Contributed by Charlene Saunders:
SILAS S. SHAFFER, section 23, Lauramie Township, was born in Cleveland,
Ohio, April 11, 1819, of German ancestry. His father, JACOB SHAFFER,
and his grandfather, JACOB SHAFFER, SR., were natives of Westmoreland
County, Pennsylvania, his great-grandfather, SHAFFER, being a native of
Germany. The mother of our subject, ANNA (THATCHER) SHAFFER, was born
in the State of New Jersey, a daughter of SAMUEL and SUSAN THATCHER, her
grandfather, THATCHER, being a native of England. When the subject of
this sketch was a lad of eight years his parents removed to Columbus,
Ohio, where he was reared and educated. He learned the bakery and
confectionery trade in that city, which he followed for more than thirty
years, and was an unusually good workman.
In the spring of 1844 he came to La Fayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana,
and became associated in business with HIRAM BRUNSON. This partnership
was dissolved in 1849, when his brother, JACOB SHAFFER, came from
Columbus, Ohio, and became his partner. In January, 1866, he left La
Fayette, removing to his farm on section 23, Lauramie Township, which
contains fifty acres of well improved land, and there he has since
devoted his attention to farming and stock-raising.
MR. SHAFFER was married May 28, 1846, to MISS CHARLOTTE OYLER, a
daughter of SAMUEL OYLER, who is now deceased. MR. OYLER came from
London, England, to America, in 1837, and the same year entered the land
now occupied by the subject of this sketch. Of seven children born to
MR. and MRS. SHAFFER, but four are living--CHARLES, HARRY, ADA and
GEORGE. CHARLES, who is an inventor and a practical machinist, married
NETTIE SLY, and has two children, named HARRY and AMY. He makes his
home in Rockford, Illinois. HARRY has been twice married, the maiden
name of his first wife being ELVA LUCAS. One child, a girl, ELVA
GENEVIEVE, was born to them. ELVA died December 23, 1879, her child
surviving her but seven months. He was married a second time to MATTIE
THOMPSON, and to this union three children have been born,
named--LOTTIE, CHARLES and OLIVER RONALD.
HARRY SHAFFER is the present principal of the Clark's Hill schools. ADA
is the wife of BOURBON THOMPSON, of Lauramie Township, and they are the
parents of two children, named--BLANCHE and GEORGE. GEORGE SHAFFER, who
lives in Lauramie Township, married MINNIE DAUGHERTY, and they have one
child named GLENN. In religion the SHAFFER family are Universalists.
In politics MR. SHAFFER affiliates with the Republican party. JACOB
SHAFFER, the father of our subject, was a doctor by profession, and
practiced medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, when that city was a mere
hamlet. He was one of the first eclectic physicians in the United
States, and was a very skillful practitioner, who during the cholera
scourge in 1832, was more successful in that disease than any other
physician of his time.
Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe County, Indiana,
pg. 524