Madison
County Genealogical Society
Minutes of the Meeting – June 13, 2019
The June 2019 meeting of the Madison County
Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on Thursday,
June 13, at 7:00 pm.
President, Robert Ridenour, called the meeting to order.
GIFT
MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE
Do you have a family member that is
interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership in the Madison
County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful gift. A gift card will
be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.
The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $25.00
Patron Annual Membership $35.00
Life Membership $300.00
Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at petie8135@att.net,
about a gift membership.
June Meeting
On June 13, 2019, Dr. Kelly
Obernuefemann presented a program titled Sweet Unassuming Rebel: The Life of Betty Shelby.
Dr. Obernuefemann is a
Professor of History and the Coordinator of History, Political Science, and Geography
at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois. Her areas of
expertise are American Social History, American Southern History, and the
American Civil War.
A young mother of two, who has not had a permanent
home in nearly five years, follows a group of battle-weary, unrepentant
soldiers into the heat of Northern Mexico to a settlement surrounded by hostile
locals who frequently threatened violence. She and her husband refuse to give
up the lost dream of a southern country of leisure and privilege. Historians
have long overlooked this formidable woman, focusing instead on her husband’s
daring raids in the Civil War and his scheme of a Confederacy south of the
border. But Elizabeth “Betty” Shelby deserves more than to be a footnote in her
husband’s biography. To the women of Missouri who joined the United Daughters
of the Confederacy, she was an icon.
Elizabeth Nancy Shelby, known as Betty, was born into
a life of privilege in 1841, in Lafayette County, Missouri. The Shelby family was
one of the founding families of Kentucky and the family included a governor of
Kentucky. But after the War of 1812, several of the family’s young men moved to
the new lands across the Mississippi River. In addition to corn, wheat, and
oats, many of these farmers grew hemp. These wealthy farmers used slave labor
for production and the counties along the Missouri River became known as Little
Dixie.
William Shelby was one of the wealthiest slave owning
elite of Missouri, owning 47 slaves in 1850, and farmland worth an estimated
$10,000. Unlike many antebellum Missouri families, the Shelbys could afford to
send their children to private schools. Betty attended school in Columbia,
Missouri, presumably at the Columbia Female Academy chartered in 1833. However,
like most women of the time, Betty’s education was not as important as her
marriage prospects.
In her case, the prosperous husband was someone well
known to the entire family — he was family. Joseph Orville Shelby, known
as Joe, moved to Missouri in 1852 from Lexington, Kentucky. He was not a poor
relation, the previous year at the age of 21, he came into a trust fund of
$80,000, left to him by his father who died when he was a child. Like Betty,
Joseph had grown up in a life of privilege. With family connections in Missouri
and his new trust fund, Joe decided to try his fortunes in the burgeoning
Missouri hemp business. Joe and step-brother Howard Gratz formed the Waverly
Steam Rope Company. The partnership of Gratz and Shelby was so successful that they
owned 700 acres in Lafayette County, along with a sawmill and a steamboat. The
labor for the business was, of course, provided by slaves.
In 1857, the year of their marriage, Betty was sixteen
years old, cousin Joe Shelby was 27 and living a short six miles away. Joe’s
biographer, Daniel O’Flaherty, wrote of Betty: “soon she was surrounded by
beaus, and soon the smitten Joe was submerged in a torrent of jealousy which
almost suffocated him. But Betty quickly showed her preference. On one
occasion, she was wearing a ring given to her by an admirer, an inexpensive
trinket, perhaps a birthday gift, when she saw Joe approaching down by the
wharf. In a panic, she threw the ring into the Missouri River, as a symbol of a
final decision.”
The couple married on July 22, 1857. Several Missouri
newspapers tell the story of their honeymoon trip on a steamboat. “After the
ceremony a bolt of red velvet cloth was laid as a carpet from the front porch
of the William Shelby house down to the river landing where Joe Shelby’s
private steamboat awaited to take the newlyweds and their guests on an
excursion to St. Louis for days of champagne and sight-seeing.”
But this was neither the time nor the place for a
quiet family life. The slave owners of Missouri were pushing the nation closer
and closer toward civil war, and Betty’s husband, one of the so-called “Border
Ruffians” was on the front lines. In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska
Act, stating that the status of the new states Kansas and Nebraska regarding
slavery would be decided by popular vote. Missouri slave owners, fearing
encirclement by free states, made their way to Kansas to vote illegally for
Kansas to become a slave state. In 1896, the year before his death, Joe Shelby
acknowledged “I was in Kansas at the head of an armed force about that time. I
went there to kill free state men; I did kill them. I am now ashamed of myself
for having done so, but then times were different from what they are now. No
Missourians had any business there with arms and intent. The policy that sent
us there was damnable and the trouble we started on the border bore fruit for
ten years.”
The trouble followed Joe back to Missouri. In December
1855, men from Kansas burned the Shelby sawmill. Howard Gratz apparently wanted
no part of the violence and returned to Kentucky in 1856. Shelby was managing
the business on his own at the time of his marriage to Betty, and he was
managing it poorly. By 1860, he over extended himself and the lavish style in
which he lived soon depleted his capital. He sold his half of the company for
$4,425. This was the start of a business pattern that would continue for Joe
after the war.
Free from business concerns for the moment, Joe could
focus on the secession crisis that gripped America after the 1860 election of
Abraham Lincoln. An avowed secessionist, Joe wanted to do whatever he could to
help Missouri join the newly formed Confederate States of America. In 1861, Joe
Shelby became involved in aiding the Southern cause. He went to St. Louis to
buy musket caps to send to John Hunt Morgan in Kentucky.
He was still in St. Louis on May 10, 1861, when Union
forces moved to seize Camp Jackson and imprison the secessionists who marched
through the streets, amid crowds of Unionists. Not surprisingly, a riot broke
out and the city was put under martial law. With Union soldiers stationed
throughout the state, Missouri was kept from joining the Confederacy. But
slavery supporters, such as Joe Shelby, quickly formed Partisan Forces who made
their way to neighboring states to join the Confederate Army.
Was Betty Shelby as politically minded as her husband?
Probably not, but she was later described by many sources as a secessionist and
a firm supporter of her husband and his cause. However, she was also very busy
as a new mother. Orville Shelby was born in 1861, followed by Joseph in 1862.
Her memories of the war were printed in 1913 in Reminiscences of the Women of Missouri
During the 60s. She wrote “General Shelby, who had refused many tempting
offers to join the federal army, organized a company from the flower of Howard
County and proceeded to join Confederate General Price at Springfield. Myself
and children were left under the protection of an aunt, a high-spirited woman
who had sent several sons to southern armies. When taxed by the Federals with
furnishing altogether too many rebel soldiers, she boldly retorted that if she
had a hundred sons, they would all be there. Many threats were made to burn out
this nest of rebels. Frequently, as many as twenty-five soldiers would appear
and order a meal of the best we could produce. Which we dare not refuse or her
smokehouses would be raided and nothing left to us.”
Missouri quickly became consumed by guerilla warfare.
Very few actual battles with Union Troops fighting Confederate Troops were
fought on Missouri soil; but Joe Shelby quickly became a hero to the
Confederates of the border states. His biographer, Daniel O’Flaherty, described
him as “the Jeb Stuart of the West.” At the end of the war, his rank was Major
General of the Missouri Cavalry Division of the Confederate Army of the
Trans-Mississippi.
The Union Army feared that both regular troops like
Shelby’s Division and Partisans were getting aid from civilians, especially
female relatives throughout the state; and, of course, they were. Betty Shelby,
who was staying with relative Rebecca Gratz at the time, wrote, “My aunt
provided a cot and nursed for several weeks in the brush, one of the men who
had been badly wounded. A surgeon came surreptitiously in the night and set a
broken bone. My aunt went every day and dressed the wound and sent him food. We
were in daily terror lest the Negroes should betray him, but they never did. He
recovered and rejoined the army. On another occasion, two of our men were
secreted under a dormer window at the top of the house. They had been traced
there and the Federals threatened to burn down the house if they were not
produced. Had they carried out their threats, our friends would have been shot
down in endeavoring to escape.”
Union troops were acting under the authority of the
Second Confiscation Act, passed by Congress in July 1862, which stated that “if
any person shall hereafter incite, set on foot, assist, or engage in any
rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States, and be
convicted thereof, such person shall be punished by imprisonment for a period
not exceeding ten years, or by a fine not exceeding $10,000, and by the
liberation of all his slaves, if any he have, or by both the said punishments,
at the discretion of the court. The fine will be collected in the form of
confiscation of property.”
It was well known that Betty was the wife of a
Confederate officer, so she was an obvious target. She wrote, “We had to leave
our home and finally, when General Shelby’s raids became more frequent, had to
leave the state. We went to St. Louis, where we were somewhat protected because
of the relationship between General Shelby and Frank Blair. When the
authorities decided that General Shelby’s raids would be less frequent if his
family was out of the state, we were completely banished.”
Unlike some soldier’s wives, Betty did have a place to
go — to her husband’s family in Kentucky. Her step-father-in-law, Benjamin
Gratz, came to escort her to Lexington. There was only one problem — her
in-laws were Unionists. According to his neighbor, Benjamin Gratz made his
house available as a commissariat depot and cookhouse for Federal soldiers. In
her 1913 reminiscences, Betty wrote only one sentence, “I went to my husband’s
relatives in Kentucky.” She then went on to describe leaving Kentucky. Perhaps
this is an example of the adage: “If you have nothing nice to say, it’s better
to say nothing at all.”
Ann Shelby Gratz, her mother-in-law, was certainly put
in a horrible position. In the first year of the war, while her son was leading
troops for the Confederacy, her stepson was fighting for the Union. The
stepbrothers fought on opposing sides at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in Missouri
on August 10, 1861. Harry Gratz was shot five times and killed. Rebecca Gratz
wrote to Ann the following month, “We may pray for Joe’s personal safety,
though we cannot for the success of his arms.”
In the spring of 1863, not long after Betty’s arrival
in Lexington, Federal officers in Kentucky decided to take action against the
supporters of Confederate raiders. Word came to the Shelby-Gratz family that
wives of Confederate soldiers had to go. As a loyal Union supporter, Benjamin
Gratz appealed to President Lincoln to get the order rescinded. Mr. Lincoln
replied that she might stay if Mr. Gratz would hold himself responsible for her
good behavior. This proved a temporary solution.
The Confederacy was falling apart. After the fall of
Vicksburg, July 1863, the Union army controlled the entire Mississippi River,
cutting off any supplies to the Trans-Mississippi Division of the Confederate
Army. Shelby’s men were spending most of their time in Arkansas, Mississippi,
and Louisiana, fighting a losing effort to hold on to supply lines in
Missouri’s Red River region.
Betty Shelby grew frustrated with her distance from
Joe and the lack of information. In the last year of the war, Betty made the
incredibly dangerous decision to take her two young sons to go meet Joe. She
found another woman willing to take the risk and left Kentucky, bringing slaves
with her to help care for the boys. She said, “Later, when General Steele was
operating in Arkansas and Louisiana, I started in company with another lady,
accompanied by our colored maid for the South. It was suggested that our nurses
might desert us. Consequently, we had their trunks placed in close touch with
us as a precaution. After boarding one of the river boats for Memphis, as our
maids did not appear as usual in the morning, our first move was to see if the
trunks were still there. They were gone and we were left to cope with the
babies as best we could. On arriving in Memphis, we were held for three weeks
at a hotel. We suffered untold trials getting through the lines at all, as
there was fierce fighting raging around Little Rock and vicinity. We were
finally in company with other refugee families from Missouri, placed at
Clarksville, Texas, where we remained until the close of the war.”
In 1865, the war was over, but Joe refused to
surrender after the demise of the Confederacy. Instead, Joe planned to fight on
with Mexican assistance. Joe planned to use his military experience as a
bargaining tool and offered his assistance to the Mexican Emperor, in return for
the creation of a new confederacy on the U.S.-Mexico border. It was a long shot
at best; but Joe and his men could not face the prospect of the defeat of the
Confederacy. The men gathered with their families in Texas, in preparation for
the move to Mexico. But, apparently, the Emperor of Mexico was unimpressed with
Joe’s men and their plan. He did not want to anger the United States, when he
had enough problems within Mexico.
Shelby’s unit disbanded and the majority left Mexico,
but Joe remained behind. Joe and about fifty others joined former Confederate
General Sterling Price in a colonization effort on the site of about 500,000
acres of abandoned land. The Mexican government did not want to back any
Confederate military plans, but they were willing to grant substantial amounts
of inferior land in the north of Mexico to ex-Confederates, in the hope that it
would stimulate the Mexican economy and boost the number of fighting men to
discourage any Indian attacks. As far as ex-Confederates bringing slaves with
them into Mexico, where slavery was illegal, a compromise was reached. The
slaves would be considered indentured servants with what amounted to a lifelong
contract. They would receive partial wages.
Joe planned to raise coffee and sent for Betty. They
met at Veracruz. Betty could not have been very impressed by her new home.
Betty and Joe added to their household in the new settlement in 1867 with the
birth of their third son Benjamin. Despite having three young children to care
for, Betty put up a brave front for her husband and the other ex-soldiers.
Years later, she was given the following praise — “Mrs. Shelby, by her
cheerfulness and the motherly hospitality she extended to the soldier boys,
endeared herself to those so tried and true as but few women could have done.
The Shelby home, ever famous for its generous hospitality, was no exception
under these trying circumstances to those discouraged homeless men who had so
faithfully followed her husband. She was indeed a sister, a mother, a safe consort,
and she was living in a hostile environment.”
The local inhabitants were not happy when the
Americans moved in and the Emperor’s government was too unstable to be of any
help. It was only a matter of time before violence broke out. After one
ex-soldier antagonized the local Indians, the Indians fought back. Thirty
settlers were taken hostage and a ransom of $30,000 was demanded. After thirty
days, the hostages were released. It is not clear whether the ransom was paid.
Maximilian’s government fell in 1867. With the
government back in the hands of Juarez, the colony was doomed. Betty wrote,
“This enterprise was finally abandoned, as the Mexicans made it so disagreeable
for us by shooting into our camp, etc.” She probably means Mexican Indians.
Although they had never officially surrendered to the Union, it was time to
swallow their pride and move back to the United States.
After taking a ship to New Orleans, Betty and the boys
were in Lexington, Kentucky by June 1867, where Joe joined them. After visiting
with their family, Betty and Joe decided it was time to go home to Missouri.
Their life of luxury was over, as it was for most Missourians. At the end of
the war in 1865, the state was “a desolate waste, with now and then a lone
chimney to tell the story of a fire.”
The Shelbys started over. They built a modest
farmhouse near Coleville in Bates County, and welcomed fourth son Webb in 1868.
Hardship, however, was never far behind in those years. In March 1869, the
house burned to the ground and had to be built again. But Joe could not make a
success out of wheat farming, probably because he had dreamed of making it big
in industrial investment. He invested in Missouri railroads and coalmines.
Neither venture proved successful and Joe went into debt.
As the Missouri economy slowly came back to life, old
hostilities and bitterness from the war years remained in Missouri. During the
1870s, the farmhouse was visited by hundreds of old Confederates, many of them
were homeless on the roads of Missouri and for them, the latch string was
always out, as well as a good dinner cooked, and a clean bed waiting. Visitors
included Jesse James, Frank James, and Cole Younger. In 1872, Frank James
convalesced from a gunshot wound and hid out from authorities for over two months
at the Shelby house.
Betty was obviously raising the children, which in
1880 included seven sons and a daughter, in a dangerous environment. After
Jesse was killed in 1882, Frank James turned himself into authorities and was
put on trial in 1883. Joe Shelby was a character witness for the defense. His
turn on the witness stand was legendary in Missouri. One of the newspapers of
the time stated, “Even the gaily dressed ladies in attendance noticed that
Shelby had been drinking.” While on the stand Joe also admitted that Jesse
James, Jim Cummins, and Bill Ryan had eaten at Shelby’s home. Betty was not
called to testify and it was not recorded whether she was in attendance at the
trial. Frank James was found not guilty.
Joe had as little luck farming in Bates County as he
had in Lafayette County. Joe had gotten so heavily into debt he was about to
lose the new farm. His mother stepped in and bought the farm from his
creditors. Ann Shelby then deeded the farm to Betty in her will which read “to
my daughter-in-law, Betty Ann Shelby, the wife of my son J.O. Shelby, the farm
in Bates County, Missouri, where they now reside, containing about 400 acres to
have and to hold for her separate use, an estate free from the control or debts
of her husband, during her natural life. At her death, if her husband, the said
J.O. Shelby shall survive her, during his life he shall have use and control of
said farm for the support and maintenance of himself and those of his children
which shall live with him but he shall have no estate or interest therein which
shall be subject to his debt either past or future.” Obviously, Ann did not
expect her son to stay out of financial trouble.
Joe wisely decided to make a career change. In 1885, former
Confederate General Joe Shelby became a United States Marshall. After taking
the job, he hired deputies and welcomed old soldiers to hang out with him. By
1896, Joe’s health was failing and he publically acknowledged that his
participation in the pre-war violence in Kansas had been a mistake. Joe had
come a long way and Betty had been there to see it. The following year,
February 1897, Joe died at the age of 67 after becoming so ill he no longer
recognized anyone.
Betty herself was honored in the years after Joe’s
death. On August 20, 1901, the Missouri Division of the United Daughters of the
Confederacy held a reception for Betty, whom they described as “a sweet
unassuming woman.” In 1913, they included two selections on Betty Shelby, one
from the lady herself in her self-published Reminiscences of the Women of Missouri During the
60s. Mrs. T. Y. Brannock made the following observation “Since the death of
General Shelby, Mrs. Shelby has made her home with her daughter. Time has
silvered the once nut-brown hair and coming years have left their impress, but
the lovely character remains unchanged. Honored and loved, she is patiently
awaiting the summons to come higher.”
By 1910, Betty had left her sons behind to live with
her daughter Ann, Ann’s husband Fred Jersek, a stock dealer, their daughter
Alene, and two servants in Parmer County, Texas. In 1913, Betty applied for a
Confederate widow’s pension; she listed no property owned at the time.
On March 1, 1929, after contracting pneumonia, Betty
Shelby died at age 88 in Parmer County, Texas, and was buried in Kansas City,
Missouri. In 1962, the Betty Shelby Chapter of the United Daughters of the
Confederacy was founded in Waverly, Missouri, her pre-war hometown. And in
March 1975, Save
Weeping for the Night by Loula Grace Erband was published. It was a novel
loosely based on Betty’s life and war experiences.
Married at age sixteen on a wealthy farm along the
Missouri River, Elizabeth “Betty” Shelby could not have known that hero worship
would become associated with her border ruffian husband or that the conflict
over Missouri would take her to Mexico and back. She followed her husband to a
Confederate military camp, to an ill-fated colony in Mexico, and back to a
debt-riddled farm in Missouri. She harbored Frank and Jesse James from
authorities, while raising eight children, and she took it all in stride as a
loyal Southern wife.
This presentation was very well received and
provoked many questions and comments.