Sharts, of Indianapolis, Ind.) and Griffin (a farmer of Henry County, Ind.) J. B. Shaw passed his boyhood and early youth in Ohio, his education being obtained at the Milford Academy. At the age of fifteen years he went to Indiana, and engaged as clerk in a dry goods store, being thus occupied for eight years, and after farming in that State for one year he came to Keokuk County, Iowa, and there made his home until 1876, at which time he cast his fortunes with Story County. He was married in the " Hoosier State," in 1856, to Miss Amanda E. Sharts, of Marion County, daughter of Daniel and Catherine (Ringer) Sharts, and their union has been blessed in the birth of six children: Daniel (a farmer of New Albany Township), Belle (Mrs. Krouse, of Greene County, Iowa), Sherman (at home), B. F. (now attending commercial college at Des Moines, Iowa) and Della and Lottie (at home). Upon arriving in this county, in 1876, Mr. Shaw purchased 225 acres of raw land, which now comprises his farm. This he has well improved with a good dwelling, which he erected the same fall he settled here, barns, sheds, etc., and a fine lot of forest trees, besides a quantity of small fruits. His farm is all well fenced and drained, he having used over a car-load of tile on it. In politics he is an active Republican, and frequently attends the conventions as delegate, and he has three times served as chairman of the county convention. He has also served as assessor and township trustee. He always takes an active part in church and Sunday-school work, and has acted as superintendent of the Evangelical Lutheran Sunday-school of Johnson's Grove, he and wife both being members of that denomination. He has ever taken an active interest in all things tending to benefit the county. He helped to organize this school district, and was its first director, and has several times served as president and secretary of the school board. Socially he affiliates with Columbia Lodge No. 292, A. F. & A. M.
Elias W. Shearer, farmer and stock-raiser, Collins, Iowa. Of that sturdy and independent class, the farmers of Iowa, none are possessed of more genuine merit and a stronger character than he whose name stands at the head of this sketch; he has risen to more than an ordinary degree of success in his calling as an agriculturist and stockman, and wherever known he is conceded to be an energetic and progressive tiller of the soil. His birth occurred in Marion County, Ind., on the 3d of January, 1844, and he is the son of Michael Shearer, who was a native of Maryland, but who was reared in the Keystone State. Michael Shearer was twice married, his second wife, Miss Catherine McCord, a native of Ohio, being the mother of our subject. Mr. Shearer moved from Indiana to Iowa in 1848, settling in Wapello County, and was one of the pioneers. He cleared and improved a farm, and there remained until his death about 1850. His wife survived him several years, and died in Story County since the war. Elias W. Shearer, the third of six sons, became familiar with the duties of the farm in youth, and was reared in Wapello. In March, 1862, he enlisted in Company E, Seventeenth Iowa Infantry, and served until discharged in May, 1865. He was promoted to sergeant in November, 1863, and served in that capacity until the close of the war. He participated in a number of engagements, the most prominent being Corinth, Iuka, Jackson, Champion's Hill, Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, and was captured at Resaca in the fall of 1864, being held a prisoner at Andersonville most of the time until the close of the war. He was honorably discharged at Davenport in 1865, after which he returned to Wapello County, Iowa. In the spring of 1868 he came