Phillip James Shaver (1813 - 1875)

Born 12 Jun 1813 in Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Ann (Bass) Shaver — married 1848 in Fayette County, Texas, USA

Descendants

Died 5 Apr 1875 at age 61 in Fayetteville, Fayette County, Texas

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This person was created through the import of myfamily.ged on 23 March 2011. The following data was included in the gedcom. You may wish to edit it for readability.

Birth

Birth:

Date: 12 JUN 1813

Place: Salisbury, Rowan Co. NC

Death

Death:

Date: 5 APR 1875

Place: fayetteville, Fayette Co. Tx.

The following biographical information was found on the Fayetteville County Site, Fayette County, Texas Family Histories http://www.fayettecountyhistory.org/family_histories2.htm

Phillip James Shaver

by Sue Dunlavy McIlveen

Phillip James Shaver was a founding pioneer. He not only fought for Texas independence but became a strong advocate for community development after the Republic became the state of Texas. He purchased land and laid out plans for the town of Fayetteville. In order to assure a thriving community, he carried out a bold and generous plan to attract settlers and provide them with the civic, educational and religious facilities needed. The enduring, rich heritage of the city is a testament to the early efforts of Phillip James Shaver and others that followed.

Phillip James Shaver, or P. J. as known by some, was born to Sally Holmes (Dauze) and Phillip Jacob Shaver on June 17, 1814 in Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina. He was one of at least nine children.[i] Phillip’s family later moved to LaGrange, Fayette Co., Tennessee where his father Phillip Jacob Shaver, a blacksmith, and Colonel Edward Cress were in business together manufacturing carriages.[ii] After Phillip’s father died in 1838,[iii] Phillip James left Tennessee for the new and rugged Texas frontier.

Philip J. Shaver, who followed in his father’s footsteps to become a blacksmith, arrived in Texas, put his blacksmith’s talents to use, and settled in the community of Rutersville around 1840.[iv] Two years later, Phillip J. Shaver received his three hundred twenty acres of land as a result of settling in the Republic.[v] With the turbulent encounters between the settlers and the Indians and Mexicans in those early days, Phillip joined the Republic of Texas Army as a private in the fall of 1842 under the command of William Eastland. He joined with many other courageous Fayette County citizens who engaged in the confrontation with the Mexicans that led to the Dawson Massacre.[vi]

Upon Phillip’s return to Rutersville, he resumed his career as a blacksmith.[vii] Being ready to settle down, he met Mary Ann (Bass) Holloway, a young lovely widow with four children. This cultured Virginia native arrived in Texas in 1845 and married Phillip James Shaver on December 2, 1847.[viii] They lived in Rutersville for a short time and then moved to Ross Prairie. Phillip purchased 525 acres of Alexander Thompson’s fertile prairie land. The well-known San Felipe stage made a stop here on its route between San Antonio and Bastrop. This area already had a few settlers which called the stage stop Alexander’s Landing or Lick Skillet. It is here in the rolling hills that Phillip surveyed and platted the town called Fayetteville.[ix] Some early pioneers suggested that the new town be named Shaversville, but Phillip J. Shaver decided to name it after his earlier home in Fayetteville, Tennessee. A biographical sketch of Phillip J. Shaver’s wife, Mary Ann “Grandma Shaver,” appeared in the October, 1911 San Antonio Express newspaper shortly before her death. The article’s inclusion of the statement that “he gave away every second lot to induce settlers to come in” indicates his desire to have a successful town.[x] Two photographs with a message written to relatives by Phillip J. Shaver’s daughter, Martha Jennings Shaver, also, include the statements of lots being given to settlers by her father.[xi] Phillip J. Shaver and his wife constructed the first log cabin which was situated on the town square. Many visitors, who included the Revs. Robert Alexander, Isaac John, and the Elder Rabb, often found it a comfortable resting place. Settlers came into the area with the majority of the population being of German or Czech heritage.[xii]

In order to have a productive and flourishing community for the new settlers, Phillip Shaver realized the importance of having facilities for educational, religious and civic activities. Phillip helped bring these three major necessities of life into the new community of Fayetteville. Phillip James Shaver donated the land and the Ross Prairie Citizen constructed a school which was built in 1848.[xiii] Classes opened in 1849 and by 1851 the non-sectarian school called Fayetteville Academy had thirty to forty students. A two day public examination was administered in 1852. Those two days included a barbecue dinner and entertainment by German musicians.[xiv] In 1850 the Texas Legislature passed a charter to create the school called Fayette (Fayetteville) Academy.[xv]

Phillip Shaver donated property for the Fayetteville Masonic Lodge #240 and became a charter member on August 27, 1859. The lower level of the building was offered to the newly formed private Fayetteville Male and Female Academy in 1860. In addition to teaching the basics, music lessons were made available for the first time. However, the school closed in 1861, probably due to the local unrest surrounding the Civil War.[xvi]

The property Phillip J. Shaver donated for the Fayetteville Academy was also used by the interdenominational Union Church when Fayetteville was first formed. Later, individual churches began to build their own places of worship. Phillip J. Shaver sold lots to the Catholics and the Methodists. However, he and his wife Mary Ann “for the reverence and respect that we entertain for the public Worship of God” conveyed a lot for one dollar to the Baptist Church.[xvii]

Phillip James Shaver’s active participation in civic endeavors during the 1850’s included several terms as the Justice of Peace.[xviii] As expected, one of his duties was to perform marriage ceremonies for the citizens of the community. At the start of the Civil War some of the Fayette County residents were vehement and caustic in their opposition to seceding from the Union. Phillip J. Shaver joined the Home Guard which was headquartered in Fayetteville.[xix] However, the vocal opinions had simmered to a passive resistance by 1864. It was at this time that Phillip Shaver had an unsuccessful, contested campaign for mayor against G. F. Haswell.[xx]

Phillip James Shaver, a prosperous businessman, owned and operated the first hotel which was located close to their home.[xxi] In the late 1850’s the family moved from their first log cabin home into a two-story colonial house which was built on the outskirts of Fayetteville. Agriculture was the most profitable business in the region. Like many others in that time period, Phillip actively engaged in farming and raising stock until his death.[xxii]

Phillip James Shaver died on April 6, 1875.[xxiii] It is appropriate that Phillip James Shaver is buried in the Fayetteville City Cemetery as he made a donation of this land to the city. Phillip James and Mary Ann Shaver had a large family, five of whom died in infancy. In addition to his own children, Phillip helped raise and care for the Holloway children and even gained guardianship of two Holloway boys.[xxiv] Only seven of the children from the Shaver’s marriage lived to adulthood. They were Sarah Elisabeth (Bettie) Shaver who married Henry Franklin Dunlavy, Robert Alexander Shaver who married Lillie Terrell, Emma Lou Shaver who married Carroll M. Breeding, William Spears Shaver who married Mary Elizabeth McGehee, Juliet Willellen (Ella) Shaver who married L. W. Ahlers, P J Shaver who married Bertha Vetter, and Martha Jennings Shaver. James J. Holloway married Lizzie Nicholson, Mary Francis Holloway married Major B. F. Dunn, John B. Holloway married Mattie Ware, and Richard Edwin Holloway married Ella Hancock. Most of the Shaver and Holloway children moved to the neighboring Colorado County. Mary Ann Shaver continued to reside in Fayetteville for a number of years, but eventually moved to Weimar. She died there on January 2, 1912 and is buried in the Weimar Masonic Cemetery. Many of the descendants continue to live in close proximity to Fayetteville to this day.[xxv]

Phillip James Shaver, with his devotion to his community, founded a wonderful little town which is prosperous and retains a rich German/Czech heritage today. The saying “What is the city, but its people” certainly applies. Phillip J. Shaver has recently been honored with his photograph as founder of Fayetteville on a delightful flyer promoting the annual 2000 Lickskillet Days and the prestigious invitation for the city of Fayetteville to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. The churches, the schools, the city and the people have all been recipients of Phillip James Shaver’s vision. Even Phillip Shaver’s choices of street names are still in place today in the quaint, historic community. The present residents have made good use of what was placed before them. Louis Polansky, a recent Fayetteville historian, stated the following:

If it wasn’t for the Shavers, our town would probably not exist, and this would be a loss to the entire State of Texas, for where else can you find a place like the town of Fayetteville.”[xxvi]

Sources: [i] North Carolina Daughters of American Revolution, Genealogical Records Committee Report, presented by Mrs. Stahle Linn, Jr., Elizabeth Maxell Steele Chapter, Miscellaneous Records – Rowan County, Years 1600-1970, “Johannes Schaefer Family,” (National DAR Library Washington, D. C., Microfilm by Genealogical Society, Salt Lake City, September 22, 1972), Clayton Library, Houston, TX., ID No. 901217, Roll 1383, Item No. 1, Section IV – Philip Shaver, pp. 13-53. [ii] Fayette County, Somerville, Tennessee, County Clerks Office Deed Book, Vol. G, p. 376. [iii] Western Carolinian, Salisbury, N. C., September 20, 1838. [iv] 1840 Census of the Republic of Texas, ed. Gifford White with forward by James M. Day (Pemberton Press: Austin, 1966), p. 40 [v] General Land Office, Archives and Record Division, Austin, Fayette County Claim No. 236b. [vi] Republic of Texas Papers – Public Debt Claim 2052, Texas Library and Archives Collection, September 6, 2009, retrieved from http://tslarac.tsl.state.tx.us/repclaims/157/15700428.pdf - 15700434; Houston Wade, compiled The Dawson Men of Fayette County, (no publisher Houston: October, 1932) pp. 15-23. [vii] 1850 United States Census, Fayette County, Texas, Town of Fayetteville, p. 196a. [viii] Fayette Co., LaGrange, Texas, County Clerks Office, Marriage Records, Vol. A No. 165; Carolinian Watchman, Salisbury, N.C., February 17, 1848. [ix] Fayette County Deeds, Vol. G p. 122; Vol. J. p. 360; Ernest Emory Bailey, ed. and compiled “Dr. Phillip James Shaver,” Texas Historical and Biographical Record, (The Texas Historical and Biographical Record: Austin, 1939?) pp. 278-279. [x] Reprint of article in The Mercury, Weimar, Texas, January 12, 1912. [xi] Photographs in the private collections of P. J. Shaver descendants, Kay Myers of San Antonio and Jane Blanks of Houston. [xii] Fayette County Texas Heritage, Fayette County History Book Commission, (Curtis Media: 1996), Vol. II, p. 444. [xiii] Ibid. Vol. I, p. 207. [xiv] Students of La Grange High School, Fayette County: Past and Present, ed. by Mrs. L. Williams, (La Grange High School: 1975), p. 63; Frank Lotto, Fayette County, Her History and Her People, (Sticker Steam Press: Schulenberg, 1902), p. 340. [xv] Texas State Gazette, September 21, 1850, Texas History Center – Eugene C. Barker Collection. [xvi] James Carter, Education and Masonry in Texas 1846-1861. (Masonic Publishing: Waco, 1964), pp. 93-94. [xvii] Fayette County, Deed Records, Vol. K, p. 7. [xviii] Fayette County Clerks Office, Bond as Justice of Peace, Vol. F, p. 112; Fayette County Election Returns 1848-1856. [xix] Leonie Rummel Weyand and Houston Wade, An Early History of Fayette County, Copyright – LaGrange Journal (Eakin Press: Burnet, Texas, 1936), p. 278. [xx] Frank Lotto, Fayette County, Her History and Her People, (Sticker Steam Press: Schulenberg, 1902), p. 138. [xxi] Leonie Rummel Weyand and Houston Wade, An Early History of Fayette County, p. 117; LaGrange Journal, March 16, 1922, R. E. Dunn (Shaver step-son) describes event of January 4, 1866. [xxii] United States 1860 Census, Fayette County, City of Fayetteville, p. 271b; “J. J. Holloway,” Memorial and Genealogical Record of Texas, (Goodspeed Brothers: Chicago, 1894), pp. 403-405. [xxiii] Fayette County Probate Records, Book J, File No. 1184. [xxiv] Fayette County Records - Guardianship File #380. [xxv] Family records compiled by the following descendants: Edith Harwell of Victoria (deceased), Mary Grant of Weimar (deceased), Mary Louise Kennedy of Chicago (deceased), Jane Blanks of Houston, Sarah Ritter of Houston, Phyllis Collins-Rummel of Dripping Springs, Sue McIlveen of Houston. [xxvi] Fayette County Texas Heritage, Vol. II, p. 444.

UPD

UPD 07 DEC 2008 13:59:41 GMT-6

Record ID Number

Record ID Number: MH:I4418

User ID

User ID: FE25ECA0-575A-464F-B411-89E0F92E3B09

Note

Note: Buried in Fayetteville City Cemetery with an R. A Shaver (son) buried next to him, (next to Catholic Cemetery in Fayetteville.)

Phillip J Shaver platted Fayetteville in 1850 and it was incorporated in 1882. Named after P J Shaver's boyhood home. Fayetteville, N. Carolina.

1847 A County Census: 2,886 B Fayetteville laid out by P J Shaver.

1838-1858 Grantee P J Shaver, Grantor E L Moore Deed Vol 393,

Grantee P J Shaver, Grantor Alexander Thompson Deed Vol G p 122,

8-2-1852 Grantor P J Shaver Bond a Justice of the Peace Beat No 9 Vol F p 188,

Grantor P J Shaver to David Wade Deed G p 290,

Grantor P J Shaver to Sylvester s Murger (couldn't make out last name) Deed Vol G p 339

Roll of the Fayetteville Home Guard Class # 2 Head Quarters of Fayetteville

P J Shaver Private

Charter Member of Fayetteville Lodge # 240, January 29, 1859

P J Shaver.

Phillip J Shaver as principal and David Wade and A J Adkinson as sureties for sum of five hundred dollars.

Took oath of office on August 14, 1852 before N W Farison, County Clerk and recorded August 14, 1852,

p 134, 135.

Page 180

P J Shaver elected on August 7, 1854 Justice of the Peace for Beat No 5. Took oath before Z M French CCC August 22, 1854.

1850 September, Fayette Co. TX