Evan Shelby on up to Ford vs Ferrari
Move over Daniel Boone. Here's one who didn't have the Star Making Machinery behind the Popular Song. He's the main one man in the Forbes Expedition who was the trail blazer. He's the one who marked which trees to cut. He's the one who scouted out where to build the road. He really took over as sort of a head trail blazer after they lost Ensign Charles Rohr, the head engineer and trail maker of the Forbes Expedition. Evan Shelby has seen this all before, in the Braddock Expedition. He lost a fortune in the fur trade in the Great Lakes and had to sell his Maryland holdings to pay the debt. He was one of the last in command during the big Battle of Point Pleasant. Imagine him and his 2 sons all fighting for their lives in that battle? Read his son's letter here. His son was a principle reason for the victory of Kings Mountain in the Rev War. Evan Shelby was assigned to deal with the Cherokee who allied with the British during the Rev War. He fought the breakaway state of Franklin and then was elected to the state of Franklin and declined it. His son was elected Gov of Kentucky. His later descendant is the more well known Shelby. That's the more modern Shelby. The one who would race on future roads. Trail blazer he was too. Yes, but the patriarch? Evan Shelby was a man. A big man. With an eye like an eagle. And as tall as a mountain was he.
In the picture below, on the right is Matt Damon playing Carroll Hall Shelby (January 11, 1923 – May 10, 2012). Those of you who know car racing history, know that Shelby.
The 2022 Ford Mustang Shelby® GT500® still carries the Shelby name. So do some other racing cars.
A 2019 movie, Ford vs Ferrari told the story of that Caroll Shelby.
But we're interested in his ancestors.
Caroll Shelby (Wikipedia bio) has some great ancestors.
(1724- 1811, see find a grave bio).
described as a
Revolutionary War militia soldier, is one of Carol Shelby's ancestors.
So is Evan Shelby
(1719 - 1794, see NC Encyclopedia bio).
He is the brother of Reese. Evan is the one we discussed in the beginning of this blog. He was the one who Forbes assigned to blaze the trees to be cut for a road to be built in the Forbes Expedition, especially the last treacherous stretch from Loyalhanna to Fort Duquesne.
And they had a sister, Eleanor, who marries a Polk which results in a later descendant, James K Polk, 11th President of the United States.
They are 3 children of the 11 children of Evan Shelby Sr. and Catherine Davies (Morgan) Shelby.
Which one are we interested in?
Evan Shelby Jr.
Evan is much more famous for later events. But we are interested in what he did for the Forbes Expedition.
Douglas Cubbison, in his book on the Forbes Expedition, writes the following 4 passages seen further below about this Evan Shelby.
The final 5th passage quoted from Douglas Cubbison below briefly sums up Evan Shelby's later much more famous exploits.
He is a trailblazer. Literally.
Without such markings on the tree and verifying contour and soil, the road wouldn't get built.
Additonaly the soldiers would not know where to go with no trail or tree marked, especially on that last night of Fort Duquesne blowing up.
They had to trudge through an unknown "desert", a word that was then applied to any roadless, undeveloped forest lands.
And this Shelby became more known as a Marylander with his land holdings, although he began in PA, then to MD, then to VA, then to TN and KY.
Evan Shelby was a man. A big man. With an eye like an eagle. And as tall as a mountain was he.
Here's one who didn't have the Star Making Machinery behind the Popular Song.
That's it.
That's our lead story.
There's always more.
Skip around.
Read bits and pieces.
Compiled and authored by Jim Moyer, November 2022, last updated 12/9/2022, 12/10/22, 12/11/2022, updated 12/14/2022
Table of Contents.
Bio from North Carolina Encyclopedia
Bio from Find A Grave
Point Pleasant Involvement
Shelby and the State of Franklin
Friendly Fire - 4 stories
Shelby Family Tree Notes and Links
Letters Mentioning Shelby
Shelby's role in the Forbes Expedition
Douglas Cubbison, in his book on the Forbes Expedition, writes the following 4 passages about this Evan Shelby and the final 5th one brief summing up Evan Shelby's later much more famous exploits.
June 1758
In addition to the road from Carlisle to Ray's Town, and the road between Fort Cumberland and Ray's Town. Forbes also authorized the construction of a road between Fort Frederick and Fort Cumberland in Maryland. . . . .
Bouquet . . . asked Governor Sharpe of Maryland to reconnoiter the route of this road on June 13.
Sharpe in turn gave the assignment to Captain Evan Shelby on June 15.
Shelby was an experienced member of the Maryland Battalion, and was described as "possessing a strong mind and an iron constitution of body with great perserverence and unshaken courage."
Shelby performed his reconnaissance rapidly, and provided Sharpe with an evaluation on June 25. The report is a case study in a concise, comprehensive military engineering evaluation. The type of soils, topographical grades, construction methods, and number of days and men required for each particular stretch of the road were all meticulously presented. . . . on his own volition, Sharpe ordered his men to start work on this road. This road was never completed during this campaign, and played no significant role in Forbes' advance. Forbes himself wrote Bouquet regarding it on July 14 that, "[we] have all along thought the road from F.Frederick to Cumberland Superfluous, if we could have done without it, which I am glad to understand wee can do by Raes Town."
Source:
Page 44 of The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign Against Fort Duquesne: by Douglas R. Cubbison.
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Sept 1758
Bouquet continued to issue instructions to Burd to improve the fort. On September 25 he ordered:
"A Fort of logs is to be built round the Store Houses. The Timber to be prepared in the Woods and haul'd by the Waggons that shall come from Ray's Town. On Hundred and fifty fit Men of the Line are to be appointed for that Work with Officers who are to do no other Duty, as as they are to constantly employ;d, they are to receive one Jil of Rum per Day. "
"The Road is to be cut to the advanced post by Two Hundred Men, and two Hundred more to cover the Cutters, Captain Shilby will attend in cutting and marking the Route . . . "
Thus even with the entrenched camp still under construction, work was already in progress to cut the road to the next advanced post, on Chestnut Ridge to the west of Loyalhanna.
The "Captain Shilby" mentioned was Captain Evan Shelby of the "Royal" Maryland Battalion, the same man who had so skillfully surveyed the road between Fort Frederick and Fort Cumberland earlier in the campaign.
From this point on he was regularly employed, effectually as an "Assistant Engineer,"
and his principal responsibility was selecting the route from Loyalhanna to Fort Duquesne.
Source:
Page 114 of The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign Against Fort Duquesne: by Douglas R. Cubbison.
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November 12, 1758
Washington lost control of the situation, and his column collided with Mercer instead of th French and Indians. Although at least Mercer made contact with the French and held his own in the contest, capturing three prisoners in the process, the French were able to slip away, and the Virginian columns ended up engaging in each other in the dark.
Some of the fighting with the French was heavy, as Captain Shelby of the Maryland Battalion was reputed to have "killed with his own hand one of the leading chiefs of the enemy."
We cannot find any more information on this claim. We are currently searching for the name of that "leading chief of the enemy."
Source:
Page 154 of The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign Against Fort Duquesne: by Douglas R. Cubbison. Citing Shelby Family Papers in the footnootes for that claim.
For more on this event see 4 more stories on this Friendly Fire incident between Colonel George Washingon and his former aid de camp, now Lt Col George Mercer -- see this section.
November 16, 1758
The next morning, November 16 found Washington's two companies of artificers hard at work continuing the road to the west. On this day Washington still found the energy to recommend to Forbes, just one last time: "The keeping Fort DuQuesne . . . in its present situation, will be attended with great advantages to the middle Colonies; and I do not know so effectual a way of doing it, as by the communciation of Fort Cumberland and Genl Braddock's road." Forbes tactfully ignored the recommendation, which was by this point about four months outdated.
Washington constructed about six miles of good road from Chestnut Ridge to the west, following a route marked by the indomitable Captain Evan Shelby of the Maryland Battalion, who had been on a number of scouting parties to Fort Duquesne and was by now extremely familiar with the country between Loyalhanna and the forks.
This road required considerable effort to construct. Washington would not reach Armstrong's "New Camp," which was also becomming known as the "Four Redoubts" camp, until "about 11 o'clock" on the evening of November 18. The full moon permitted Washington's men to work late into the night.
goes on to mention the leapfrogging of the 3 brigades . . .
Source:
Page 163 of The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign Against Fort Duquesne: by Douglas R. Cubbison.
Later Fame
Captain Evan Shelby of Maryland also had a particularly distinguished career.
Shelby eventually moved to what was then southwestern Virginia, and became a founding father of the state of Tennessee.
He served as one of the American leaders at the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780 that decisively defeated a British army in South Carolina, and did much to win victory for the patriots in the south.
Source:
Page 185 of The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign Against Fort Duquesne: by Douglas R. Cubbison.
Bio from North Carolina Encyclopedia
Shelby, Evan by Paul W. Beasley, 1994 1719–4 Dec. 1794
Evan Shelby, frontiersman, trader, and militia officer, was born in Tregaron, Wales, the son of Evan, Sr., a merchant and farmer, and Catherine Daviess Shelby. The family emigrated to America in 1735, settling first in Pennsylvania and then in Maryland.
One sister, Eleanor, moved to Mecklenburg County and married John Polk, who was of the family that afterwards produced James K. Polk, eleventh president of the United States.
More than one Daniel Boone.
Evan Shelby became a trapper and farmer, living on a plantation called the Mountain of Wales near Frederick, Md.
When the French and Indian War broke out, he was commissioned a captain in the provincial army and served as a scout in the ill-fated Braddock campaign.
He later was in charge of surveying and laying out the Forbes Road, or Pennsylvania Road, and was in the advance detachment at the fall of Fort Duquesne.
After the war Shelby continued his farming operations and began a fur trading company in the Northwest. The outbreak of Pontiac's Rebellion caused him severe losses that resulted in the forced sale of his Maryland lands. In 1771 he migrated to the Holston River area in the Virginia–North Carolina backcountry. There he built a fort and a store, one of only two on the frontier, on the site of what later would be Bristol, Tenn.-Va. The store became an important supply center for pioneers making their way along the Wilderness Trail into the trans-Appalachian region.
In 1774, when hostilities broke out between Virginia and the Ohio Indians, Shelby was appointed a captain in the local company of militia and led his force to the place where the Kanawha River empties into the Ohio River. There he became the leading participant in the Battle of Point Pleasant, the only battle of Lord Dunmore's War, which quieted the Indians in the Ohio Valley for several years.
Active in politics, he was a leader of the Fincastle County settlers who in January 1775 signed the "Fincastle Resolves," which their approval to the actions of the Continental Congress. He later served on a Committee of Safety to carry out the boycott of British goods. At the outbreak of the Revolution he wanted to join his friend, George Washington, in Massachusetts but was persuaded by Governor Patrick Henry to take charge of the defense of Virginia's frontier. He was promoted to the rank of major in 1776 and led a contingent of militiamen in fights against the Cherokees in the Tennessee Valley. I
n 1777 he was appointed a colonel and led his troops against the Chickamauga tribe, destroying for a time Indian power in the Virginia–North Carolina backcountry.
" I also enclose you a letter from Colo. Shelby stating the effect of his success against the seceding cherokees and chuccamogga.4 The damage done them was killing a dozen, burning 11 Towns, 20,000 bushels of Corn collected probably to forward the expeditions which were to have been planned at the Council which was to meet Governor Hamilton at the mouth of Tenissee, and taking as many goods as sold for £25,000."
Founders Online footnote to this letter: "An account of Evan Shelby’s punitive expedition against the hostile Chickamauga Indians in the Holston region, who were believed to have been incited by Gov. Hamilton of Detroit and his agents, will be found in J. G. M. Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee, Phila., 1853, p. 186–9."
In the fall of 1779 a line was surveyed between Virginia and North Carolina, and most of the Shelby land was found to be in North Carolina. Therefore, he resigned his commission in the Virginia militia but remained active in frontier defense.
The State of Franklin
Following the Revolution Shelby opposed the abortive attempt to form the state of Franklin. Though he favored statehood for North Carolina's western counties, he opposed the manner in which it was carried out. North Carolina, in an attempt to conciliate the secessionists, formed a new military district called Washington, and Shelby was made brigadier general of the area in 1787. When John Sevier left the governor's position, the state of Franklin elected Shelby to succeed him, but he declined. He also resigned his post as military commander of the area, feeling that he had failed in pacifying the opposing groups, and retired from public life.
Shelby was married twice: in 1745 to Letitia Cox, who died in 1777, and in 1787 to Isabella Eliot. By his first wife he had five sons—John, Isaac, who led the mountain men at Kings Mountain and became the first and sixth governor of Kentucky, James, Evan, and Moses—and three daughters—Rachel, Susannah, and Catherine. By his second wife he had one son, James, and two daughters, Letitia and Eleanor. He died at his home and was buried in the city cemetery in Bristol, Tenn.
No known portraits exist, but he was reputed to be dark, fairly tall for the day, and serious of demeanor. He was raised in the Anglican faith but attended the Presbyterian church.
References: Thomas P. Abernethy, From Frontier to Plantation in Tennessee (1932). James G. M. Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century (1853). Shelby Family Papers (Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Shelby and Hart Family Papers (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). Sylvia Wrobel and George Grider, Isaac Shelby: Kentucky's First Governor and Hero of Three Wars (1974).
Image Credits: [Isaac Shelby, first Governor of Kentucky, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left]. Photograph. c1903. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98510291/ (accessed April 30, 2014).
Sources
Bio from Find A Grave
Revolutionary War Militia Officer, Frontiersman. His date of birth is unknown, but he was baptized in October 23, 1720 at Tregaron, Cardiganshire, Wales.
He came to America with his parents, Evan and Catherine Morgan Shelby, about 1734, the family first settling in what is now Antrim Township Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
In 1739, they moved into Prince George's (later Frederick) County, MD where his father died in July 1751.
Evan Jr. continued to reside in Maryland, near the North Mountain, Frederick County, in which locality, now a part of Washington County, he acquired, by deed or patent, nearly 24,000 acres of land.
He became interested in the Indian fur trade and was concerned in trading posts at Michilimackinac and Green Bay.
During the French and Indian War, he was in General Edward Braddock's campaign in 1755, and laid out part of the road from Fort Frederick to Fort Cumberland.
Having served as First Lieutenant in Captain Alexander Beall's company in 1757 to 1768, he was commissioned by Governor Sharpe of Maryland as Captain of a company of rangers, and also held a commission as Captain under the government of Pennsylvania.
[Blog author, Jim Moyer comment:
I am trying to vett the above claim that Evan Shelby was in Beall's company that long. It appears Evan Shelby raised and captained his own company in this link: See 4 references to Shelby in this link: https://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Maryland_Provincials
Here is an image of one of Beall's returns: https://picryl.com/media/muster-roll-for-captain-alexander-bealls-company-1?zoom=true ]
He was in the advance party of the force under Gen. John Forbes, which took possession of Fort Duquesne in 1758, and crossed the Ohio River with more than half his company of scouts, making a daring reconnaissance of the fort. On November 12, 1758, near Loyalhanna, in a personal encounter, he is said to have slain with his own hand one of the principal Indian chiefs. In the same war, he served later as Major of a detachment of the Virginia regiment.
For several years after the conflict he was a justice of the peace.
In May 1762, he was chosen one of the managers for Maryland of the Potomac Company.
He sustained heavy losses in the Indian trade from the ravages growing out of Pontiac's Conspiracy of 1763, and most of his property in Maryland was subjected to sale for the satisfaction of his debts.
Hoping to better his fortune he moved, probably in 1773, to Fincastle County, in Southwest Virginia, which he ha previously visited where he engaged in farming, merchandising, and cattle-raising. He again became a prosperous land-owner and a conspicuous and influential frontier leader. In 1774, he commanded the Fincastle Company in Dunmore's War, and in the battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774, he succeeded near the close of the action to the chief command in consequence of the death or disability of his superior officers.
In 1776, he was appointed by Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia a Major in the troops commanded by Colonel William Christian against the Cherokees, and on December 21, he became Colonel of the militia of the newly-created county of Washington, of which he was also a magistrate.
In 1777, he was entrusted with the command of sundry garrisons posted on the frontier of Virginia, and in association with Preston and Christian, negotiated a treaty with the Cherokees.
By the extension of the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, it was ascertained that his residence lay in the latter state, and in 1781, he was elected a member of its Senate. Five years later, the Carolina Assembly made him Brigadier General of militia of the Washington District of North Carolina, the first officer of that grade on the "Western Waters".
In March 1787, as commissioner for North Carolina, he negotiated a temporary truce with Col. John Sevier, governor of the insurgent and short-lived "State of Franklin".
In August 1787, he was elected governor of the "State of Franklin", to succeed Sevier but declined the honor.
Having resigned his post as Brigadier General on October 29,1787, he withdrew from public life.
Evan Shelby was of a rugged, stocky build, somewhat low in stature and stern of countenance. He possessed great muscular strength and unbounded energy and powers of endurance. He was straightforward and at times, rather blunt in speech, absolutely fearless, and always prompt to take the aggressive in any action or enterprise, civil or military, in which he engaged. For a man of his day, he was well educated and noted for his probity and patriotism. He left many descendants, of whom the most celebrated was his son, Isaac Shelby, the first Governor of Kentucky.
Source
Battle of Point Pleasant
Battle of Kings Mountain
Some Maryland Land
Montpelier, circa 1790, Clear Spring, MD
Believed to be built over the site of Evan Shelby’s fort,
the oldest sections of Montpelier were built by Abraham Barnes about 1790.
Photo by Dennis Helfrick.
. . .
North and east of Clear Spring, on a sharp bend in Broadfording Road, stands Montpelier, shaded by stately old trees and surrounded by the outbuildings of another century. Built of white-painted brick and stone, five bays in length, the origin of the house presents a tantalizing mystery. Excavations around the site show evidence of charring at a depth of about twenty inches, suggesting that the present structure supplanted an earlier one. Coins dating as early as 1740 have been unearthed, and two pieces of metal, one brass and one iron, inscribed with the initials ES have also been found.
. . .
Evan Shelby, Jr., emigrated from Wales to America with his parents around 1734, settling first in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and then moving to a location near North (Fairview) Mountain in Washington County in 1739. He engaged in fur trade with the Indians and amassed holdings of nearly 24,000 acres, much of it west of Conococheague Creek. Evan Shelby’s son Isaac was born on this land in 1750 and later became the first governor of Kentucky and eponym for the town of Shelbyville, Indiana.
Evan Shelby sold much of his Maryland land to discharge debts, and by 1771 Abraham Barnes had acquired various tracts from him totaling about 5,500 acres. These lands bore a variety of names such as Maiden’s Choice, Barren Hill, Shelby’s Misfortune, Hanover, Resurvey on Mountain of Wales and Glamorganshire. On October 17, 1791, the State of Maryland granted a patent to Abraham Barnes’ son Richard Barnes in which these holdings were known as Montpelier.
In Richard Barnes’ first will, dated October 1, 1789, he bequeathed everything to his ..sister Mason’s... children and Montpelier to her son, John Thomson Mason. On July 16, 1800, he willed all his real property to his nephew John Thomson Mason during his life; and following his death, to Mason’s son Abraham Barnes Thomson Mason on condition that he change his surname to Barnes after his father’s death.
Source:
Point Pleasant Involvement
[Andrew] Lewis and other historians of the battle credited Lieutenant Isaac Shelby with leading the charge toward victory with a flanking maneuver that ultimately turned the tide of the battle in the Virginian's favor. Shelby chronicled his experience as a witness and participant in the Battle of Point Pleasant in a letter to his uncle, John Shelby, written just six days after the battle on October 16, 1774. In his book, History of the Battle of Point Pleasant, Lewis remarked that Isaac Shelby's account was regarded by historians as "the best of all that was written on the field."
Dear Uncle,
I gladly embrace this opportunity to acquaint you that we are all three [Capt. Evan Shelby, and his two sons, Isaac and James] yet alive through God's mercies, and I sincerely wish that this may find you and your family in the station of health that we left you. I never had anything worth notice to acquaint you with since I left you til now. The Express seems to be hurrying that I can't write you with the same coolness and deliberation as I would.
. . .
The loss of the brave Colonels was sensibly felt by the officers in particular, but the Augusta troops being shortly reinforced from camp by Colonel Field with his Company together with Captain McDowell, Captain Mathews and Captain Stuart from Augusta, Captain John Lewis, Captain Paulin, Captain Arbuckle and Captain McClanahan from Botetourt, the enemy no longer able to maintain their ground was forced to give way til they were in a line with the troops left in action on banks of Ohio, by Colonel Fleming. In this precipitate retreat Colonel Field was killed,
after which Captain [Evan] Shelby was ordered to take the Command.
- letter by Issac Shelby to his uncle, John Shelby.
Shelby and the State of Franklin
References to Shelby in relation to the State of Franklin
Friendly Fire - 4 stories
For more on this event see 4 more stories on this Friendly Fire incident between Colonel George Washingon and his former aid de camp, now Lt Col George Mercer -- see this section.
Friendly Fire
Friendly Fire - Who found the French first?
Friendly Fire - Where did it happen?
Friendly Fire Bad - Prisoner Good!
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Shelby Family Tree Notes and Links Shelby family papers,
Correspondence, memoranda, legal and financial records, military records, genealogical data, and other papers relating primarily to Evan Shelby, soldier and frontiersman, and to his son, Isaac Shelby, soldier and political leader, providing a record of frontier life and political and economic developments in Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The papers of Isaac Shelby document his activities during the
Indian wars, Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812;
his terms as governor of Kentucky,
national affairs, frontier defense, and land claims.
Family correspondence over several generations includes letters of :
John Warren Grigsby, Susan Preston Shelby Grigsby, Nathaniel Hart, Susan Hart McDowell Irvine, Susan Hart Shelby Shannon, Alfred Shelby, Evan Shelby, Isaac Shelby, Thomas Hart Shelby, Virginia Hart Shelby, Charles Stewart Todd, and Letitia Shelby Todd. Other correspondents include John Brown, Arthur Campbell, Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden, Christopher Greenup, Martin D. Hardin, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Sevier.
Shelby, Evan, 1719-1794.
Shelby, Isaac, 1750-1826.
General Evan Shelby Jr
Born 23 Oct 1719 in Tregaron, Cardiganshire, Wales
ANCESTORS
Son of Evan Shelby Sr. and Catherine Davies (Morgan) Shelby
Brother of Joshua Shelby, Reese Shelby Sr., Rachel (Shelby) Pindell, John Shelby, Mary Hannah (Shelby) Hobbs, Thomas Shelby, Moses Shelby, Eleanor (Shelby) Polk, David Shelby and Mary (Shelby) Alexander
Husband of Letitia (Cox) Shelby — married 1744 in Kings Meadow, Sullivan, Tennessee
Husband of Isabella (Elliott) Shelby — married 14 Nov 1779 in Sapling Grove, Sullivan, Tennessee, United States
DESCENDANTS
Father of Rachel Cox (Shelby) Leggett, Susannah Shelby, John Shelby, Isaac Shelby, James Shelby, Catherine (Shelby) Thompson, Evan Shelby, Moses Shelby and David Shelby
Died 4 Dec 1794 at age 75 in Kings Meadow, Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Shelby-49
CAROLL HALL SHELBY
Carroll is a descendant of a Revolutionary War soldier, Reese Shelby Sr. (see Family Tree of Carroll Shelby).
Carroll Hall Shelby (1923 - 2012)
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Shelby-735
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Shelby
Reese "Rees" Shelby Sr.
Born Oct 1721 in Tregaron, Cardiganshire, Wales
ANCESTORS
Son of Evan Shelby Sr. and Catherine Davies (Morgan) Shelby
Brother of Joshua Shelby, Evan Shelby Jr, Rachel (Shelby) Pindell, John Shelby, Mary Hannah (Shelby) Hobbs, Thomas Shelby, Moses Shelby, Eleanor (Shelby) Polk, David Shelby and Mary (Shelby) Alexander
Husband of Louisa Looney — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Husband of Mary (Blair) Shelby — married 1739 in Washington, Maryland
DESCENDANTS
Father of Thomas Shelby, Thomas Shelby, Reese Shelby Jr., Reese Shelby Jr., Jonathan Shelby, William Shelby and Anne Shelby
Died Mar 1811 at age 89 in Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, United States
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Shelby-189
LETTERS MENTIONING SHELBY
To George Washington from Francis Halkett, 21 November 1758 Washingtons Camp 21st November 1758
Sir In consequence of your letter, the General has orderd out a Working, & Covering party from Col: Bouquets Brigade, who are to begin at the Camp, and open the Road upon Capt. Shilbeys Blazes till they meet your party.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-06-02-0128
" I also enclose you a letter from Colo. Shelby stating the effect of his success against the seceding cherokees and chuccamogga.4 The damage done them was killing a dozen, burning 11 Towns, 20,000 bushels of Corn collected probably to forward the expeditions which were to have been planned at the Council which was to meet Governor Hamilton at the mouth of Tenissee, and taking as many goods as sold for £25,000."
Founders Online footnote to this letter: "An account of Evan Shelby’s punitive expedition against the hostile Chickamauga Indians in the Holston region, who were believed to have been incited by Gov. Hamilton of Detroit and his agents, will be found in J. G. M. Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee, Phila., 1853, p. 186–9."
More letters will be added in this section, stay tuned.
Ensign Charles Rohr
August 15, 1758—Col. Bouquet sent Ensign Charles Rohr, engineer for General Forbes, to the future site of Fort Ligonier to select a location for a storehouse there.
August 20, 1758—Col. Bouquet sent Major Grant, Col. James Burd and 1,500 men to the site to begin construction. Grant was in overall charge of the fort and men.
August 21, 1758—Ensign Rohr picked the exact location for the fort.
August 22, 1758—Col. Bouquet ordered Col. Burd’s men and some artillerymen to build a 120-foot (37 m) storehouse for supplies and a hospital.
August 27, 1758—Burd and Rhor reported the location of a superior site to Ligonier, nine miles (14 km) to the west. When told of the new site, Forbes directed that work continue on Fort Ligonier, since construction had already begun.
August 29, 1758—Col. Burd and troops arrived at Fort Ligonier and built trenches around the fort.
Source:
While the National Road (US 40) largely follows Braddock's Road across the Appalachian Mountains from Cumberland into Pittsburgh, Forbes' Road through south central Pennsylvania occasionally dissolves into a morass of speculation from Rohr's Gap (on the Allegheny Front west of Schellsburg) to Murrysville, Pennsylvania, with only a few certain locators. In the most general sense, the Pennsylvania Turnpike follows the trend of Forbes's Road west from Carlisle, Pennsylvania to near Monroeville, Pennsylvania just east of Pittsburgh, at places obliterating the historic road. A slightly more accurate rendition of Forbes's Road may be achieved by following US 30 from Chambersburg to the junction of SR 66 west of Greensburg, then north on the latter to US 22 east of Murrysville. US 22 west eventually connects with Penn Avenue, which may be followed to the sites of Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt. A number of historical markers may be found along this route.
Continuing west on US 30, a turnoff past the Old Log Church parallels Forbes' Road for a short distance. The next significant obstacle is the Allegheny Front, another seemingly endless north–south ridge. In Forbes' era there was doubt whether a break in the mountain sufficient to permit wagon passage existed. After much exploration, Ensign Charles Rohr discovered a north-trending valley which, though quite steep, could be climbed by wagons. US 30 bends sharply through Rohr's Gap; Forbes' Road followed the gap to the top of the ridge where the small redoubt Fort Dewart (aka Duart), the last remaining structure from the original Forbes' Road, guards the summit.
A tentative reconstruction of Forbes route and/or later routes suggest proceeding north from Rohr's Gap on Fleegle Road, then west on Lambert Mountain Road/Lambert Street.
Source:
.
Fort Dewart got built near Rohr's Gap
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The Word DESERT
Footnote 186
Letter of Nov 18, 1758, 2 G W , 306
Cf Richard Corbin to his son, Aug 18, 1758
“ I believe if the wisest General the world ever saw was to command an army in the deserts of America where he did not know or could not procure a geography of the country he would hardly succeed against an enemy who had this knowledge” (Corbin Letter Book, VHS)
From Douglas Southall Freeman's Young George Washington, Volume 2, Page 361, published 1948, Charles Scribner's Sons.
Forbes, Bouquet, Washington, Rogers - all used the word DESERT in this sense for even a wooded, undeveloped wilderness.
We will be adding more entries here as we run across them.
A derivation of this orginal meaning of "desert"
is "deserted land":
Ibid,, 322-23.
Apparently this was dated Apr. 26, 1675.
Certain “propositions by the Governor and Secretary” in 1660-61 are presented in 2 H 136-38, as the substance of the law of escheats. These concern persons who died intestate as well as those who died without heirs. It should be added that Virginia had a system of “deserts” that had some of the legal aspects of escheated property. A person patenting land was required to occupy and to plant part of it within a given time. In the event he failed to do tliis, or abandoned the property after having attempted .to occupy and plant it, the land was said to have been "deserted” and then was subject to new grant by the Crown, by the Colony or by the Proprietor as the case might he. Numerous instances of this are to be found in the Council Minutes after 1670. See p. 207, 215, 221, 225. The last of these cited entries was for the grant to Maj, John Washington of 450 acres of land at the head of Nomini River in Westmoreland County. It does not appear from the records that Arlington and Culpeper sought the “deserts.”
From Douglas Southall Freeman's Young George Washington, Volume 1, published 1948, Charles Scribner's Sons, page 464
.
Further development of this word
is deserts in the sense of abandoned property:
About three years later his life closed. It was marred only by his bitter
estrangement from his daughter Hannah, who had married David Fox. In
his will he gave her jr sterling which, said he, ‘‘is an overplus of her portion or deserts.” The father took precautions, also, to keep the mother from leaving the daughter any part of her cstate,^^ but in this he did not altogether succeed. When Hannah Ball died in 1694, she bequeathed to her “loveing daughter Hannah Fox, wife of Col. David Fox, a suite of red curtains, valens and counterpane and bolster, a pewter cistern to set bottles in, a pewter custard pan, a cabinet that stands next the kitchen, a silver sugar dish, mustard pot and 3 spoons, a silver trencher.” The mother made an ejffort, too, to have her daughter inherit the “negro and mulatto girl given me by my husband to dispose of as I please.”
From Douglas Southall Freeman's Young George Washington, Volume 1, published 1948, Charles Scribner's Sons, page 531
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