ELIZABETH SHAWK: Elizabeth Shawk (b. 1785 – d. 1847), the daughter of Jacob Shawk and Anna Dorothea Koester Shawk, married Thomas Frederick, Jr. (b. 1778 – d. 1871).
Thomas and Elizabeth Shawk Frederick are my 4x Great-Grandparents.
Thomas Frederick Jr. and Elizabeth Shawk Frederick married on 2 May 1802 in Hamlin, Northumberland County, Pa. According to various sources, the young couple moved to Columbiana County, Ohio in 1802. Elizabeth Shawk’s parents, Jacob and Anna Dorothea Koester Shawk, also moved to Columbiana County that year.
In 1813, Thomas Frederick Jr. and Elizabeth Shawk Frederick moved to Wayne County, Oh.
Thomas and Elizabeth Shawk Frederick had 14 children: Jacob, Harriet, Margaret, Sophia, Reasin, Dorothy, Rachel, Matthew Elder, William, Henry, Catherine Ann, Sarah Ann, Elizabeth and Mary Ann.
Thomas Frederick Jr. died in 1871, and Elizabeth Shawk Frederick died in 1847. Cemetery records indicate that both were buried in the Doylestown Lutheran Cemetery in Doylestown, Wayne County, Oh. At some point in the 1950s, the caretakers of this cemetery removed all the gravestones, thus their graves are unmarked.
JACOB SHAWK: Elizabeth’s father, Jacob Shawk, my 5x Great-Grandfather, was born on 15 Nov 1758 in either Pennsylvania or Bavaria (Germany), and died on 4 May 1843 in Columbiana County, Ohio. In his application for a Revolutionary War pension, Jacob states he was born in Lancaster County, PA – since this is a first-hand account I believe Pennsylvania was his birth place. He is buried in Jordanville Cemetery in Lisbon, Columbiana County, Ohio. According to Find-A-Grave, his grave is unmarked.
JACOB SHAWK’S SERVICE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR: According to the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and his pension application, Jacob Shawk served as both a foot solider and an Indian Spy in the Revolutionary War. (I should note that the DAR spells his last name as “Shauck.”)
In 1776, Jacob Shawk enlisted as a private in the Company commanded by Captain Patton and served for 19 months. Jacob then enlisted in the “Flying Camp.”
In his pension application, Jacob states he was serving outpost duty during the Battle of Whiteplains but missed the battle because his unit failed to recall him and a fellow soldier before leaving the area. Jacob stated he and that soldier ventured out on their own, and finally found their unit on the march. Then, on 26 December 1776, Jacob and his unit crossed the Delaware River with General George Washington and took hundreds of Hessian soldiers captive in the Battle of Trenton. Jacob wrote this about the Battle of Trenton:
“on the morning of the 26th day of December 1776 we re-crossed the Delaware river four or five miles above the falls, to Trentontown, at here this day we took nine hundred (or upward) Hessians as being computed by the officers – General George Washington commanded in person, who was seen by me — and after having conducted the prisoners to Philadelphia, (here the prisoners were sent into the different parts of the interior of the county) – we again commenced our march up the Delaware river. At this time, my enlistment expired, and I got a discharge from my captain for the full enlistment, which discharge I have since lost.”
Jacob then described the rest of his military service:
“In 1777 I volunteered my services for two months in the militia under my former captain, to wit; Robert Patton, during which time we were principally stationed between the towns of Reading in Berks County Pennsylvania and city of Philadelphia. In 1778 I again, in April of that year volunteered my services as an “Indian Spy”** for seven months under Captain Peter Grove during which time we traversed principally through the then <illegible>, and after my service of, an Indian Spy having expired – I again in the fall of the same year was drafted for two months, and under this aforementioned Captain Robert Patton, the greater part of some two months…. making the whole service nineteen months. I volunteered my services as an Indian spy in the county of <illegible> Pennsylvania.” ** “Many Native Americans supported the British during the Revolutionary War. An Indian Spy patrolled the trails along the frontier warning the settlers of impending attacks. Generally the spies or scouts were divided into pairs, with each pair assigned a section of the frontier. The spies were not an attack force, but warned the settlers so they could prepare for defense. The men carried their supplies on their backs, slept on the ground and foraged for food living off deer and bear meat.”
Later in the pension file his service is broken down as:
June 1776 drafted for 2 months as a Private
1776 served enlisted for 6 months as a Private
1777 volunteered for 2 months as a Private
April 1778 volunteered for 7 months as an Indian Spy
1778 drafted for 2 months as a Private
Jacob started receiving a pension of $63.33 per year from 4 March 1834.
ANNA DOROTHEA KOESTER SHAWK: Jacob’s first wife was Anna Dorothea Koester Shawk. She was born 9 Nov 1762 and died on 13 Jan 1813. She is also buried in the Jordanville Cemetery, Lisbon, Columbiana County, Ohio.
ELIZABETH BRADY: Jacob’s second wife was Elizabeth Brady. They married in Columbiana County, Ohio on 13 Jan 1815.
JACOB SHAWK: Jacob Shawk’s Will is dated 21 August, 1834. In his will, Jacob spells his name as Jacob Shawk, of Columbiana County, Oh.
Jacob Shawk Bequeaths:
To his wife Elizabeth Shawk, various household goods, lot number 133 in the town of New Lisbon where he now lives, and as much room in “my mansion house on the lot aforesaid, as shall be deemed proper and sufficient by my executors.” She is to have this as long as she remains his widow (does not remarry).
After the death or remarriage of his wife, Elizabeth Shawk, all his goods, chattels, real estate will be sold and then, out of the proceeds, he wills to Jacob Shawk, Jr., his son, the sum of sixty dollars.
The balance of the proceeds will then be equally divided among his sons
Jacob Shawk, Jr.
Henry Shawk
Abel Shawk
Thomas Shawk, and
Samuel Shawk, and his daughters
Elizabeth, now Elizabeth Frederick
Rachel, now Rachel Harper
Ann, now Ann Scroggs
Dorothy, now Dorothy Crosser
His beloved son, Jacob Shawk, Jr and his trusty friend, J.G. Williard are named executors.
Will is signed by Jacob Shawk (he is able to write)
Witnessed by Henry Springer, Abel Lod?
David Small
On 17 November 1843 Jacob Shawk, Jacob G. Milliand and John Springer are bonded to be Executors of Jacob Shawks Will.
The Probate file contains the list of Jacob Shawk’s property that is sold. The date on the list is January 5, 1844. Property list is 2 pages and includes: German books, 3 pairs spectacles, 1 copper kettle, 4 beds, 1 corner cupboard, 1 grindstone and crank, anvils, scraps of iron, and 1 lathe.
Jacob Shawk has some notable descendants including:
ABLE SHAWK: Jacob Shawk’s son, Abel Shawk, is my 4x great grand-Uncle. Abel was born in Pennsylvania in 1814 and died in St. Louis, MO in 1873.
Abel Shawk, along with Alexander Bonner Latta and Miles Greenwood, is famous for inventing a steam-powered fire engine in Cincinnati, OH in 1852. While theirs was not first steam-powered fire engine, it is known as the first practical model because it could produce full steam, and be ready to pump water, in about 5 minutes. Other models, used in New York and Berlin, were impractical as they took much longer to generate steam.
Shawk, Bonner and Latta’s steam-powered fire engine was named “Uncle Joe Ross” after the city councilman who persuaded the city of Cincinnati to buy their model. Tragically, during a public demonstration in 1855, the Uncle Joe Ross exploded killing its operator, John Winterbottom. Despite this incident, the steam-powered fire engine was used throughout the United States for the next 60 years.
CAROLINE SHAWK BROOKS: Abel Shawk’s daughter, Caroline (or Carrie) Shawk Brooks (my 1st cousin, 5x removed), was famous in her own right as a sculptor. Carrie was born in Cincinnati, OH in 1840, and died in St. Louis, MO in 1913.
Carrie’s first sculpting medium was butter, and she is best known for her, “Dreaming Iolante” butter sculpture which was exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. She recreated this sculpture in 1878, which was shipped to that year’s Paris Exposition Universelle labeled for customs as “110 pounds of butter.”
Carrie’s next medium was marble, and she is well known for many sculpted portrait busts. Her subjects included Thomas Carlyle, George Eliot, James A. Garfield, and Alicia Vanderbilt La Bau with her daughters.
Carrie Shawk Brooks has a Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Shawk_Brooks