Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Biographical History of Cherokee County, Iowa W. S. Dunbar & Co., Chigago - 1889 [page 490-491] THERON SHELL was born in the village of Tonawanda, Erie County, New York, March 30, 1839. His father, JOHN SHELL, was born in 1795, of German ancestry; his mother, CATHERINE (WIRE) SHELL, was born in 1804, and was of Welsh origin. JOHN SHELL died in 1863, and his widow, twenty-two years after. They were the parents of seven sons and four daughters, all of whom grew to maturity. THERON remained at home until the age of eighteen years working on the farm, and at times at the carpenter's trade. In 1858, in company with two other boys, he started across the plains in quest of a life more exciting than that furnished in his native town. They went as far west as Fort Kearney, when he came back to St. Louis; there he met a party organized for a hunting expedition to the wilds of Arkansas; he joined them and after some weeks of rough life he was attacked with swamp fever, and was brought back as far as Memphis where his brother JACOB met him, and took him home to New York. He remained there until "war's shrill alarm" was sounded, and Fort Sumter's guns screamed for help. His blood was fired, and he answered the first call for troops, enlisting at Buffalo, New York, in the Twenty-first New York Volunteer Infantry; he was the first man from Tonawanda to enter the service. The command was attached to General McDOWELL'S army, and at the first battle of Bull Run was held in reserve. He participated in the fight at Falmouth, Rappahannock Station, Cedar Montaina and Sulphur Springs. He was on that memorable retreat when POPE'S army was under almost continual fire for eighteen days. At the second Bull Run he was wounded in the arm, both bones being broken; he also received a more troublesome wound in the stomach, a spent ball striking his belt plate, a belt that he had taken the day before from a rebel Sergeant; this knocked him senseless, and he was afterward captured by a Texas company and held a prisoner from August 30 until September 9. His arm was amputated by an Ohio surgeon, and after being paroled he was sent to the Fairfax Seminary Hospital, where he remained until the middle of October, when he was claimed by friends and taken home. He was discharged October 10, 1862. The history of his regiment shows that he was promoted for bravery on the field of Second Bull Run, and after his discharge a Sergeant's commission was sent to him. When he was able to work he was made collector of "canal tolls," and Assistant United States Assessor. He was also engaged in mercantile business at Tonawanda, where he remained until the fall of 1867. Having a mind of a philosophical and mechanical turn, in the year 1867 he began the manufacture of a barometer and thermometer, and other similar instru- ments; his success was marked and he located in St. Louis, and thence traveled extensively over the United States. Growing tired of this life he returned to New York, and engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1884, when he came to Iowa, and secured a tract of land near the one on which he now lives. Mr. SHELL was first married at Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1872, to Miss ANNA SMITH. She died in 1875, and he was united to his present wife June 22, 1884. One child was named HATTIE AMELIA, four years old. Mrs. KEZIAH SHELL was the widow of GEORGE KENT, an early settler of Cherokee County. She and her husband came from Tonawanda, New York, in 1869, and passed through many trials in the new country. The husband died in 1881, and the mother was called upon to part from her son, CHARLES SYLVESTER KENT, under the most painful circumstances. He was out hunting with a neighbor's boy when he dug and ate what he supposed was artichoke, but was in reality the poisonous wild parsnip; he reached home, but no relief could be given, and he died in his mother's arms April 2, 1866, aged fourteen years and six months. ===========================================================================