Shaffer, John W.

Born: 1827-07-05 Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

Died: 1870-10-31 Salt Lake City, Utah

Flourished: Freeport, Illinois

John W. Shaffer relocated from his native Pennsylvania to Freeport, Illinois, and became involved in Republican politics. He was elected as Stephenson County sheriff in 1856 and again in 1860. Shaffer served as a captain and assistant quartermaster with the Illinois Volunteers in the Civil War before receiving promotion to the U.S. Volunteers. His primary service was as chief of staff for General Benjamin F. Butler's during the occupation of New Orleans and in the Richmond campaign. He ended the war at the rank of brevet brigadier general. Shaffer was a delegate from Illinois to the 1864 Republican National Convention. Near the end of his life, Shaffer served as Governor of the Utah Territory. He married Mary Jennie Strawbridge and the couple had three children.

U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2009); Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City, UT), 31 October 1870, 3:1; Mary Stiles (Paul) Guild, Genealogy: Strobridge Morrison or Morison Strawbridge (Lowell, MA: Vox Populi Press, 1891), 236; The History of Stephenson County, Illinois (Chicago: Western Historical, 1880), 219; Thomas A. McMullin and David Walker, Biographical Directory of American Territory Governors (Westport, CT: Meckler, 1984), 300; Gravestone, Freeport City Cemetery, Freeport, IL.