Notes on Amaziah Shields: Biographical sketch extracted from: Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887. pp. 746-747.
AMAZIAH SHIELDS, farmer, Chester Township, was born in that township May 8, 1858, son of William and Pheriba (Hunt) Shields. The father was born in Clinton County, Ohio, January 16, 1818, of Irish ancestry. He was reared in his native county, and was there married June 28, 1843, to Miss Pheriba Hunt, horn in Guilford, North Carolina, and daughter of Thomas and Lydia (Wilson) Hunt, who removed to Wayne County, Indiana, when she was five years old. Her mother died in Wayne County, and her father afterward removed to Randolph County, where he passed the remainder of his days. Mr. and Mrs. William Shields removed to Wells County, Indiana, in 1843, locating on a farm of eighty acres in Chester Township which he had previously purchased. They made a temporary home at the house of Mr. Shields' brother-in-law, John Lancaster, until Mr. Shields had cut down a sufficient number of trees to enable him to put up a building; and with the logs he then felled he constructed his first log cabin in Wells County. He moved his family into this primitive dwelling as soon as the puncheon floor had been laid, and without waiting for the walls to be daubed. Game of all kinds was plentiful, deer and wild turkeys frequently coming clear to his house. Wolves were troublesome and often devoured sheep within sight of their owners. Mr. Shields was not fond of hunting, but gave his time and attention to the clearing of his
land and cultivating his farm. He had to go to Wayne County for grain, and to Mount Etna for his milling.
There was no store or doctor nearer than Camden. Mr. Shields lived, however, to see the country cleared up and settled, good improvements, railroads, markets, mills and other conveniences close at hand. Mr. and Mrs. Shields were the parents of nine children, of whom two, John Wesley and Alonzo, are deceased. John Wesley was a member of Company I, Thirty-fourth Indiana Infantry, during the late war, and died from the severe exposure one year after his return. The living children are—Sarah Ann, wife of Eli Bryson, resides in Celina, Ohio; Thomas Milton married Matilda Ellen Turner; Robert married Mary Caroline Ellis; Mary Elizabeth is the wife of John R. Bales; Amaziah, Susan Catherine and Esther Luella. William Shields was killed October 19, 1884, while on a visit to Wayne County, by his horses running away. He was a Republican in politics, and a member of the Christian church at Chester Center. Our subject was reared in his native township and educated in its schools. He was married April 16, 1880, to Miss Sarah Ellen Maddox, a native of Chester Township, and daughter of Wesley Harvey and Eliza Ann (Grove) Maddox. To this union two children have been born--Olive May and Claude. Politically he affiliates with the Republican party. |
