John W. and Martha Riggs Shaw
John W. Shaw, second son of Isaac and Nancy Ann Shaw, was born in Wayne County, Indiana, to where his parents had come two years previously from North Carolina. He spent his early life in the cabin in the clearing with his parents and other members of the family, wielding the ax in helping to clear away the timber, and the hoe in helping to raise a little corn from which his mother made the Johnny cakes for the family. An accident happened to him when a very small boy, the effect of which he carried with him through a long lifetime He and his brother, James Calvin who was two year, older, were out one day throwing sticks at a swinging bird's nest. James Calvin threw a sharp pointed stick which struck a limb of the tree, bounded back and the sharp end struck John W. in the eye. His parents bandaged it up as well as they could with the meager means of first aid treatment which they had at hand in those days. It was healing nicely when the two boys were running around playing in the cabin where their mother had in a quilt in the old-fashioned quilting frames suspended from the ceiling. John W. ran against the end of one of the side pieces of the frame with the bandaged eye with such force that the eyeball was bursted, causing him to lose the sight of that eye.
After he grew he was married to Matha Riggs, near the Hancock-Madison County line. Shortly afterward, they bought a forty acre farm in the north edge of Hancock County. In that early day, of course, it was nearly all still in woods, consisting of Poplar, different varieties of oak, ash, hickory, maple, beech, elm and other timbers. Scarcely any had been cleared out. The buildings consisted of a log house and a log barn. With these they made out for many years. He set to work clearing and fencing with rails so as to have farm land for raising some crops. Being of a frugal and farseeing- nature, he saved the pennies and reserved a good quantity of the choice timber, mostly poplars and oaks. In several years he had his farm all paid for, built a substantial dwelling house, had his farm land cleared and fenced and in a few years more, built a good frame barn and had money in the bank. Several years before his death, he sold the timber he had reserved which had now become very valuable for almost fabulous prices. In the meantime, his wife had passed away and her sister kept house for him for several years. Her sister, in turn, was taken from him by death. Some time after her death, he was married to a Miss Samira White, who with her mother, was with him for several years. After the death of both of them, he, having no children, was cared for by a Mr. Adams, until his death in 1925.
As far as our record shows, he lived to be the oldest of any of the Shaws of our line, a little past ninety-five years. Grandmother Shaw, his mother, lived to be nearly ninety-one. Upon his death, Alice Garrett Monger, one of his nieces who had lived so many years of her life at her parent's home onan adjoining farm to hi, was appointed administratrix of his estate. After remunerating Mr. Adams for his care, and paying up the funeral and all other expenses, the residue of the estate was divided among the descendants of his brothers and sister, as he had lived to be "the last leaf on the tree." He was a staunch member of the Primitive Baptist Church,to whose tenents he sbscribed with all the vigor of his spiritual being. He is laid to rest in the cementery not far from his old home.
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