From 1600 to Five Shively Sisters: Timeline

Introduction

This is a short overview of what we know about the ancestors of Mina, Ruth, Mildred, Mary, and Miriam Shively, from about 1600 to 1900.

1600-1650

The earliest ancestors we know by name are three couples, one in Switzerland and two in England. William Towne and Joanna Blessing are each born about 1600 in England, along with Thomas Browning and Mary Hindes. Christen Straumann and Agnes Götsch are each born about 1620 in Switzerland. Other families—the ones we know about—leading to the five Shively sisters are in these locations:

England

Browning, Crediford, French, Littlefield, Niles, Smith

Germany

Eckell, Hopfengartner, Schneider

Ireland

Boid, Dodson

Switzerland

Bähr, Mowen, Schäublin, Schlagbach, Spitteler, Thommen

In (probably) 1639, the first of these families comes to North America, when William and Joanna Towne and several children come to Massachusetts, settling around Salem and later Topsfield. The children include the ancestor of the Shively sisters, Edmund Towne. The Townes may have been seeking religious freedom as pilgrims, or they may simply have been poor but with enough resources to leave the country. The 1600s have been called the worst time to be English in England—the population is booming but the economy is not, the country is at war with itself over religion and the power of the king (Charles I) versus parliament, and a full ten percent of the English leave England over the course of the century.

1650-1730

Most of the families above are still in their European home countries, with the exception of the English ones, who are intermarrying in New England. Edmund has died by 1692, but two of his sisters, Rebecca Towne Nurse and Mary Towne Eastey, are convicted and hanged as witches in Salem in that year. We don't know what the family dynamics were, but we do know one of Rebecca Nurse's accusers was Edmund Towne's daughter, Rebecca, who presumably was named after her aunt.

1730-1800

The Swiss families Schäublin (pronounced Shoyblin) and Thommen were the next to come to North America, in their case on the same ship, the Princess Augusta, in 1736. In Pennsylvania they became Shively and Thomas, but the Shivelys, at least, spelled their name Scheibele on official documents. A family record of births from 1833 is still written in German. The Schäublins and Thommens leave Switzerland more clearly for religious reasons: Christian Schäublin is accused of Quakerism for holding a religious meeting in his smithy near Basel a couple of years before emigrating. Multiple family members are active through the years as members of the German Brethren who mostly eventually become the Church of the Brethren. There are other Shively families, too, from the same part of Switzerland. The Shively sisters' branch is somewhat isolated in fact. Ulrich, the son of emigrant Christian and the sisters' ancestor, was married to Elizabeth Thommen, with whom he probably shared passage across the Atlantic. However, the couple moved west in the latter half of the eighteenth century and lost touch with the main part of the family. "West" in this instance means western Maryland.

The English families are in Massachusetts and Maine during this period. The Irish are in Ireland, but some of the Germans and Swiss are emigrating to Pennsylvania and Maryland.

1800-1860

During this period, the whole family is on the move. By 1860, all four grandparents of the five Shively sisters are in Kosciusko County, Indiana, but it's striking how they arrive there. The stories of all four involve untimely deaths, though that's not so uncommon at the time.

In September, 1835, when George Shively is twelve years old, his siblings Samuel, 10, Susanna, 7, Isaak, 5, Caroline, 3, and Elisabeth, 2, all die of scarlet fever within four days of each other. The last entry in the family register, translated, reads "Elisabeth Scheibele, born on 22 September 1833 and died on 26 September 1835, midday between 11 and 12 of scarlet fever, age two years and four days." The youngest surviving family member is Abraham, Isaak's twin. George's mother, Elisabeth Schneider, gives birth to another set of twins eight months later, Daniel and John, the last of the family to be born.

Anna Albertina (Tena) Slabaugh is born in Ohio in 1836—her father Johannes Schlagbach and mother Maria Eckell having emigrated earlier, supposedly after Johannes had served on the French side in the Napoleonic wars. He would have been young; the Battle of Waterloo was fought in 1815, when he was nineteen years old. Maria died in 1850 and Johannes in 1851, when their three daughters were 14, 12, and 9 years old. Tena married George Shively three years later and moved to Indiana. The youngest sister, Hannah, also married a Shively, Daniel, one of the twins mentioned above.

The stories of William Allen Towns and Cornelia Emily Boid have to be told together. First, the Towne/Towns: the family finally leaves New England in 1820, leaving the "e" in their name behind. Israel Towns' wife, Ruth Niles, has died. Israel takes eight of his nine children, ages eight (Noah) to twenty-four (John) and sets out for New Franklin, Ohio. In Pennsylvania, however, Israel falls ill and dies and the family stops. Robert Towns, twenty-one, marries Sarah Hoopengardner, and another Towns brother marries another Hoopengardner sister. In a couple of years the family, or at least some of it, moves on to New Franklin. Robert and Sarah have several children, of whom our ancestor William Allen is the youngest, then move on, heading "west of Chicago". Near Etna Green, Indiana, however, Sarah dies and the family stops moving. About a year later, Andrew Boid and Susanna Dodson are also travelling west from Maryland with their two young children when Andrew dies, also in Indiana. Within a year, Robert and Susanna have married. From 1855, when William is 13 and Cornelia is 5, they are step-brother and step-sister. In 1867, at ages 25 and 17, they marry.

1860-1908

Things are simpler now. Local boy Marvin Shively marries local girl Zeruah Towns, and five daughters are born from 1892 to 1908. Marvin Hamilton Shively is the son of George Shively and Tena Slabaugh, and is a farmer and runs a hardware store in Nappanee with his cousin George. Zeruah Agnes Towns is the eldest child, except for a son who died in infancy, of eight children of William Towns and Cornelia Boid.