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From: "Nancee Seifert" <>
Subject: [IADECATU] DORSEY (and more) SURNAMES - forwarded by Nancee
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 15:55:52 -0500


This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Surnames: BLOUGET, CALLAHAN, DICK, DORSEY, HART, PEFFLEY, PUTMAN, SHAFER, SHAFFER, STOUT, WILSON, YOUNGKIN
Classification: Biography

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/BYB.2ACE/243

Message Board Post:

Josiah Shafer, born on March 15, 1834 in OH, was orphaned at age 14 when his parents, John and Mary (Putman) Shafer died a month apart in 1848, possibly of Cholera. The Shafer family had originally come from Somerset County, PA to Stark County, OH about 1824 and then eventually obtained land in 1832 from the US Government in what is now Allen Township, Hancock County, OH, where John farmed and made shoes for a living. After John and Mary died, David Dorsey, a close friend and neighbor, was made guardian of Josiah and his 16 year old sister Catharine. Since the Dorseys and the Shafers had come from the same area in Pennsylvania, it may be that there was a family relationship, but none has been discovered as yet. The other siblings were all grown and on their own.

By the 1850 census, Catherine was living with her sister Elizabeth Youngkin in Gilboa, OH and Josiah was apprenticed to a saddler named Solomon Blouget in Ottawa, OH.

On January 1, 1856, Josiah married a girl named Margaret Dick in the home of Isaac Stout of Gilboa (again, no relationship established.) The 1860 census shows the family still living in Gilboa where Josiah was plying his trade of saddle making.

Now the story is picked up from Civil War widow's pension application papers unsuccessfully filed by Margaret from 1890 to 1902, then living in Seneca County. She and the children were then spelling their name SHAFFER. According to Margaret's statement, Josiah had been involved in a drunken brawl in which a man was killed and he was under bond to answer for murder, so he ran away and enlisted on September 29, 1861 at Washington, DC in the Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry under the alias of Joseph W. Wilson. He stated that he had been born in Somerset County, was a carpenter, and that he was 24 years old (all lies.) He served until September 30, 1864, the time since July of 1863 being on detached duty at a telegraph office in Portsmouth, VA. After the war, he sent for Margaret, who joined him in Portsmouth, where he was employed "on a Government boat." After about six months, he gave her $150 and sent her home, saying he would send more when he got his pay to enable her to retu!
rn to him, but she never heard from him again. Her letters were returned unopened. She stated they had "lived together in harmony" and she was sure "the only cause for him not to return was the fear of the charge of murder standing against him and the only reason she hadn't heard from him in all the years was because he was dead." According to Margaret's lawyer, William Callihan of Fostoria, OH, in 1902 she was working for a farmer about four miles from Tiffin for her board and receiving $4.00 a month from the County Relief Committee. She was in poor health and not physically able to perform the labor required of her. Margaret Shaffer died on June 21, 1926 in Scipio Twp., Seneca Co, OH and was buried in the Fairwell Retreat Cemetery, Republic, OH.

The children listed in the pension papers and follow up information were:

Amanda, born 12 Jul 1857. The only record found for this child was in Josiah's pension papers.

Josiah William, born 18 Nov 1859. He was found in later records as born in Gilboa, married 12 Sep 1880 in Hancock County to Susie E. Peffley, died 2 May 1933 and is buried in the Bechtel Cemetery in Van Buren, Ohio.

G. Mansfield, born 10 May 1862. Subsequent records give his name as Mansfield P. He married Melinda Hart in Hancock County on 27 Jan 1884. He died on November 12, 1935 in Seneca Co, OH, and was buried on November 14, 1935 in South Bend Cemetery, Seneca Co, OH.

Mella V., born 22 Feb 1866. Her actual name turned out to be Nettie V. She never married and she died at the Eschbach Convalescent Home in Tiffin, OH, on February 5, 1946. She is buried beside her mother in the Fairwell Retreat Cemetery, Republic, OH.



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