Jacob Shelly

As printed in 1889

JACOB SHELLY, son of Michael and Elizabeth (Houser) Shelly, both natives of Pennsylvania, was born on the farm he now owns, in Plain Township, Wayne Co., Ohio, January 15, 1843. Michael Shelly was born in Cumberland County, Penn., in 1811, and came to Wayne County, Ohio, in 1828, with his parents, Jacob and Eliza Shelly, who purchased IGO acres of laud in Plain Township. Jacob Shelly, the grandfather of our subject, was a hard-working, industrious man, and by his industry and perseverance accumulated about 900 acres of land. He never aspired to political honors, and never held any offices. He died in 1858, a member of the Mennouite Church. Several of his children grew to be men and women, but all are now dead except Elizabeth, wife of John Yocum, of Mercer County, Ohio, and Michael.

Michael Shelly was married in 1835 to Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob and Catherine Houser, and located on 160 acres of land in Plain Township, which is now owned by his son Jacob. Here he lived for many years, and then jjurchased the farm he now occupies, in another portion of Plain Township. He is well and favorably known, and at one time owned nearly 800 acres of land. He has always been a member of the Republican party, and takes an active interest in township affairs. Michael Shelly has reared ten children to be men and women, viz.: Christian, in Plain Township, Wayne County; Michael, deceased; Jacob, on the home farm; Peter, in Ashland County; Joseph, in Franklin Township, Wayne County; John, in Plain Township, Wayne County; Eliza, wife of David Mellinger, of Jefferson, Wayne County; Sarah, wife of Eobert McAffee, in Wooster, Ohio; Mary, wife of William McQuigg, in Plain Township, Wayne County, and Susan, wife of James Alexander, also in Plain Township.

Of these,.Jacob attended the township schools until the breaking out of the war, when he enlisted in Company C, Sixteenth Ohio Yoluuteer Infantry, serving three years. In 1866 he married Miss Harriet, daughter of Alex. Culberson, an early settler of Wayne County, who afterward moved to Ashland County, Ohio. By this union have been born three children: Charles C, Ella T. and Jennie V. Mr. Shelly is prominently identified with the Republican party, and has held several township offices; at the present time he is serving as trustee. He is a member of Wooster Lodge, No. 42, I. O. O. F., and of Gibson Post, No. 133, G. A. E. He and his family are members of the Plain Lutheran Church, of which he has been deacon.

Alex. Culberson, the father-in-law of Jacob Shelly, was born in Westmoreland County, Penn., and came in 1814 to Wayne County, Ohio, where he purchased a tract of land in Plain Township, near IMillbi'ook. Here he lived for several years, and finally moved to Ashland County, Ohio, where he died in 1869. He was twice married, and by the first wife he had two children: Lucretia Nelson, in Illinois, and Abraham, in Mansfield, Ohio.

His second wife was Nancy Beard, by whom he had two children: Harriet, wife of Jacob Shelly; Margaret, wife of J. H. Wilhour, of Wooster, Ohio. Mr. Culberson was a Eepublicau in politics, and held several township offices.

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After leaving the institute Mr. Douglass commenced the study of law with

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He was married the same year to Miss Nercissa L. Newkirk, of Big Prairie, Ohio, a graduate of Urbana Seminary, Ohio, and has two daughters, Mabel and Dail, the former graduating from the University of AYooster, in the class of 1887, the latter from the high school of Wooster, in the class of 1888, and is now a student in the Wooster University. He began the practice of law during this year, having formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, the late Joseph H. Downing.

The threatened war-cloud was then bursting upon the country, and the law office of the firm was soon converted into a recruiting station, Mr. Downing administering the oath to the soldiers as fast as they were recruited. Mr. Douglass wrote the first call that was made for volunteers in the county, and that call, in his handwriting, was framed by his friend, the late E. B. Spink, and now hangs in the hall of Given Post, G. A. E., at Wooster. In the fall of 1862 Mr. Downing enlisted in the military service, and, as it; was next to impossible to conduct business in the courts, on account of witnesses '

and lawyers being in the army, the law office was, therefore, abandoned, and Mr. Douglass, until the close of the war, was principally engaged in recruiting work. He made patriotic, thrilling speeches in almost every church and school-house in the county, and was largely instrumental in recruiting many companies. For reasons possibly best known to himself, he never returned to the practice of the law, although the writer of this sketch is of the opinion that, had he done so, he would have stood at the front of the bar, the peer of McS ween, Critchfield, Eex, or Hemjjhill. He seemed, however, to dislike the evasions, deceits, tergiversations, combats and collisions of the practice.

In 1808 Mr. Douglass went to the Pacific coast, by invitation of the National Executive Eepublican Committee, and made twenty-five speeches for Grant and Colfax, in Nevada and California. He made the first speech advocating the Fourteenth Coustitiitional Amendment delivered in Nevada, at the opera house in Carson City, presided over by Gov. Blaisdell, and it was the first State in the Union to ratify the amendment. On his return he was publicly requested by the citizens of Wooster to deliver an address, which he did, under the title of "A Trip Across the Continent," which was afterward pre-

As printed in Commemorative biographical record of Wayne County, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families .. (1889). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.