THE SHAW FAMILIES

The Shaws were of English descent. The first of the name in this country of whom we have any account was Benjamin Shaw, of Abington, Mass. His son, William Shaw, born February 22, 1730, married Hannah West, and settled in Bridgewater, in that State. He was a man in humble circumstances, by occupation a tanner and shoe maker; but of excellent moral and religious character, and withal of very industrious habits. He and his wife had a large family, whom they seem to have faithfully endeavored, and not without success, to train up in the way they should go. Mrs. Shaw, their mother, died in 1772.  Mr. Shaw married again; had by this marriage one daughter, and died in January, 1810, in the eightieth year of his age. Two of his sons, namely, Colonel Dan Shaw and Rev. Naphtali Shaw, when quite advanced in life, removed to Bradford, Vt., and here died, leaving families; and it is of them particularly that I shall now have occasion to speak.

Their brothers and sisters, generally married, settled elsewhere, and left posterity in the country.  Colonel Dan Shaw was born at Bridgewater, Mass., November 15, 1758. His first wife was Joanna Perkins, a daughter of Deacon Isaac Perkins, of Middleborough, in that State, born January 5, 1761. They were married in March, 1780, and removed to Lyme, N. H., where she died November 22, 1803, in the forty-second year of her age.  The Rev. Dr. Burton, in his sermon at her funeral, after-wards published, speaks highly of her good qualities and christian character. For his second wife Colonel Shaw married the widow Mary Bliss, of this town, who survived him, and became the wife of Colonel Freeman, of Hanover, N. H.

In the sixteenth year of his age Mr. Shaw became, on profession of his faith, a member of the Congregational church in his native place, and was through life a remarkably strict keeper of the Sabbath. At Lyme he united with the Orthodox church, and was constituted a deacon in the same.

He was also for a time one of the Selectmen of that town; and in a military line was, by regular gradation, promoted from the office of a Lieutenant to that of commander of a regiment; whence the title by which he was ever after designated. After the death of his first wife he removed from Lyme to this town, and purchased a farm on the West side of the River road, bounded on the South by the line between Bradford and Fairlee, the same on which Amos Clement now lives.  Colonel Shaw when over fifty years of age became unsettled in his mind in regard to the correctness of the Orthodox belief that those who die in their sins are for-ever lost, and finally embraced fully the doctrine that all without discrimination will be saved.   And so zealous was he in his new belief that in the year 1809 he obtained approbation from dup authority to go forth as a preacher of universal salvation, and in the course of four or five years preached occasionally, in many places.   He was undoubtedly sincere in his belief, and so conscientious that when, again fearing he might be wrong, he ceased to preach, became unhappy, and so disturbed in his mind, about that and other things, that he terminated his life by drowning himself in a small brook near his home, greatly to the grief of his family and many friends, November 14, 1814, at the age of fifty-six years.   He was an amiable man, in life well esteemed, and there can be no doubt but he had become truly insane.

Colonel Shaw and his first wife had a very respectable family, of whom some account will now be given.

1 Nanny P., the eldest daughter, born December 16, 1780, married Joshua Balch, of Lyme, June 15, 1800, and died there, leaving a family of children, January 24, 1850. 

2 Dan, born October 13, 1782, died May 4, 1805. 

3 Samuel W., born November 12, 1784, died March 31, 1803.

4 Joanna, born April 3, 1787, married Abel Kent, Jr., of Lyme, January 1, 1806, and died November 4, 1856, leaving a family.

5 Asa, born February 20, 1789, married Eliza T.  Slade, of Hanover, was a merchant at Lyme, and died there July 4, 1861, leaving one daughter, Eliza P., and one son, Asa, with their mother. This son is a merchant in Hartford, Conn.

6 Abraham Perkins, born June 20, 1813, married Mary, daughter of Joseph Jenkins, of this town, June 20, 1813, who died here August 6, 1855. Mr. A. P. Shaw and wife were both members of the Congregational church in this place, and valuable members of society.  He was by occupation a cabinet maker, and is at this date still living in this village, in circumstances of comfort.

THEIR CHILDREN

Joseph Wright Shaw, born April 3, 1814, married Almira Tisdale, was of the same occupation as his father, removed to Summerville, Mass., and died there, March 1, 1870.

Dan W. Shaw, born March 12, 1816, married Jane A., daughter of Captain Haynes Johnson, of Bradford, and engaged in the manufacture and sale of furniture at East Cambridge and Boston, Mass., on a large scale, in which business he has been very prosperous. He has a commodious and delightful residence at North Cambridge. Mr.  and Mrs. Shaw are very estimable people, and have a pleasant family, as follows: Ella J., born July 19, 1846; Emma L., born November 27, 1848, died January 22, 1854; Susie E., born November 30,1854, was married with Mr. George A. Keeler, June 4, 1874; Adna B., born December 8, 1856, and his brother, Edward L., January 24, 1860.

Mary E., eldest daughter of A. P. Shaw and wife, born June 9, 1818, died February 28, 1826.  Abram Perkins, Jr., born May 3, 1821, remains at this date a citizen of Bradford, usefully engaged in the manufacture and sale of furniture, and caring for his father, now far advanced in age.

Arad K., a younger brother, born April 16, 1825, by reason of severe sickness in childhood became deaf and mute, though still bright in intellect, and died April 14, 1854.

Julia A. B., born September 25, 1827, married Olin Partridge, January 16, 1853, who died in Ripon, Wisconsin, August 16, 1861. Their son Willie Olin was born at Ripon, September 22,1858. After her husband's decease, Mrs. P. returned, with her son, to this her native place..  Mary J., the youngest member of this family, born May 25, 1831, married William Miller, then of Bradford, a worker in marble, October 23, 1853, and died here April 12, 1855.

7 Naphtali, the next son of Colonel Dan Shaw, was born May 20, 1793. He married Hannah Worthen, of Bradford, January 21, 1817. He was a man highly esteemed for his intelligence, ability, and moral worth; was for many years occupied here in mercantile business, and died September 3, 1861, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. His good wife died August 16, 1844, in the forty-fifth year of her age. They were both exemplary Christians, and members of the Congregational church in this place.   They had two daughters and one son. The youngest daughter, Julia B., died in her infancy. Hannah Maria, born November 27, 1817, married Olin Partridge, June 21, 1840, and died December 20, 1847, leaving one daughter, Arabelle Maria, born May 29, 1841.  Asa Thaddeus, the only son, born February 9, 1820, married Maria L. Putnam, November 9, 1843, removed to Elmore, Vt., and died there, January 5, 1855, leaving a family of three daughters and two sons, with their mother.  Their eldest son, Asa Balch, had previously died in childhood. Mrs. Shaw with her family returned to Bradford, and for years has kept a respectable millinery establishment here. Her daughter, Harriet Arabelle, born December 3, 1846, died June 27, 1867, in the twenty-first year of her age, Julia Laurette, born October 22, 1848, an industrious young lady, to whose influence we are in a great measure indebted for the monument at her grand-father's grave. Mary Ann, born November 12, 1850, married Victor Wallace Bagley, September 16, 1871, a merchant, in partnership with William B. Stevens, of this place. Asa T. Shaw, Jr., born February 14, 1855, a clerk in that establishment. And, lastly, William West, born October 22, 1852, engaged in the business of a livery-stable keeper.

8 Pollycarpus, the sixth son of Colonel Dan Shaw, was born February 25, 1797. Went to Indiana, devoted himself to teaching, married, and died February 1,1849, leaving a large family.  

9 Mandana, youngest member of Colonel Shaw's family, born April 9, 1799, died June 6, 1801, at Lyme, N. H. 

Of this large and respectable family, Abraham P. Shaw at this writing is the only survivor, now eighty-three years of age.

Rev. Naphtali Shaw, the third son of William, of Bridgewater, Mass., and brother of Colonel Dan Shaw, was born there, June 20, 1864, and was from his childhood trained up in habits of industry, sobriety, and christian morality.  He had naturally a strong desire for the acquisition of useful knowledge, and fondness for reading, hut his ad-vantages were very limited. He was in his youth, as well as in mature manhood, a lover of his country, and at the age of fifteen, with his father's consent, enlisted for a limited period in the Revolutionary service. He re-turned in safety; and at the age of twenty, by agreement with his father, entered on a decided course of preparation for college, and persevered amid difficulties, paying his expenses in part by manual labor, and was admitted a freshman, at Dartmouth, in the autumn of 1786.  He found his preparation had not been equal to that of most of his classmates, but by hard and persevering study gained and held an honorable standing among them.  He graduated in 1790, his appointment at commencement being a discussion of the question, " Does moral obligation arise from the revealed will of God, or from the fit-ness of things?" Among his fellow graduates were Rev. Ethan Smith, Mills Olcott, Esq., Asa Lyon, Member of Congress, and General William Eaton, United States Consul at Tunis, in North Africa-men of distinction in their day.   On leaving college Mr. Shaw, having taught in Boston and other places for a year or two, to pay up his college expenses, studied theology, for about seven months, with Rev. Dr. Sanger, of Bridgewater; when, being approbated by Plymouth Association as a qualified preacher of the gospel, he was invited to preach for four Sabbaths, as a candidate, at Kensington, N. H. About the same time he received his second degree at Dartmouth. With much diffidence, he consented to go to Kensington, having no expectation of giving them satisfaction, as that church had already tried twenty or thirty candidates without success, and were in a deplorable condition. He preached his first sermon there September 9, 1792, and in the course of eight weeks, to his great surprise, received an urgent call from the church and society to become their pastor.   He felt that he must not refuse; and on the 30th of January, 1793, was duly ordained, and constituted the settled pastor of the Congregational church and society in Kensington.   And so continued, in love and peace, and with moderate success in his ministerial labors, for about twenty-one years, when his health had become so seriously impaired that a release from study and preaching could no longer be deferred, and, with great cordiality on both sides, his ministerial connection with that people was, by act of council, honorably terminated, January 13, 1813.   He then settled up his secular affairs, bought a farm in this town, adjoining that of his brother, Colonel Shaw, on the east, and settled here with his family, in October of the same year, designing to spend the remainder of his days in agricultural employment, and from that time wholly ceased to officiate as a preacher, but continued through life to maintain an excellent Christian character.   For five or six years after Mr. Shaw's ordination, he remained a bachelor; but on the 10th of June, 1798, he married Mary Crafts, a daughter of Dr. John S. Crafts, of North Bridgewater, a companion altogether suitable for him.  They were blessed with a family of four children. Mrs.  Shaw died at Bradford, January 14, 1840, aged seventy-five years. Rev. Naphtali Shaw, her husband, died here also, October 10, 1853- in the ninetieth year of his age.  Their remains repose side by side in Bradford cemetery. They were both members of this Congregational church.

THEIR CHILDREN, ALL NATIVES OF KENSINGTON

1 Thomas Crafts, was born June 7, 1799, and under good parental influence grew up a very worthy young man. It is not known that he ever contracted any of the bad habits so common among young men. The ordinary use of tobacco and intoxicating liquors, Sabbath breaking, profane swearing, lounging about in places of public resort, and wasting- time and money in dissipating amusements, were practices that he abhorred.   He was always to be found on the side of morality and good order. His candor and kindness, and strict regard for veracity, justice, fairness and faithfulness, in all transactions with his fellow men, were admirable.    He had through life a healthy appetite for reading, and in that way acquired a good store of useful knowledge.   He was in his youth a successful teacher of common schools, and through life felt interested in the right education of the rising generation.   For twenty-three years he officiated as a trustee of Bradford Academy, and for six years of that time as treasurer.   Mr. Shaw was married, December 2, 1819, with Miss Sarah B., a daughter of Joseph Jenkins, an estimable young woman of the same neighborhood, a few years older than himself.   They remained, taking care of his parents, at the old homestead, till their decease, after which Mr. Shaw sold that place, and bought a pleasant residence in the village, near his ordinary place of worship, and there they spent their remaining days. During a series of religious meetings, attended with great power, about the beginning of the year 1837, Thomas C. Shaw and wife became hopefully converted, and united with the Congregational church, in which he was in 1839 chosen a deacon, and for about twenty-seven years so performed the duties of the office as to purchase to himself a good degree, and great firmness, if not boldness, in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. A failure of his health induced him to resign, about five years before his de-cease. Mrs. Shaw died, stricken down by apoplexy, December 30, 1869. Deacon Shaw, after a protracted feebleness of some two or three years, in which his eldest daughter, the only surviving member of his family, with admirable loving kindness ministered most faithfully unto him, died March 24, 1871, aged seventy-one years.  These parents had been blessed with three children.  Sarah Jane, the eldest daughter, born December 14, 1820, at this date still survives, occupying, with competent support, the pleasant home which her father left to her in this village. She is a member of the same church to which her parents belonged. The next child of her parents, a son, died in his infancy. The younger daughter, Mary Ann, born June 6, 1825, died February 10, 1848, in her twenty-third year.

2 Eliza Parks, eldest daughter of Rev. N. Shaw, born April 19, 1801, became hopefully pious when about fifteen years of age, and made a public profession of her faith. She married Randall H. Wild, of West Fairlee, then resident in Bradford, March 15, 1824. They remained here for a while, and Mr. Wild was chosen a deacon in the Congregational church, October 4, 1827. They removed to West Fairlee, and had two daughters, Mary Elizabeth, the eldest, married Rev. Orpheus T. Lanphear, now D. D., and pastor of the Congregational church in Beverly, Mass. Her younger sister, Emily, died in her maidenhood, an amiable young lady. Mrs.  Wild, their mother, owing to a softening of the brain, or some other physical cause, suffered a sad failure of her intellectual powers, though still remaining quiet, and by agreement was taken home again by her parents, and, by accidentally falling into an open fire, was so seriously burned as to cause her death, which occurred December 22, 1841, in the forty-first year of her age. Though thus in the decline of her life unfortunate, there can be no doubt but she was a truly good woman, and her immortal interests secure.

3 Samuel West, the second son of Rev. N. Shaw, born June 1, 1803, grew up a very worthy young man, and married, November 23, 1830, Jerusha Bliss, daughter of Deacon Solomon Bliss, of Fairlee. They were both good Christians. He lived in a house near his fathers for a few years, and died March 10, 1832.   His widow married Deacon John Metcalf, of Piermont, N. H.; had several children, and at this date is still living, again in widowhood.

4 Mary Ann, the younger daughter of Rev. N. Shaw, born May 21, 1807, died in childhood.  In closing this genealogical record it is deeply interesting to notice how the divine blessing has come down from a pious ancestry upon children's children, unto the third and fourth generation. So may it be till earth and time shall be no more. Biographie Index

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