Shelton, William

Born: 1807-03-18 Virginia

Died: 1877-01-28 Sangamon County, Illinois

Flourished: Sangamon County, Illinois

William Shelton emigrated with his parents from the western part of Virginia to Sangamon County, Illinois, in 1826, settling in what would become Curran Township. He was working in the Galena Lead Mines when the Winnebago War broke out in 1827, and he volunteered to fight in a company raised by the mine. After the war, he remained in Galena until 1830, when he returned to Sangamon County and married Prudence Neal, a union that produced seven children. In the late 1820s and early 1830s, Shelton purchased approximately 160 acres of public land in and around Curran and Chatham. In 1850, Shelton was farming and owned real estate valued at $3,000. By 1860, he owned real estate valued at $17,000 and had a personal estate of $1,000.

Gravestone, Oak Grove Cemetery, Loami, IL; Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Biographical, 1891), 358; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Sangamon County, 68:39, 189, 193, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 645-46; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Sangamon County, IL, 178; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Sangamon County, IL, 195.