Matilda Criss of Owen County married Frederick W. Shaley of Vigo County May
8, 1856 in Owen County. Shaley's name had been "americanized" but he often
went by the old German spelling "Scheele". Shaley was a successful grocer,
and had a building on the corner of 8th and Poplar Sts in Terre Haute. They
are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, but the writing on the stone has been
almost obliterated. I would like to find out if there is anyone else
researching this name. There are some interesting documents at the Vigo
County Public Library written by Julia Shaley, the daughter-in-law of
Matilda and Frederick. Their son was a prominent doctor here in Vigo
County, and he was also named Frederick. Julia wrote about her
father-in-law, her husband, and her husband's maternal grandparents, William
and Nancy Criss. Some of the Criss information is erroneous, so my
assumption is she confused their history with someone else's in the family,
but there is also enough truth mixed in to know that she had a good portion
of her facts in order.
Matilda died at age 34 in 1873 after giving birth. I am uncertain as to
how many children she and Frederick had, and hesistate to quote what the
document said. Frederick went on to marry Elizabeth Nagelbuch (sp?) and
had more children. He died Dec. 19, 1888 at age 65. Perhaps another
researcher will know how many children....
Would be really interesting to see what other Shaley/Scheele researchers
know about this family.
Laura E. Mitchell lmitch(a)iquest.net
2522 College Ave. lmitchell(a)vigo.lib.in.us
Terre Haute, IN 47803
(812) 234-0692
Visit the Vigo County Public Library Webpage at:
http://vax1.vigo.lib.in.us
or
http://www.vigo.lib.in.us
Genealogists: Check the VCPL webpage for an index of obituaries in the
Terre Haute newspaper, 1903-1966,
http://vax1.vigo.lib.in.us/~obits/index.htm
VCPL now has the 1820 census of Vigo County online:
http://vax1.vigo.lib.in.us/1820/index.htm