Shelby County Indiana
Obituaries
Shuey
The Quincy Whig
Quincey, Illinois
February 24, 1876
Page 2
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A PATRIARCH'S FUNERAL
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Burial of the Late Gen. Martin Shuey at
East Oakland, Yesterday -- An Eventful
Life of Ninety Years-- A Man Who Fought
Indians Near Cincinnati in 1805, and
Served with Distinction in the War of
1812
[From the San Francisco Call, Feb. 14]
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From the Baptist Church, East Oakland, the funeral of Gen. Maria Shuey, a nonogenarian of Oakland, took place, yesterday afternoon, at 2 o'clock, the body being interred in Mountain View Cemetery. This aged patriarch died at the Fruit Vale residence of his son John, on Saturday last, of pneumonia and old age, having lived an eventful life of 90 years, 4 months and 14 days. His wife, who will be 88 years of age the 22d of the present month, survives him. He also left behind him eleven children, twenty-nine grandchildren and forty great grandchildren, some of whom have by a few days outlived the prescried "three score and ten," and nearly all of whom are scattered as residents throughout the State. The funeral was very largely attended.
THE DECEASED GENTLEMAN
was of French origin, and was born in Lebanon County, Pa., where, during the first eighteen years of his life, he was reared on a farm. At about that age his father removed with the family to Ohio, then a Territory, and settled on a farm five miles from the present site of Franklin, near Cincinnati. It was soon discovered that organized protection against the raids of the savages became a necessity of the settlers, and it was determined to form a rifle company. This was in the year 1805 and the subject of this obituary, who was an intelligent as well as an active, able young man, was at once chosen lieutenant of the new organization. In 1810 he was elected captain of the company, and was placed in command of the Eighth Military District of Ohio. In this capacity he served throughout.
THE WAR OF 1812.
When hostilities broke out between the United States and Great Britain, the principal scenes of military operations having been the great lakes and their borders. In 1817, after the war -- in which Captain Shuey served with distinction -- was over, he was elected major of the battalion to which his company belonged, and in 1816 was elected colonel of his regiment. In 1818 he received further promotion and was made a brigadier general. The military districts in which he commanded embraced Forts Brown, St. Mary's, Winchester, Laramie, Amanda and Jennings, Fort Winchester being an outpost, at which he was stationed most of the time. General Shuey soon after resigned his military position, having become in the meantime a married man with a family growing up around him; and in 1820 he with his wife and family moved from Ohio to the present State of Indiana, which was then known as
THE NEW TERRITORY.
He settled in that portion of the State now known as Shelby County, and there cultivated a farm for nine years, and attended to the education of his children. The West still wooed him on, and he followed at her beck, removing in1829 from Indiana to Illinois, then a Territory, and settled in what is now the wealthy county of Adams, but which was then a vast rolling prairie of solitude, brokenonly by the warhoops of the Potawatamies and Winsbagoes. For twenty years he tarried in that new Territory, aiding in the development of what has since become one of the foremost centers of population and wealth in the Union. The Western fever, however, was upon him, and California, with her tales of teeming wealth -- of her golden ore, er productive soil and delightful climate -- was destined to be his future home, and the ultimate resting place of himself and his numerous descendants. In 1839 Gen. Shuey crossed the plains with his family, scaled the high Sierras, and settled in East Oakland, where he ever after resided, a worthy citizen, and beloved of all that knew him.
Contributed by John Addison Ballard
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