Shuffleton, Hugh Hall, Sr.

SHUFFLETON, WHITMARSH

Posted By: Bill Rathbun (email)
Date: 3/5/2004 at 23:44:24

COURIER-FREE PRESS, Redding, Shasta County, California,

Wednesday afternoon, March 12, 1919

HUGH HALL SHUFFLETON, 49’ER, DEAD IN REDDING

Hugh Hall Shuffleton, Sr., one of the early settlers of Shasta County and Northern California, passed away in Redding at 3 o’clock Wednesday morning at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Mary Christison, in East Street, at the great age of eighty-eight years, nine months, and fifteen days.

Despite his great age, the pioneer was bright in mind and active physically until three weeks ago when he was taken ill the next day after the Eastern Star entertainment. From this breakdown he never recovered. Early Tuesday evening Hugh Hall Shuffleton, Sr., went into a sleep from which he did not awake.
Born in England

Hugh Hall Shuffleton, Sr., was born in Stanley Bridge, Lancashire, England on May 27, 1830 and came to the United States when three weeks old with his parents, Mr. And Mrs. Samuel Shuffleton. The family were in New York City for nine years, moving to Fairfield, Iowa, in 1839. The latter place was laid out and surveyed by the elder Shuffleton. Both of his parents passed away in Fairfield. After their deaths, in the early spring of 1849, Shuffleton started west for California by ox team, arriving in the fall of the year of 1849. At the old Peter Lawson ranch, then called Benton City near Vina. Nothing now remains however to mark the exact location. He engaged in placer mining on the Feather and American rivers. He came to Shasta County in the spring of 1850 and followed the same occupation for three years.

In 1853 Shuffleton returned to his old home at Fairfield, Iowa, after a herd of cattle. With the gold that he had panned from various streams of Northern California, Shuffleton purchased a herd and drove them across the plains back to California in 1854, coming into Shasta County this time by the old Peter Lawson trail by Mt. Lassen. From this time on he was a stockman of the Igo, Ono and Gas Point districts.

Married in 1855

On October 4, 1855 he and Miss Virginia Ann Apperson were united in wedlock, the ceremony being performed by Rev. E. B. Sheldon of Shasta. From this union there were three children--Edward T. Shuffleton (now dead), Mrs. Halle Stevens, postmistress at Igo for many years, and Mrs. Mary Christison, at whose home he passed away. After a few years of happy wedded life Mrs. Shuffleton died. His second marriage was to Mrs. Mary M. Tipton of Shasta on May 19, 1869. The wedding was solemnized by James Daly, justice of the peace. To this union there was one child born--H. H. Shuffleton, Jr., for the past thirteen years auditor of Shasta County. His second wife died several years ago.

Is Pioneer Mason

Shuffleton is one of the oldest Masons in Northern California. A charter from the grand lodge of Missouri was granted on May 10, 1843, to Sarchel Woods, Lucien E. Stewart and Peter B. Lassen, to establish a lodge at Benton City, Upper California, the place where Shuffleton first landed in California, and was to be named Western Star No. 98 of Missouri. The first records of this lodge were destroyed in a fire. The next records appear in 1850, when the name of the lodge was changed to Western Star No. 2 of California at Shasta County, California. Shuffleton became a member of the Masonic order in the year of 1854. In 1858 the deceased held his first office in lodge work, being elected Senior Warden.

In later years he joined Shasta Chapter No. 9, Royal Arch Masons in Redding. In 1860 Shuffleton was elected justice of the peace of Igo township, a job he held for twenty-five years. He was supervisor of district No. 2 from 1889 to 1893.
Funeral Sunday

The funeral arrangements have been placed in the hands of the Houston Undertaking Company and have been set for Sunday afternoon at the old family plot near Gas Point, under the auspices of Western Star Lodge No. 2 Masons of Shasta. ____________________________________________________________

NOTE: The preceding obituary of Hugh Hall Shuffleton, Sr., was contributed by Mrs. Ruth Whitmarsh, of Chico, California, who is a great-granddaughter of Samuel Shuffleton, an attorney who came to Fairfield, Iowa, in an early day. Incidentally, Mrs. Whitmarsh mentions that she has been advised that Hannah, mother of Samuel Shuffleton, was born in 1783, in Staley Bridge, England, daughter of the Earl of Stansbury. She came to this country in 1834, in a sailboat, taking six weeks to cross the Atlantic, and died in 1856.