Shearer, H. J.

SHEARER, DRAPER

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 11/23/2008 at 17:29:50

SHEARER, H. J.; Farmer; Sec. 8; P. O. Prairie City; born in Vermilion Co., Ill., Nov. 17, 1832; came to this county in 1848; has 200 acres of land, valued at $8,000. Married Cilia M. DRAPER; she was born near Indianapolis, Ind., July 7, 1838; mother of six children-A. Ross, Ida, Laura, James, Charlie, Nellie. His father was a native of North Carolina; he emigrated from there to Kentucky, thence to Ohio, thence to Indiana, thence to Vermilion CO., Ill., where the subject of this sketch was born; was one of the earliest settlers of that county; when he was 16 years old, he came to Jasper Co.; came through with teams, and camped out; brought along their household furniture with the lot, thirteen bedsteads, which were a luxury at that rime; landed one half mile east of Vandalia, in a shanty about 16 x 18, with a chimney built on the outside of timber; stoned it up the first thing they did after arriving; was among the earliest settlers; there were not more than four or five families on this part of the county; had to go to Oskaloosa for their milling, forty miles; Monroe, and Prairie City were not known; his father built the first frame building in Des Moines Tp., or in the county; Uncle Elias PRUNTY was to paint the first frame building for nothing; he painted it, on what terms he could not hear; Mr. SHEARER and a man named PRUNTY fed the first cattle ever fed in this county; had to drive them 110 miles east, to a man of the name DAY, for scales to weigh them; received $3.55 per hundred; the first school house built on his father's farm, about one-half mile east of Vandalia. ~ "The History of Jasper County" (Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1878), 646