She married 27 Sept 1827 in Davidson Co, TN to Washington Barrow-More seems to be know about him than Anna..She died in Nashville, Davidson Co, TN and buried in the Shelby family vault with family members...apparently her date of death is unknown, but it's said she [by who?] assisted her husband in his newspaper work, etc when he was away in the service of the Confedercy.

Washington and Anna were living with her parents on the 1850 census for Nashville, Davidson Co, TN. She was 37, Washington was 43, and President of the Nashville Gas Company.
 

 +2 i. John Shelby BARROW.

Second Generation

2.  John Shelby BARROW.

John Shelby BARROW and Margaret ARMSTRONG were married on 12 Jun 1851 in Nashville, Davidson Co, TN.   Washington and Anna had one child, John Shelby Barrow, born in Davidson Co, TN...no birth/death dates.
John married 12 Jun 1851 in Nashville to Margaret Armstrong, in the Second Presbyterian Church. Margaret died 17 Aug 1854, age 21 of consumption. They had a dau who died young, and one child, a son, John Jr...

John Shelby Barrow, Jr died in New York City 20 Dec 1908. Married 11 Nov 1873, Lucy Bell Claiborne, in Nashville. They had 5 children, but as of 1964, no descendant had been found..

Source: "The Shelby Family" by Howard S Galloway, 1964.
  Margaret ARMSTRONG was born in 1833.  Said to have died at the age of 21  She died Consumption on 17 Aug 1854 in Davidson Co, TN.
=========
From: "Bob Bledsoe"
Subject: Shelby-Barrow
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004

Judy, thanks much for the information on Washington Barrow and Anna Shelby.  The reason I was curious is the article I found below which sort of skipped over his marriage, etc. I always get intrigued when there are gaps. My connection with the Shelbys is thru Sarah Bledsoe who married David Shelby.  I am descended from her father's (Col. Anthony Bledsoe) half brother, Loving Bledsoe.

George W. Barrow, U.S. and Confederate diplomat, editor, soldier, and statesman, was born in Nashville on May 10, 1808, to Wylie Barrow and Ann Beck, his father's second wife. Barrow spent a privileged and comfortable youth at the family home "Barrow Grove," attending Davidson Academy and in 1826 becoming one of the first graduates of the University of Nashville. He read law and was admitted to the Tennessee Bar in 1827. In that same year, he married Anna Marian Shelby, daughter of Dr. John Shelby, one of the state's wealthiest men. In 1836 Barrow volunteered for service in the Seminole War as a member of the Second Tennessee Mounted Gunman and received promotions to major and adjutant.

Barrow returned to Nashville in 1837 and won election to the Tennessee General Assembly. By 1840 Barrow was active in the Whig presidential victory and was rewarded with an appointment as minister to Portugal. After three years of diplomatic service abroad, Barrow returned to Nashville and assumed the editorship of the powerful Nashville Republican Banner. This position led to Barrow's election to the U.S. Congress in 1847, where he befriended the young Abraham Lincoln and joined him in opposition to the Mexican War. Returning home in 1849, Barrow was a delegate to the Nashville Convention of 1850. He also founded and served as the first president of the Nashville Gas Light Company.

After several years of seclusion following family tragedies, Barrow returned to public life just in time to become a leading advocate of secession, representing the state in negotiations with the Confederacy. In April 1861 Barrow voted for the secret declaration of Tennessee's alliance with the Southern states and became a signatory of the document, which Tennessee voters ratified in June 1861. Barrow raised and equipped Company C of the Eleventh Tennessee Cavalry, which became known as "Barrow Guards." He served in the Confederate state Senate until February 1862, when Tennessee government collapsed with the approach of the Union army.

Following Nashville's surrender, Military Governor Andrew Johnson arrested Barrow and other prominent Confederates for treason. Barrow was first imprisoned in Nashville before Johnson shipped him to prisons at Detroit, Fort Mackinac, and Johnson's Island. Barrow refused to take the Oath of Allegiance but was eventually exchanged in March 1863. Barrow returned to Tennessee, ran unsuccessfully for Confederate governor of the state, and spent the balance of the war as a private with the retreating Army of Tennessee. After the defeat of the Confederacy, Barrow returned to Nashville, broken in health and financially ruined. He died within the year.

 John McGlone, Murfreesboro

Source: Bob gave permission for me to place this here.
*******
Anna was the oldest daughter of Dr John and Anna Mariah (Minnick) Shelby, born in Sumner Co, TN in 1813. She married 27 Sept 1827 in Davidson Co, TN to Washington Barrow-More seems to be know about him than Anna..She died in Nashville, Davidson Co, TN and buried in the Shelby family vault with family members...apparently her date of death is unknown, but it's said she [by who?] assisted her husband in his newspaper work, etc when he was away in the service of the Confederacy.

Washington and Anna were living with her parents on the 1850 census for Nashville, Davidson Co, TN. She was 37, Washington was 43, and President of the Nashville Gas Company.

Death of General Washington Barrow -"Republican Banner" Nashville, TN 21 Oct 1866.. [in part]
DIED in St Louis MO 19 Oct 1866 at the home of his brother, John E Barrow, General Washington Barrow, of this City, in his 59th year...Gen Barrow has been in feeble health for several years..died in St Louis while on business...

I would presume from this that Anna died before Washington. They are both buried in the family vault.

Washington and Anna had one child, John Shelby Barrow, born in Davidson Co, TN...no birth/death dates.
John married 12 Jun 1851 in Nashville to Margaret Armstrong, in the Second Presbyterian Church. Margaret died 17 Aug 1854, age 21 of consumption..they had a dau who died young, and one child, a son, John Jr...

John Shelby Barrow, Jr died in New York City 20 Dec 1908. Married 11 Nov 1873, Lucy Bell Claiborne, in Nashville. They had 5 children, but as of 1964, no descendant had been found..

Source: "The Shelby Family" by Howard S Galloway, 1964.
===========
 
 

Name: James Alexander Ventress PUE
Sex: Male
Father: Dr Arthur PUE Jr
Mother: Sarah "Sally" DORSEY

Individual Facts
Birth 20 Jul 1841 Elliott City, MD
Death 20 Feb 1918 (age 76) Bandera, Bandera Co, TX

Marriage
1. Jeannie Logan CARPENTER (Jeannie)
Marriage 5 Apr 1882 (age 40) Medina City, Bandera Co, TX
Father:  William Morrison CARPENTER
Mother:  Judith Ann SHELBY
Notes (Individual)
General: James & Jeannie had 5 children. Their son, Arthur Ventress, was a Judge & lived in Bandera & died May of 1969.  At this time, John had just left the navy & expecting to go to work as a  air traffic controller in Houston-while waiting word, we stayed with  John's dad, (now our home) David & Mike were awaiting their 6th & 4th  birthday's. It was my first time here. John Sr (Johnny) was showing me the TROLINGER family Bible (we were sitting at the kitchen table) when Johnny's younger brother Bill, & his wife, Rae Ellen, came in.  They had been to Bandera to Judge Pue's funeral.  The paper they brought back with them had the story of the Judge on the front page & a long bio, which included his connections to the SHELBYs.  All of this was my introduction to not only the SHELBYs, but what is now, 25 years later, a fascination with them and genealogy as a whole.
Birth (20 Jul 1841): Tombstone dates
Notes (Family #1)
General: Family records
Marriage (5 Apr 1882): J.A.V. Pue and Jeannie L. Carpenter married 5 April 1882, Bandera TX
 
 

 The exqusitive pathos of the ballad "Old Kentucky Home" finds a responsive chord in every human heart, but to the genuine Kentuckians, exiled by fate or circumstance from home, it appeals with particular eloquence. Kentucky cannot boast of lordly domains, the gift of royalty, with their ancient and spacious mansions containing numerous evidences of the baronial style in which the proprietors lived, and many queer old relics of the days of aristocracy, when ladies rode in their coaches and six, and "gentleman" were in fashion. Such estates were the special pride of the mother state, aristocratic old Virginia. These ancient homesteads, many of them dating back to the seventeenth century were owned by the most prominent families, most of them scions of noble English stock, who finding themselves after the Revolutionary War reduced in fortune sent forth their hardiest and most enterprising sons to carve out homes, fortunes and independence for themselves in the wilds of Kentucky.
 In fact, it may be said, that what the American Colonies after the Revolutionary War, this wonderful wilderness proved in truth, a "dark and bloody ground" to the pioneer heroes. It cost them years of toil and strife and blood to win this favored land, but by every drop of blood and every moment of toil and suffering spent in the winning, were their homes endeared to them.
This love of the hardily earned ancestral home is very strong in the hearts of Kentucky men. With the women it is almost a religion - naturally for them home is the blessed epitone of Heaven. No word in the English language is to the matron of Kentucky so sweet and comprehensive as home.
So it is, that sad refrain, to "My Old Kentucky Home" appeals with peculiar pathos to the Kentucky mothers and daughters exiled from their inherited homes.
 Many of the homes established by the pioneers are still in possession of their families. Especially is this the case in the bluegrass region, and about them still cling traditions of love, cruelty and heroism, furnishing inexhaustible stores of material, out of which the poet, painter and writers of fiction may fabricate the most pleasing forms of art.
 The oldest, and for this reason, the most noted of the Kentucky estates, is Travelers Rest--The Shelby homestead.
 The first certificate of settlement and pre-emption granted by the Governor of Virginia was to Isaac Shelby for raising a crop of corn in the county of Kentucky, in the year 1776, on the land which Shelby made his farm in 1780.
 The name Travelers Rest was given to this grant on account of its being the resting place of all the early settlers on their way into "settlements" and the camping grounds for the friendly Indians who were passing to and fro, to treat and trade with the whites. Isaac Shelby always supplied the Indians with corn when they camped on his place and treated them otherwise so well that he was known amongst them as "old King Shelby" The charred remains of the old oak tree still stands near which they always camped, under which several noted treaties were signed.
 Travelers Rest is in Lincoln County - One of the original counties into which Kentucky was divided in 1760 by the legislature of Virginia, and is five miles from Danville, the first capital of Kentucky before it was a state. Here were erected the first courthouse and jail- both built of logs.
 It was in this courthouse that the numerous conventions were held to consider and decide upon the expediency of a separation of Kentucky from Virginia and to petition Congress for admission of the new state into the federation by the name of Kentucky which was done n the 4th Feb 1791.
 In accordance with the provisions of the Constitition of the State, Isaac Shelby was two years after declared Governor, and again in 1813, when past seventy, he was solicited to become a candidate, and only consented on the condition (so honorable to his love of country) that the United States were involved in war. He was elected.
In answer to a call for volunteers in the Summer of 1813 Governor Shelby placed himself at the head of 4,000 men, who he commanded in the decisive battle of the Thames.
He was awarded a sword by his State for his gallant conduct, and a resolution was introduced in Congress, assigning a gold medal to him and General Harrison - His ranking officer.
 Owing to some prejudice against the latter, the vote was delayed on session on learning this, Governor Shelby requested his friends in Congress- Mr Clay and Col. Richard M Johnson, to permit no expression of thanks unless he was associated with General Harrison.
The vote was passed at the next session and awarded a medal to each. In General Harrisons report to the Secretary of War he says: I am at a loss has to mention the merits of Governor Shelby, being convenced that no euloguin of mine can do him justice, the Governor of an independent and greatly my superior in years, in experience and in military fame, he placed himself under my command and was more remarkable for his zeal and activity, than for the promptitude and cheerfulness with which he obeyed my orders.
 Governor Shelby was appointed Secretary of War in the cabinet of President Monroe, but declined on account of the infirmitives of age.
 Governor Shelby's wife was Susannah Hart, the daughter of Captain Nathaniel Hart of Hanover County, Virginia, who was an officer in the Revolutionary War, and was also one of the pioneers of Kentucky. They were married in the Fort at Boonesborough April 19, 1783. The bride spun and wove her wedding gown of flax grown near the fort. It was two widths of linen, of a texture so fine that it could be drawn through her wedding ring. The ring and gown are still in possession of the family.
 The wedding gifts of the bride were a horse, saddle and bridle, a set of blue stone china, captured from the English and some house linen. The wreck of the saddle and bridle is still in existence and several pieces of the china are in possession of Mrs Grigbsy of Washington City, a grand daughter of Governor Shelby.
 The newly married couple journeyed from Boonesborough to Travelers Rest on horseback, carrying their worldly goods in saddle bags.
 They went to housekeeping in a log cabin which stood on the site of what is now the family graveyard, where in old age, they were buried.
 The year after his marriage Isaac Shelby began the erection of a more spacious and comfortable house than the rude log cabin. It contained seven rooms with walls of rough stone nearly three feet in thickness. The woodwork was all made from walnut timber on the "grant" and done by two men who are now amongst the wealthiest and most respected citizens of the state. No cut nails were to be had at that time and the pinning was done with wooden pegs, on the order of shoe pegs of the present day. Whilst the carpenters were putting on the roof Governor Shelby was obliged to keep a guard of armed men stationed around the house to prevent them from being shot by hostile Indians. In this age of progress and improvement, when thousands of spacious and costly edifices go up as if by magic, it is difficult to realize that it took two years of hard and incessant labor to build this modest stone house.
 The first addition made to the original house was a very large room at the end of a long back gallery, called the weaving room. In it were the spinning wheels and looms used in the manufacturing of cotton, woolen and linen goods of which were made all the garments worn by the family and numerous slaves of Governor Shelby.
 The negro women did all the work under the dir4ect supervision of Mrs Shelby. There are in the family today many beautiful table cloths, large and handsome counterpanes and many yards of linen sheeting manufactured by Mrs Shelbys women slaves from flax grown on the farm.
 It was never the custom in Kentucky for the slave women to work in the fileds. The farmers wives were expected to find employment for them, and to train them in all domestic industries. They carded, spun, wove, dyed and made into garments the various farics manufactured; they made the garden and orchard; they manufactured by the most primitive method sugar and syrup from the sugar maple trees, so abundant at that time, they "rendered up" the lard, cured the hams, compounded sausage and souse from the hogs slaughtered made soap, starch and blueing for home consumption; raised the poultry, attended the dairy and trained in all household service.
 Farmers wifes had also the care of all the sick --white and black, and often of the domestic animals. But they were expected to read many other books than their Bible, to know something of music, French, the different schools of philosophy or politics, prohibition of women's rights, and they were only expected to discuss such subjects as pertained to their "peculiar sphere". They were respectable and obedient wives, affectionate mothers, and were indefategable in the care and training of their slaves.
 It is a question whether the negros or the white women of the south have most reason to rejoice over the result of the war --The Emancipation Proclamation, yet the very heavy responsibility and hardships of slavery and the times combined to make a race of women seldom equaled for strength of intellect, physical and moral courage and personal endurance to these qualities in Mrs Shelby were added others that would make her a remarkable woman in this more polite age. It is said of her that no lady in Kentucky has ever filled the elevated position she occupied as the Governors wife with more grace and dignity.
 There is a portrait pained of her when she presided as first mistress in the Governor's mansion in which the extraordinary beauty of her hands is remarkable by all who sees it.
 Dispite the arduous duties of an unusually protracted official career, Governor Shelby found time to make many improvements on his house and farm. He built a school house of stone, in which his children were educated under private tutors. He also built a dairy and other out houses of stone and put up comfortable quarters for his slaves.
 One of the chief beauties of Travelers Rest was the avenue of forest trees, more than a mile long, trough which ran a broad, smooth, white pebbled road, over which the trees arched, making a lovely drive in all seasons.
No home in Kentucky is as associated with the great names of our own country as Travelers Rest. It was the rendezvous of the pioneer patriots of the state. The Boones, Browns, Breckinridges, Harts, Marshalls, McAfeers, Floyds, etc, Amongst the distinquished guests entertained here were President Madison and Andrew Jackson, Gen. Lafayette, Gen Rogar Clark, Gen Wilkinson and Gen. Winfield Scott, Aaron Burr, Ames Kendell, Henry Clay, Felix Grundy and Thomas Hart Benton.
 Governor Shelby and his wife lived and died in the home of their youth, leaving a large family and a magnificent land estate, lying principally in the counties of Fayette and Lincoln. The Shelbys were among the most influential families in the state.
 At the death of Governor Shelby, Travelers Rest passed to his youngest son Alfred, who married his first cousin Virginia Hart and died a few years later, leaving his widow of twenty two with three children. In some respects Mrs Virginia Hart Shelby ws the most remarkable woman Kentucky has ever produced. She was gifted with a beauty so exquisite that it would have been fatal to a woman of less strenqth of mind and character in the exposed and responsible position in which whe was placed so young. Immediately after her husbands death she modestly but bravely assumed the management of his large estate, and devoted fifteen years of her life to it with such energy, judgement and fidelity, that no farmer in the country around was nearly so successful as she. Today you can hear from the gray haired farmers, traders, and bankers stories of her wonderful success in every department of her business. She was considered on of the best judges of stock in the state and the different fairs was awarded premiums on her cattle, hourses, mules, sheep and hogs, on the products of her farm, orchard and garden, dairy and her own handwork, also on the linen goods she had woven by her women from flax grown on the farm and woolen fabrics from the fleeses of her own flocks, many yards of which are still in the possession of her own family, as well as numerous pieces of silver awarded as premiums.
 It must not be supposed that she was at all what would be called a masculine Woman. To the contrary, she was indowed with an unusual share of womanly graces, and the sweetness of her voice was as remarkable as the beauty of her face.
 She was a devoted mother and an earnest chritian, and altogether a thoroughly successful business woman. There was no woman of her day in Kentucky who was so general a favorite in Society, or more beloved by her friends and family.
 To the surprise of all that knew her, after fifteen years of widowhood she married her relative, the distingqushed Divine Dr R. J. Breckinridge.
 Although she gave her children the best educational advantages, dispensed the most generous hospitality, and gave liberally to her church and different charities she turned over the estate to her children on her second marriage, more than double in value, and to her husband she brought a handsome fortune which she had accumulated for herself.
 The only children who survived her was her daughter Susan Preston, who married Col. J. Warren Grigsby of Virginia.
 Col. Grigsby had spent most of his life (up to the time of meeting his wife) in Europe, and had just begun the practice of law in New Orleans when he married.
 To gratify his wife he removed her to her ancestral home, to which she was passionately attached and until the breaking out of the war they devoted themselves to the improvements and embellishment of the home and farm.
The house was enlarged and the interior somewhat modernized. Most of the spacious fireplaces, stretching nearly across one end of the rooms, with their huge buck logs and smaller ones of ash piled up on bright brass and irons, gave way to grates in which crackled Kentucky coal, as abundant now as wood was sixty years ago.
 But the small deep windows in the strong thick wall with a row of portholes near the ground, gave the whole house. Still somewhat the appearance of a fortress and the exterior retains much of its primitive and vunerable appearance. For years there was not in the Blue grass region of Kentucky, a woman who dispensed such generous and eleqant hospitality as Mrs Grigsby.
 Col. Grigsby was a man of rare culture and courtleness and was strikingly handsome and no man in the state enjoyed in a higher degree of confidence and esteem of the people generally. He was the soul of honor-- trusting others as he would be trusted. He lived by the proverb of the exact gentleman--noblese oblige, rather than that of the modern man, or the land shark "business is business" After four years of gallant service in the Confederate Army he returned to find himself in such business complications as to make it necessary to mortgage Travelers Rest.
 This, with already failing health, soon put him in his grave. Mrs Grigsby remained at Travelers Rest alone with her children during her husband's absence in the Army, and she needed all of her inherited heroism to fight the bloodless battles of war. Hers was a case of exceptional sorrows and sacrifices.
 For some years after her husband's death, she struggled heroically to save Travelers Rest by paying off the mortgage but the fatal blow came at last.
The mortgage foreclosed and she and hr children were made homeless and penniless, and now amongst strangers, three brave women are making a fight with adversity that proves them worthy descendants of the hero of Kings Mountain. Yet like "my lady in the sad refrain of the song, they long for the old Kentucky home far away."
 Travelers Rest is still owned by one of the descendants of Governor Shelby, but it is shorn of much of its beauty.
 The 3,400 acres that once spread over the river and magnificently wooded valley, lying above the "fort of knobs" have dwindled to one third of the original tract, and here, as elsewhere in the Blue grass region, the finest forest trees have been felled. There is no trace left of the once beautiful avenue
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Copyright: 14 Nov 2006 Judith A Trolinger