Abbie Shedd Rice

In my last post, I mentioned Abbie, the daughter of William and Abbie (Wood) Shedd, so I thought I'd post these photos of her from the Wood-Vincent family album.


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I scanned this one in color to show how someone has tried to hand-tint the cloth draped over the table she's leaning on.

Abbie was born in 1855, as we know, and in this photo she appears perhaps five years old, which would date the photo to about 1860. She is wearing an off-the-shoulder dress, a style popular for children from the 1840s through mid-1860s. Her short hair is not all that unusual for the era.

She was just "Abby Shedd" when someone wrote her name inside the photographer's imprint on the back …



… but someone has written her full married name below the photo in the album:




Likewise on the other photo:



By now she is a young lady, perhaps in her late teens or early twenties.



That would place the photo around 1875. The style of her clothing is consistent with that timeframe.

This photo was also taken in Valparaiso.



Both of Abbie's photographers are discussed in Steve Shook's blog.


I believe Abbie grew up in the home of her grandparents, John and Hannah Wood; that is where we find her in the censuses of 1860 through 1880. After Hannah's death in 1873, Abbie kept house for her grandfather. In 1882, she married Edwin Rice of Valparaiso. They had two daughters (that I have been able to find out about, and that was not easy).

Abbie was only 45 when she died on December 1, 1900. She is buried in the Woodvale Cemetery.

Her husband, Edwin, died in Chicago in 1910. His body was brought to Deep River for burial beside Abbie.

This death notice says that at one time he traveled to Central America with his wife's half-brother, William Joshua Shedd:


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"Whiting and Environs," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 5 Oct. 1910.


Their daughter, Georgia, died young. It is from this death notice that I first hear of her sister, Mary.


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Porter County Vidette (Valparaiso, Ind.), 16 May 1917.

I have not been able to find out anything at all about sister Mary.

Joshua R. Shedd, and Shedd-Related Tragedies

These two documents from the Jeremiah Wiggins estate tell us of some strange transaction whereby Joshua R. Shedd paid off Jeremiah's account to Robinson & Co.[1] and then filed for reimbursement by the estate.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Alice Flora Smedstad.

My transcription:

Jeremiah Wiggins Dr.
To Joshua R. Shedd

To the balance of account due the firm
of Robinson & Co. for merchandise — $5.09
Interest from June 5th 1837 to date .87
Lake C.H. Ia. March 2, 1939 $5.96

He was, in fact, reimbursed:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Alice Flora Smedstad.

My transcription:

Recd of the Clerk of the Probate Court of Lake County
the amount for my account of $5.09 originally due to
Robinson & Co. filed in the office of the said Clerk as a
claim against the estate of Jeremiah Wiggins, deceased.
March 2, 1839

Michigan City Ia. ) J.R. Shedd
Nov. 25th 1839. )

With a full name, including middle initial, not to mention two possible locations (Lake County and Michigan City), you'd think it would be possible to identify him, wouldn't you? But you'd be wrong. My best guess is that he was the Joshua Rundle Shedd who died in Cook County in 1854 and is now buried in the southern part of the city. But that's just a guess, based on his date of birth and the coincidence of names and middle initial. I can't find anything clearly tying Joshua Rundle Shedd to Lake County or Michigan City.

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However, in searching Chicago newspapers for any information about that Joshua Shedd, I came across a tragic story involving to the Shedd family of Deep River, so let us talk about them now.

William Henry Shedd was born in 1821 in Massachusetts. I know this from his grave marker. The record of his birth fails to include the date (but does mention an older brother named Joshua Rundle Shedd).


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Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook).

I can't find any record of him until a possible sighting in 1852, in California:


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Ancestry.com. California, U.S., State Census, 1852. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: California State Census of 1952. (microfilm, M/F 144, 6 rolls). Sacramento, California: California State Library.

The age is about right, the birthplace is right. Did our William get caught up in the Gold Rush?

If that's our guy, he left California very soon after being counted. The next record we have of him is in the autumn of 1853, when he married John Wood's daughter, Abbie.[2] William and Abbie had a daughter, also named Abbie, born in 1855. The following year, Abbie (the mother) died.

William married again, in 1859, to Josephine Blachly in Porter County. The 1860 Census shows William and Josephine, with their infant son, William, living in Union Township, while little Abbie lived with her grandparents in Deep River.

William Sr. gave his occupation as merchant. He may have been running his business in the village of Deep River. There was a mercantile partnership around this time, Shedd & Wood, operating in the area; we are told that George Wood, the fifth child of John and Hannah, worked for that partnership as a clerk "in a country store."[3] On this page from the July 25, 1861 issue of the Crown Point Register, we find both "Wm. H. Shedd, Deep River," and "Wood & Shedd, Woods Mills,"[4] offering patent medicines for sale:


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I have found such ads in the Register involving the name Shedd as early as 1859 and as late as 1865. By the way, I don't know which Wood was involved in the partnership; my guess is Augustus.

By the 1870 Census, William and Josephine, with sons William and Orton (b. 1861), had moved to Watseka, Illinois. William gave his occupation as cabinet-maker. The two elder Shedds would live out the rest of their lives in Watseka, and are now buried there.

The tragic story I mentioned above involves the eldest son, William Joshua Shedd:


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Blue Island Sun-Standard (Blue Island, Ill.), 30 Nov. 1922.


As you will note, the article mentions his birth in Deep River, Indiana. It also mentions that this was not the first such tragedy in the family.


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[1] We will speak of Robinson & Co. in the future.
[2] Indiana Marriage Collection.
[3] Porter and Lake Counties (Goodspeed-Blanchard) at 718.
[4] "Woods Mills" being another name for the village of Deep River, along with "Woodvale."

The Mysterious Mr. Fish

Here we have J.V. Johns collecting some money from the Jeremiah Wiggins estate. First, for his services to the estate as a clerk:


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Image courtesy of Alice Flora Smedstad.

My transcription:

Redeemed November 18, 1839 of James H. Cassady
Administrator of the Estate of Jeremiah Wiggins
deceased $2.00 in full for services as Clerk of the sale
of Personal property of said Estate, and other writing[?]
for said Estate

J.V. Johns

And secondly, for hay he sold to Jeremiah indirectly:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Alice Flora Smedstad.

My transcription:

The Estate of Jeremiah Wiggins Dr.
To J.V. Johns Dr.

To 6 Tons of hay used by
the Wiggins, bot by me
of one Fish, who was a
tenant of the land[?] of Wiggins
@ $2.50 dollars per ton $15.00

I have already talked about J.V. Johns a couple of times. To the bits of information we have on him, I want to add this anecdote from Solon Robinson:[1]

J. V. Johns was elected sheriff this August [1839] election, H.N. Brooks was his opponent. The election was contested and created some excitement at the time. … (One witness testified that he would not vote for either, because one was a drunkard and the other a black-guard — too true.)

I'm not clear whether J.V. Johns was supposed to be the drunkard or the blackguard. His elaborate signature, above, looks as if it were written with a steady hand, so maybe he was the blackguard.

The second paper introduces another character — this tenant of Wiggins, whose surname was Fish. Without a first name, or even initial, it's impossible to identify him. Among the early settlers of Lake County listed by T.H. Ball[2] we find E.T. Fish and John Fish, who came here in 1837. But that is the first and last mention of either in any history book I can find. They don't appear in the 1840 census.

I've also encountered a Fish in an 1830s daybook at the Hobart Historical Society museum. This entry, dated September 10, 1837, shows him buying a large number of household items …


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society, Hobart, Indiana.

… and paying for them by selling the merchant 6 tons of hay and a promissory note signed by one of the Wilkinsons.

Fish's first initial is unclear: it might be M or W, or maybe that's just Mr. Fish — meaning the merchant didn't know his first name any better than we do.

Below Mr. Fish, J.V. Johns shows up. That's just coincidence — OR IS IT????


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[1] Lake County 1929 at p. 52.
[2] Lake County 1834-1872 at p. 56.

Angle-Worm Oil On His Knee

We interrupt the Jeremiah Wiggins show to bring you a report from Israel Pierce. A veteran of the Civil War, Israel applied for an invalid's pension in the early 1880s because he was partially disabled by rheumatism contracted during his service in the Union Army. Investigation ensued. Much paperwork, many depositions.

This particular deposition, taken in October 1882, brought to my attention something I had never heard of before in all my life: angle-worm oil.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Alice Flora Smedstad.



My transcription:

Israel R. Pierce being sworn says he is applicant for pension, claim No. 349856. That for 5 years immediately preceding his enlistment he lived in Ross Township, Lake County, Indiana and was occupied as a farmer. That from the date of his discharge and return home from the army said Ross Township, Lake County, Indiana has been his residence all the time and is now. That he claims pension on account of Rheumatism contracted at and near Atlanta, Ga. in or about June 1864 caused from very great exposure and hardships, hard & forced marches, getting wet & other hardships incident to the service. That he was treated by Surgeon W. Butterworth & also Hospital Steward M.J. Whitman[?] prescribed for him in the army for his Rheumatism but so long a time has elapsed they are unable to remember his case. That he was wasn't treated by Drs. Poffenberger or Robinson of the 99th. That Dr. Vincent of Hobart, Ind. treated him from his discharge until 1870 since which time he has received no medical treatment but has used some liniments of home manufacture such as angle worm oil & skunk's oil which he procured himself & used to limber his right knee joint. He has also tried St. Jacob's Oil. He respectfully asks the acceptance of neighbors Banks & Ragen's testimony filed herewith as to existence of his rheumatism since 1870. They are his nearest neighbors. He also asks their testimony be received proving his soundness at enlistment for the reason that he was at said time an able bodied man and perfectly free from Rheumatism & never required or had the attendance of a physician at said time. Has had no disease since discharge [except] Rheumatism. That from the date of his return home from the army until the present time he has lost 1/3 of his time each year by reason of Rheumatism.

So Israel was treating his rheumatism with oil of angleworm, which is another name for earthworm. And that of home manufacture. How do you manufacture earthworm oil? For a recipe, please consult the Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things. We can imagine Israel (or his wife, Calista) collecting earthworms from their yard, boiling them in wine on the kitchen stove, and rubbing the resulting concoction on his stiff and painful knee.

My first impulse is to declare that the stuff had to be completely useless, aside from the possible placebo effect, but a little internet research turns up articles suggesting that extracts of some species of earthworms might help with skin wounds or inflammation and fever. In Israel's case, however, the stuff was completely useless, or nearly so, since his rheumatism persisted.

I'm trying to find a recipe for skunk oil. "Boil the fat of several skunks and add a couple of tablespoons of male skunk glandular secretion before the oil coagulate[s]," says the Wisconsin Historical Society. Israel would have had to trap or shoot the skunks himself, I suppose. Skunk oil as folk medicine seems to have been used more for diseases of the respiratory system than for sore joints. In Israel's case, again, it didn't cure anything.

And neither did the commercially manufactured St. Jacob's Oil.


Someday I hope to have time for more posts about Israel Pierce, his endless paperwork, and his tragic death.

More Litigious Settlers

Here is another page from James H. Cassady's records of his activities as administrator of the Jeremiah Wiggins estate.


(Click on image to enlarge)
This image courtesy of Alice Flora Smedstad.

My transcription:



The December 19 entry mentions an appearance before George Earle concerning a lawsuit involving two people: Saxton and Merrill.

The first was probably Ebenezer Saxton, Sr. (1797-1877), who came to Lake County in 1837 and eventually settled on Jeremiah Wiggins' farm. The following biographical sketch was written by one of his descendants:

Ebenezer Saxton was the 6th generation of the Saxton family in America. His father (also an Ebenezer) was a Revolutionary soldier from Massachusetts. Ebenezer Saxton was born in Vermont, later (1829) moving to a farm in East Flamboro, Canada at the time of the Patriot War. When the rebellion was brushed in 1837 he sold his farm on credit and hurriedly left Canada to escape the rebel punishment of hanging. On the way to Fort Dearborn (Chicago), his wagon got stuck in the mud in the Turkey Creek area. Spending nearly all of his money to recover his belongings, the family decided to stay in Wiggins' Point (one of Merrillville's early names).[1]

Ebenezer and his wife, Minerva, raised a large family and lived out the rest of their lives on the former Wiggins farm. They are buried in the Merrillville Cemetery.

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The second name mentioned in connection with a lawsuit was either Dudley Merrill (1814-1890) or William Merrill (1808-1860), brothers who came to Lake County in 1836 or '37.[2] The brothers became prominent citizens of the town then known as Centerville, building homes and operating farms as well as businesses that included a cheese factory, a hotel, and a store. In 1848, the town was renamed in their honor.

They are buried in the Merrillville Cemetery. Dudley's four wives (one of whom had been William's widow) are also buried there.

The Dudley Merrill house, built in 1849 according to Lake County records, still stands at 12 W. 73rd Avenue.

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The man whose name is written as "M. Steickleman" in the document above was probably Johann Michael Steichelman, whom I have discussed before in connection with these estate papers.

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Myiel Pierce, Sr. (1801-1847), arrived in Lake County from New York in 1836.[3] He inspired T.H. Ball to playfully date of the founding of Centerville/Merrillville to 1842:

I place the date of the commencement of the village when Miles[4] Pierce built the first tavern here, and pouring out a bottle of whisky or breaking it upon the frame, after the manner of naming ships, called it "Centreville Hotel." Well would it have been for that village and many others, if all the whisky had gone the same way.[5]

In a previous post about his son, Myiel, Jr., I mentioned his early death and the hardship it caused his family.

Three sons of Myiel, Sr., and his wife, Marcia, served in the Civil War, one dying while in the service. Myiel and Marcia, who died in 1889, are buried in the Merrillville Cemetery, along with numerous family members.

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[1] Alice Flora Smedstad, Soldiers & Veterans Memorialized at the Merrillville Cemetery (self-published, 2007) at p. 50.
[2] Lake County 1834-1872 at pp. 38, 301.
[3] Lake County 1834-1872 at p. 54.
[4] Myiel's unusual first name appears in several variants in local histories, including "Miles" and "Milo."
[5] Lake County 1834-1872 at pp. 152-153.