Henry Shell
Henry Shell was born about 4 January 1809, the date his age at death works back to. His son William later gave his father's birthplace to the census of 1910 as Germany; the census of 1880 had given it as Pennsylvania.
He spent his working life in Van Wert County, in the flat farm country of north-west Ohio near the Indiana line, and family tradition remembers him as a blacksmith. By his first wife, Mary Bricker, he had a family that included two daughters, Sarah, born in 1836, and Nancy, born in 1844, who both married men named Lillich. Mary died in 1853.
On 20 September 1859, in Van Wert County, Henry married again. His bride was Mrs. Mahala Jane Smith, a widow from Bedford County, Pennsylvania, thirteen years younger, with two children of her own, Mary Ann and James Adam Smith. Two sons were born to the marriage in Van Wert County: William Henry on 6 August 1861 and Ira B. on 25 August 1863.
Henry died in June 1868, when William was six and Ira four. He was buried in Ridge Cemetery in Liberty Township, Van Wert County, under a small white marble stone with a scalloped panel. It reads HENRY SHELL, DIED JUNE 1868, AGED 59 Y. 5 M. 6 D., and below the panel is a verse of six lines. Mahala took the two boys west to Kansas, where both grew up.
A photograph of Henry survives in the family. It shows a lean man of middle age with a long face and swept-back hair, in a dark coat and a wide light cravat tied in a loose bow.
Children
Sources
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Cite: Heirology, "Henry Shell (1809-1868)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/henry-shell-1809-1868-e2f4c4.