Shaff, Heman B.

SHAFF, BLAKELY, RUSSELL, VAN DERVERE, WOLFE

Posted By: Volunteer Subscribers
Date: 4/15/2003 at 18:03:23

Source: "The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated" published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

HEMAN B. SHAFF.

More than sixty-four years have passed since this gentleman came to Clinton county, and he is justly numbered among her honored pioneers and leading citizens. He has been prominently identified with her agricultural interests, and is to-day one of the wealthiest farmers of Camanche township. He was born in Sodus, Wayne county, New York, on the 12th of March, 1817, and is a son of Joseph and Lucy (Blakely) Shaff, natives of New York and Vermont, respectively. He was the fourth in order of birth in their family of six children, of whom only two are now living. His sister, Teresa, now ninety-three years of age, makes her home with him. The father, who was a farmer by occupation, died when our subject was only five years old, leaving six children to the care of the widowed mother. She possessed a large amount of energy and was able to keep her children together until they were old enough to care for themselves.

Mr. Shaff, of this review, grew to manhood in his native state and was educated in its common schools. In September, 1837, at the age of twenty years, he started westward, in company with his mother, brother and two sisters. They had two teams of horses and two wagons, and brining with them their bedding and cooking utensils they camped out along the way. With the exception of our subject the other members of the family stopped at Lewiston, Fulton county, Illinois, to visit relatives, but in November of that year he crossed the river into Clinton county, Iowa, and selected a claim on section 11, township 80, range 5. He then returned to Illinois for the family, and spent the winter in Rock Island county almost opposite the land he had selected. Building a log house, the family located on his place in the spring of 1838, but the mother was not long permitted to enjoy her new home, as she died a few months later.

When the land came into market, in 1840, Mr. Shaff entered two hundred and forty acres at the land office in Dubuque. As time has passed he has steadily prospered in his farming operations and has added to his property until he and his son now own about fourteen hundred acres of valuable land, of which one thousand acres are under cultivation. He is a man of keen discrimination, sound judgment and good business ability, and to these characteristics may be attributed his wonderful success.

In 1840 Mr. Shaff was united in marriage with Miss Mary Russell, who was born in Vermont and came to Iowa with her parents the year of her marriage. By this union were born five children, namely: Lucy, who married G. V. Van Dervere and now deceased; Mary Ann, wife of John Wolfe, of Low Moor; Emeline, who married John Van Devere, and died in 18--; Mina, who died in infancy; and John, whose sketch appears on another page of this volume. The mother of these children died in 1856, at the age of fifty-five years, and was laid to rest in the family burying ground on the home place.

In early life Mr. Shaff affiliated with the Democratic party and cast his first presidential vote for Martin Van Buren, but he joined the Republican party on its organization, and has since been one of its stanch supporters. He is to-day the oldest living resident in Camanche township, and probably the oldest in the county, and can relate many interesting incidents of pioneer life. When he first located here he was compelled to go to Andover, Henry county, Illinois, to mill, a distance of sixty miles. The fall after his arrival he had no wheat and corn, and was compelled to go to Knox county, Illinois, to purchase it, requiring about a week to make the trip. In 1838 he was unable to cross the river to have his corn ground, and as he had to pound it in a mortar, the principal sustenance of the family was milk and hominy, instead of milk and mush. His labors as one of the founders of this county justly entitle him to a prominent place in its history, and as a citizen he is highly respected and esteemed by all who know him.