San Francisco County

Biographies

TIMOTHY SHAW

TIMOTHY SHAW, born December 11, 1789, near Boston, Massachusetts, was left an orphan when three or four years of age, was adopted by Captain Smith, of Otsego county, New York, received a good education and when twenty-one emigrated, with no other fortune than his ax and good, stanch principles, to the wilds of Erie county, that State about twenty miles from Buffalo, where he cleared a farm and married Miss Martha Sabin, about 1814. Their children were: Melvin Howard, born January 19, 1815; Merrils Hitchcock, March 16, 1816; Paschal Hickman, March 14, 1819; Addison Davenport, April 6, 1821; Timothy Nelson, May 4, 1823; Abigail Ann, March 19, 1825, and Betsy Maria, April 22, 1827.

Martha Sabin Shaw died February 20, 1830, and soon afterward Merrils went to live with a clothier named Hitchcock. He learned that trade and became foreman of the establishment, which position he held for several years. He afterward read medicine and practiced it for thirty years in Buffalo. He married Almira Richmond and had two sons and two daughters. The elder son, Eugene, read medicine and served as surgeon in the late war. The younger one was killed by the cars when about sixteen years of age. The daughters married and are now living. Their mother died in January, their father in June, 1890.

Melvin became a shipwright, married Miss Emeline Pomeroy and had five children—four sons and one daughter. One of the sons died when quite young. The other children are all married and settled in Iowa. The mother is still living, with her daughter. The father died in 1863.

Paschal read medicine in New York, but did not complete the course. He came to Indiana about 1840, and taught school for several years; married Miss Jane Irving, also a teacher, and they have had two sons and four daughters. The son and two eldest daughters are married and live in this State; one son is deceased. The two youngest girls are teachers. The parents are living in Berkeley.

Addison read law in Buffalo, in the office of George P. Barker, and then in Aurora, in the office of Albert Sawin. He came West with Paschal, and in La Fayette, Indiana, again pursued his law studies, in the office of Godlove S. Orth, during the winter of 1841-2, passing a successful examination in the spring. For want of means or books he went to teaching, and succeeded fairly. In 1848 he married Elizabeth Irving, also a teacher. They had nine children, of whom six are now living, viz.: Martha Jane, born in La Fayette, Indiana, February 19, 1850; Lent Hamlin, in Middleport, Illinois, June 30, 1852; Kate Ivanona, in Wacouta, Minnesota, April 21, 1854; Willie Irving, in Nevada, Iowa, November 11, 1856; Herman, in Kansas, December 2, 1859; Harriet Levantia, in Galesburg, Illinois, May 10, 1861; Paschal Pitt, near Folsom, California, March 24, 1864; Addison Eugene, at Galt, Sacramento county, California, July 31, 1867, and Geneva Gertrude, also at Galt, May 2, 1870. Kate Ivanona died in Kansas, October 5, 1859; Herman, also in Kansas, December 30, 1859, and Willie Irving, in Galt, in August, 1868.

Martha picked up an education by the wayside sufficient to obtain a certificate for teaching in the public schools of California, and in March, 1869, commenced her career in that profession near Sacramento city. She soon changed her sphere of action to Monterey county, where she remained constantly at work until 1878. Since that time Lorin has been her home and that of the family, and her work done in the Franklin school in Oakland.

Lent tried farming and stock-raising a few years and then drifted into the insurance business. In 1876 he married Miss Emma Root, of Monterey county. They lived in Soledad, that county, for several years, then removed to Washington Territory, where he enlarged his field of work in the line of insurance. His wife died there in May, 1887, leaving him four children: a son and three daughters. He and the children then returned to the paternal roof, where they now are, he engaging in the lumber business.

Harriet graduated at the State University, in 1884, and soon began teaching. She is now, and has been since 1886, in the Oakland schools. On September 27, 1890, she married A. B. Taynton, of Lorin. Pitt graduated at the Oakland high school in 1883, taking the only gold medal it ever offered. He then went to Washington Territory and engaged in the insurance business with his brother Lent. In 1886 he married Miss Mabel Gardner, one of the teachers of Walla Walla, and they have one daughter. They live in Seattle, where he is engaged in real-estate business, combined with insurance.

Eugene graduated at the Oakland high school in 1876, and went to Lewiston, Idaho, soon afterward, to teach Latin and Greek. After remaining a year in the North, he returned and entered the University, graduating in the class of 1891. He aims at his father’s profession.

Geneva studied two years at the Oakland high school, when, her health failing, she went North to visit her brothers; and while there, although but sixteen years of age, she was persuaded to take charge of a school near Walla Walla, and was soon elected to a position in the town. She taught there one year and then returned to her home and entered Mills College, from which she graduated in the spring of 1891.

Transcribed by Donna L. Becker.

Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages 463-465, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.

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