I often wish I could have known Cass, to let him know how much his nearly 70 years of nonstop research on the Shelby's is appreciated. He gave us the foundation on which to build my husband and children's family history.  Although I'm not a Shelby, I found to my total astonishment that I share a common ancestor with Cass K Shelby's wife Letitia Landis, on an early Dawson line!  I guess I was meant to carry on his research :-)

After Cass' daughter Mary died, her husband Richard Coast Murphy, remarried and donated his research papers to the Filson Club Library in Louisville, KY.

When Cass started losing his eyesight in the 1950s, he stopped actively doing research, and spent his time typing all the documents, abstracting from correspondence, deeds, census, etc, that he had acquired over the years- Other than a few original letters of his father, everything in the collection was typed - I would like to think the family kept the originals.

I have spent the better part of the last 35 years adding, updating, correcting, all the wrong data that has been in publication- some for well over a hundred years- data that started out full of maybes, personal opinions, question marks, etc, that is now being quoted as fact - something I would be hard pressed to do without Cass' efforts and determination to do the same thing.
He had been doing research for so long that oft times he bemoaned that his own errors, and personal opinions, were being passed back to him as fact.

CKS, 5 Nov 1955 to Catherine Futch- "...I am now 85 years, have stopped investigating, and realizing that I can never hope to publish a formal and complete genealogy, I have been devoting my spare time editing what I have and putting it in shape for easy consultation of any interested person coming after me…"

Charles Edwin Shelby Collection-Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort, KY-14 reels of microfilm-Following from Reel #217; Folder #632:
Miss Ruby Jane Shelby wrote to Charles E Shelby in the early half of 1970-This letter not dated, but in that time frame:
  "...I knew nothing about Cass K Shelby until he was dead and then I began to think how would I find out to whom he left all his papers. Then I happened to think his will would have to be probated in Blair Co, PA. I wrote the clerk of the probate court of the county and he wrote that on a certain date [3 Aug 1964] he had shipped three large cartons of historical papers to the Filson Club of Louisville, KY. A few months later a cousin and I went to Louisville. We stayed there five days and never did get through them all and I never did find what I needed about Isaac and Nancy (that is REAL proof] Shelby. You know he was practically blind for some time before he died and he had got papers in the wrong folders.
A woman who knew him well and helped him research in TN and MS said when she last saw the papers they were in perfect order-a folder for each with name on the outside of each folder. Cass debated whether to leave them to the Filson Club or the KY Historical Society. I wish he had sent them to the latter. They still have not been cataloged..."
  [Note: When I saw them in 1988, his papers were not in folders but in manila envelopes and a few 3 ring binders - Judy]

The following was sent to me by Mimi Reed, of State College, PA- Apr 1998- She stated she had known CKS all her life, as her family grew up next to them. She had found my query for CKS, on the Hollidaysburg, PA, Web Site on the Internet. All her help is greatly appreciated!

27 March 1964, "Altoona Mirror": Funeral notice- [There was no Obit] SHELBY- Services for Cass K. SHELBY of 603 Penn St, Hollidaysburg, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Hollidaysburg, by the Rev. John F. CHALKER. Interment in the Presbyterian, Cemetery, Hollidaysburg. Friends will be received at the Plank Funeral Home, Hollidaysburg, after 7 p.m. today and in lieu of flowers are requested to contribute instead to the Holy Trinity church memorial fund.

Mimi writes 31 Mar 1998: "I was in Hollidaysburg Monday. While at the courthouse I found Cass SHELBY's will and had a look. He died on 26 Mar 1964 & left his complete estate to the Mary Warren MURPHY Estate. I have to assume when Mary died she left her money in trust to her children, and her estate remained open. When Cass died it was easy to leave his estate to his daughter."
Mimi stated that Cass was small and slight and kept his hair, although it was white by the time I knew him. He sat about six pews from the back, at the outside end of the pew, right underneath the window...

PS:
Oct 2006
  Thanks to Francis Keenan [his wife is the Shelby] I now have more of Cass' correspondence and records that Francis found in various libraries as he was traveling the country-side. His wife is a descendant of Rees and Mary Shelby and their son Evan.
 
 

Cass Knight SHELBY was born 18 Sept 1870,  Cassella, near Pittsburgh, PA; married 10 Oct 1900, Hollidaysburg, Blair Co, PA, to Letitia Holcombe LANDIS; died 26 Mar 1964, Hollidaysburg, Blair Co, PA

Cass was the son of William Read SHELBY and Mary Kennedy CASS; William was the son of John Warren SHELBY and Mary Humphreys KNIGHT; John was the son of Evan SHELBY and Nancy Wilcox WARREN. Evan was the son of Isaac SHELBY [KY Gov] and Susannah HART.

Children of Cass and Letitia:
1. Joseph Landis SHELBY, born 21 Nov 1901, Hollidaysburg; died 23 May 1926, Hollidaysburg [He became ill and died shortly before a planned trip to Wales - Unmarried]

2. Mary Warren SHELBY, born 1 Mar 1903, Renovo, Clinton Co, PA; married 18 Oct 1934, Hollidaysburg, to Richard Coast MURPHY; died shortly before her father, probably in Larchmont, NY.
    3 children:
        1. Shelby Coast MURPHY, born 26 Jan 1936, New Rochelle, NY
        2. Meredith Warren MURPHY, born 4 May 1938, New Rochelle:
                CKS to Evan SHELBY- 27 Aug 1954- "...Richard was sent out to a ranch in Colorado this summer for experience & training & Meredith has to remain home to look after her mother, who has difficulty in getting around. Dick of course has his job, but likes to get home as much as possible & relax...Letty joins in my love & best wishes..."

Evan SHELBY, Counselor at Law, in New York- Letter to CKS at Hollidaysburg, 4 Apr 1960: "...I never heard of cousin Letty's death until early this year, when Dick MURPHY & Meredith & Bard SULLINGER came here to see us & to tell of Meredith's approaching marriage. We thought that Meredith & Bard made a singular happy couple, fine looking, who can worthily represent the SHELBY line in the State of Kentucky.
Mary WILSON & my brother David were very happy last summer to have Meredith bring Bard to see them at 423 Fayette Park [NY] & to have a meal with them..."
       [Note- Mary  was the wife of Samuel McKay WILSON, & sister to Evan- Mary, Evan & David were the children of Edmund Pendleton SHELBY & Susan Goodloe HART. Mary died 10 Sept 1959, apparently not too long after the visit that Evan refers to.]

       3. Richard Landis MURPHY,  twin to Meredith, born 4 May 1938, New Rochelle
             Family Bible- b in N. Rochelle hosp. on Wed. 4 May 1938, Meredith Warren (girl)- 5:37 pm.; Richard Landis-5:44 pm.
Newspaper, "Altoona (PA) Tribune" [near Hollidaysburg]  Wed, 25 May 1938- Mr & Mrs Cass K SHELBY of 808 Allegheny St, Hollidaysburg, have returned from Larchmont, NY where they visited their son-in-law & daughter, Mr Mrs Richard C MURPHY. Twins, a boy & a girl, were born 4 May 1938. The little newcomers have been named Meredith Warren MURPHY & Richard Landis MURPHY. Mrs MURPHY was formerly Miss Mary SHELBY of Hollidaysburg.

April 2002-Came across this buried in notes:
    Charles Edwin Shelby [CES] Collection-KY Historical Society, Frankfort, KY- Microfilm #215, Folder #520:
Letter from Mrs Caroline A Shelby to CES, 21 Jun 1970- "...I've had some correspondence with Meredith SULLINGER, granddaughter of Cass Shelby, who lives in Virginia, and she tells of spending three wonderful years in Lexington, KY meeting many of the descendants..."
 

Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006
Hello again Judith:
 We know that this Evan Shelby descended from Rees & Mary Shelby. There is a deed from Cumberland Co., PA, that proves it since it mentions Evan as their "son."

I have not found any such documentation for the children of Evan Shelby and his first wife, Charity. The Johnson book of 1994 lists six issue but mentions that the proof and order of birth is "uncertain" and that the data is from "CKS" or Cass Knight Shelby.

Can you share with me what data or documentation CKS may have had that suggested the names of this Evan Shelby's children?  Is there a family Bible somewhere?

Thanks for any assistance you may be able to render.

Francis Keenan
 

CKS letter to M. M. Wilkinson of Shelby, MS [no date-probably 1940s- I did not photocopy]:
  Cass stated he had spent many years collecting Shelby’s and “in 1926 started in earnest to consult original and authentic sources, having found that most of the printed matter in our libraries was hardly worth the paper it was printed on. By now I believe I have seen nearly every if not every public record in PA, MD, VA and have been sent copies of many in TN, KY and the Carolina’s”

CKS letter to Grace Shelby, 19 Jan 1954: [did not photocopy]
  “Can supply first 3 generations, but, since my knowledge of the next four down to the present is rather fragmentary”

My added note- Judy – I gather from Cass’ letter’s he had stopped his own research by 1954 and was working to put his records in order for future generations, as he was loosing his eyesight to cataracts. He extracted the data he thought was important from all his correspondence and documents, placing the data under each individual – After doing that he may have pitched the originals- but that is guess work on my part- I just know there were no originals of any kind in what I went through.
His collection of glass negatives numbering probably near 200 or more, in pristine condition, all labeled and organized, are located in the photo department in the Filson Club Library. Which is the bases of my thinking that Cass pitched all his originals after they were typed, knowing no family member wanted them. I mean, if they went so far as getting rid of all the family photos, they certainly wouldn’t be interested in keeping his research papers.

Well, there were a few letters which were bound in such a way I couldn’t copy them-the only original items that were there-some letters written by Cass’ father. So I figured if the family didn’t want these or the negatives, no telling what may have just been dumped…

CKS letter to “My dear Cousin” [Mrs Frank L Moss of Paris, IL; 2 August 1950]:
 “…We have no account of Evan’s private life in the Cove, or even the names of his first wife and their children. It is not reasonable to think, however, that he would remain on and work a large farm for three decades if he had no family. As a matter of fact, a township census taken in 1784 credits him with a dwelling and “10 whites,” indicating quite a large one. And yet, there is no record that I can find that names them, or says what became of them. On the other hand, there were six or seven younger persons living in southwest Penn’a. at that period, whose parentage is not of record and whose numerous descendants have no knowledge on the subject. It is but natural to suppose, is it not, that these “orphans” were the offspring of Evan Shelby of Bedford and Greene and grandchildren of Rees? For your information and to complete the picture, they were:
    (a)  Evan Shelby, who was a private soldier and ranger of the frontier betw. 1778-83, Bedford Co., Pa. Later we find an unidentified Evan at Maysville, Ky., associated with Matthew Campbell. It is my belief that both Evans were one and the same person and the son of Ensign and Capt. Evan of Bedford.
    (b)  Eli Shelby, a frontier ranger, 1778-83, , in S.W. Penn’a. Nothing more about him. He could have been either a son of David Shelby of Dunkard who d. young, or a son of Evan of Bedford and Greene.
    (c)  George Shelby, who lived in Fayette Co. and was a soldier in the War of 1812.
    (d)  Joshua Shelby, b. abt. 1759-60, lvd. Fayette Co. across the Monongahela from your David, but abt. 1793 moved to Maysville, Ky., where he lvd. For twenty-seven years and was associated there with the Campbells. In 1820 he remvd. To Wayne County, Indiana, where he d. 1830. Had ten children, one of whom was David Shelby, b. Pa. abt. 1784 and m. Jane McCoffery of Mason Co, Ky., then 2d. Jemima E. Walker in 1840. he had mvd. To Champaign Co., Ohio as early as 1827. It is he who I think was the “Cousin David” your grandmother referred to in her “diary,” since he was the only one of that name who fits in there.
   (e)  (a female) Shelby, who mar. Jeremiah Williams.
   (f)  Mary Shelby, who mar. Matthew Campbell of Brownsville, Pa. and Maysville, Ky. And had a son Evan Campbell. This Matthew and Evan Shelby of Maysville were of the first boatload of settlers to go to Cincinnati in 1788-9. Your David’s son Benjamin of Pickaway Co., Ohio, had a son Evan Campbell Shelby.  And lastly, we have your
   (g)  David Shelby, (the younger), who was born in 1765, which makes it perfectly possible, so far as dates go, for him to have been a son of Evan and his first wife of Bedford Co., Pa., and hence of the fourth, not the third generation.
    The third generation came into being between 1748 and 1780; the fourth, those whose parents we know about, that is, began to arrive about 1773; but, since Rees and his son Ensign Evan, seem to have married at ages earlier than the others, it is not out of line for the latter’s children to have been born somewhat earlier and thus spanned the time or periods of two generations. That often happens in other “families” for the same reason…Your David himself, married at the age of seventeen, you remember. Enoch Williams, the father of Mary, who married David, also lived in the Little Cove and thus produced the necessary propinquity to bring about that event.
…It seems strange that of all the very numerous descendants of this Evan Shelby who are now living, we cannot seem to find one who knows something about him; he’s really worth claiming….
   Very sincerely, Cass K. Shelby

In other letters in this same time frame Cass stated “There isn’t a scratch of the pen telling us who Evan Shelby’s first wife was, or the names of their issue. And yet he would not have gone on cultivating a 300 acre farm for nearly thirty years and even adding to it, if he hadn’t a family. In short, the Bedford County, Penn’a., tax lists (The Little Cove was in Bedford before it was transferred to Franklin) for 1784 assessed him for a dwelling and #10 whites”, showing that his family was quite a large one.  Looking elsewhere for his children we find that there were several younger Shelbys living for a time at a somewhat later period in southwest Pennsylvania, whose parentage is now unknown. Among them were your David of Laurel Pint and a Joshua Shelby, who seems slightly older, who lived on the east side of the Monongahela in Fayette County and later migrated to Mason County, Kentucky, and still later of near Richmond, Indiana. I can show conclusively that these “orphans” were not from either of the immigrant’s sons, Capt. Evan, Jr., John, or Moses, who migrated south; they were not of his son, the older David of S.W. Penn’a. and Missouri and the only one then that they could have sprung from was the son Rees, through Rees’s son Evan.. I can give you detailed evidence tending to support this opinion, though it is not absolute proof…”

“Evan Shelby….. born probably 1739/40. On May 7, 1759 he was commissioned an ensign in Pa.Regiment (Pa. archives, Fifth Series, Vol. I, pages 300, 312.
On Dec. 10, 1760 his father gave him the Little Cove farm. This valley was attached to the new County of Bedford in 1771 as a part of its Ayr Twp. And Evan was chosen tax assessor on Oct. 1, 1773 (the Bedford Co. Pa. Quart. Sessions Docket No. I page 58)
In the Revolution he was commissioned Capt. 1777, Bedford troops. (Pa. Archives, Fifth Series, Vol. IV, 250, Vol. V, page 71)

Wisconsin State Historical Society at Madison: Kentucky papers, page 492, Index 13CC151, 176-8. John D Shane’s interview with Robert Jones, who arrived at Limestone (later Maysville), Kentucky, March 16, 1786; refers to Evan Shelby, trader of Limestone.

   Kentucke Gazette, December 15, 1787:
  “Four Dollars Reward. Was stolen or taken by mistake from the subscriber at Limestone landing on the 27th the following articles, viz; one piece of fustian, No. 57, containing 24 yards; about two and a half yards of cotton delienea, a small remnant of gray german serge, two shirts with sundry other articles which cannot be ascertained. “Whoever returns the same to Captain James Bray’s in Lexington or to Captain Morrison at Bairdstown shat receive the above reward” [sig] “Evan Shelby” Nov 30th, 1787”

   Filson Club Publications, No. 27, “Petitions of Early Inhabitants of Kentucky to the General Assembly of Virginia,” compiled by James Rood Robertson, printed 1914:
    Page 117 – Petition No.54: Sundry inhabitants of Bourbon County asking for a division of the shire. All resident in Limestone settlement. Among them was Evan Shelby. Undated, but endorsed Oct 25, 1788. [Mason County was taken from Bourbon in 1789]

George Shelby….1790 census Franklin Co, PA:
George has 3 white males over 16 yrs; 2 white males, under 16, 5 white females.
Fayette County land records at Uniontown- Deed book E, page 238, Item No. 729. Aug 20, 1801-
George Shelby buys 50 acres of land in German Township from Abraham Steward and wife. Recorded May 18, 1804…

Eli Shelby…. Pennsylvania Archives, Third Series, Vol.XXIII, - Page 208: List of Soldiers who served as Rangers on the Frontier; Eli Shelby, Washington Co, PA
  Fifth Series, Vol. IV, - page 421: Soldiers who received depreciation pay as per cancelled certificates on file in the Division of Public records, Pennsylvania State Library, “Washington County, Eli Shelby, private.”
    Page 728: “List of Soldiers of the Revolution who received pay for Services, “ taken from manuscript records having neither date or title, but under “Rangers of the Frontier, 1778-1783”
  {There are a few more items of this nature for Eli- Judy}

Mary Shelby…. Letters, Paul Wisenall, c/o Inland Oil Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, to CKS – Excerpts:
   Oct 17 and 26, 1894. “ I am a direct descendant of Matthew Campbell of Maysville (formally Limestone or Washington), Kentucky. He was my maternal great-great-grandfather. Family tradition says that Matthew Campbell married  a Shelby and I am trying to find out her name and the name of her father with proof. One of the older members of the Campbell family informed me positively that she had often heard her father speak of his “Uncle Evan Shelby.”  Thus:
   Matthew Campbell = ? Shelby
       Evan Campbell <brothers>     John Campbell
 John B Campbell    Julia Campbell (my informant)
     Jane E Campbell
             Paul Wisenall
I cannot give you the date of Mathew’s birth. The record in the oldest family Bible that I have found simply states that he died in 1819, tradition saying that he was then a very old man.

    On February 14, 1928, I [CKS], I called on Paul Wisenall at his office, 819 First National Bank Buildg., Cincinnati (He was then official reporter for the U.S. Court of the Eastern District of Kentucky), who took me over to his home, in  Covington, KY, where he showed me some copies of old Bible records he had made. They are reproduced herewith – C.K.S.
 Matthew Campbell, father of Evan Campbell, departed this life Jany. 18, 1819.
 Evan Campbell, born Apr. 2, 1780, died Dec. 20, 1859.
 Evan Campbell and Mary Byers were married May 10, 1803, in the 16th year of her age.
 Margaret Campbell, born June 2, 1787, died May 13, 1849, in the 62nd year of her age. Sister Campbell was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania.
[Among a long list of other names – Shelby Campbell, born Apr 9, 1809, married Mary Chambers of Mayville, KY – I’ll supply the rest if you need them – Judy]

Letters, Anna Delia (Mrs. W. L.) Yellman,  Rock Island, Illinois, to C.K.Shelby; excerpts:
     July 5, 1927. “I am trying to locate a Shelby great-grandmother. My father’s grandmother was Mary (Shelby) Campbell, said to have been a daughter of Evan Shelby. She married Mathew(sic) Campbell and they lived at Aberdeen [Brown Co.] Ohio, and Limestone (Maysville), Kentucky, where Mathew died, January 18, 1819, and was buried at Aberdeen (across the river). Mary and Mathew’s children were Evan Shelby, John, Malinda, Levisa Jane (who was my grandmother).
    Mathew Campbell and his wife Mary were on their way to New Orleans, La, when she died of yellow fever and was buried on an island near Vicksburg, Miss., known by river men for many years thereafter as “My wife’s Island,” but later called Paw Paw Island. Mathew is aid to have come from Redstone [Brownsville, Pa], but formerly from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Draper’s Notes say that a James Campbell was killed by Indians at Limestone. He was a brother of Mathew, both being sons of James Campbell. Have you any data which will help me place this Mary Shelby? Her daughter, Levica Jane, was born in 1794, died in 1873 and was buried at Aberdeen, Ohio.
They had land there and my mother’s father, Dr Thomas Miles Moore, bought this land in 1832; on it was a house called “Traveler’s Rest.” My grandfather moved part of it, but left one room and a chimney standing in the field until twenty years ago. My father died when I was five years old. He was one of the younger children.
All I know of the family is wehat cousins have written me, two of them now being ninety years old. I imagine my father was born in 1828. I am a child of his second marriage, which accounts for my ignorance of our ancestry..
     Dec 1, 1927. My Power line (running back):
1. Ann Delia (Power) Yellman; b 1872, daughter of
2. Hugh Power; b 1828, mar. 2nd, Martha E. (b. 1841, dau. Of Dr. T.M. Moore, 1809-1895, and wife Ann Delia Harris, 1809-1886; she d. 1921), died 1878, son of
3. James Power (1788-1833) and wife Levis Jane Campbell (1794-1873), who was the daughter of
4. Mathew Campbell (d 1819), son of James Campbell.

Letters, Nannie Power (Mrs Charles Carroll) Brown,  Spokane, Washington, to C.K.Shelby:
    Dec 28, 1927. Refers to Matthew Campbell as her great-grandfather, who married a Shelby by the name of Mary, whose father was an Evan Shelby, and goes on to say that Matthew and Mary named their first child Evan Shelby Campbell b. April 2, 1780. {CKS noted –Bible has no middle name}
Just where Matthew and Mary were married I do not know; he inlisted(sic) at Brownstone, Pa. in 1778. Matthew Campbell came to Kentucky in 1787. My grandmother, Levica Jane Campbell, was born at Limestone, now Maysville, in April, 1794. She married James Power, son of Hugh and Sarah (Dyes) Power, in 1810. Evan Shelby and Matthew Campbell were always associated together, going to Kentucky about the same time… My father was Capt. James Campbell Power, builder and owner of steamboats on the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Mrs Yellman’s father and my father were brothers…
…Matthew Campbell; d. Jan 18, 1819, mar. Mary, bur. At “The Narrows,” Aberdeen, Ohio…
Matthew built a large stone house at the beginning of the old Indian trail at Aberdeen about 1790. It was used as an inn and a fort…

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Copyright: 14 Nov 2006 Judith A Trolinger