Typed by: Kay Cunningham

 

JOHN CROSBY SHAW, M. D.

     Dr. Crosby Shaw, b November 24, 1846 in Monroe County, Alabama, d December 16, 1929 in Marlin, Falls County, Texas -- a son of Dr. John L. and Permelia (Crosby) Shaw, who married in 1845.  John L. Shaw was born in 1814 in North Carolina, d 1884 in Alabama; and Permelia (Crosby) Shaw, b in Alabama -- a daughter of Chesley and Sarah (Hughes) Crosby, natives of South Carolina. John Crosby Shaw was the eldest child of Dr. John L. and Permelia (Crosby) Shaw; and his siblings were: Frances Shaw, who married Charles Snead of Alabama; Nancy Shaw; Sarah Shaw who married John Stamps of Alabama; Emma Shaw, who married the president of Howard College, Reverend Riley Shaw; Amanda Shaw; and Dr. W. C. Shaw, who also settled in Marlin, Texas and engaged in the drug business with Dr. Richardson Clarke Nettles.

     On February 29, 1880, Dr. John Crosby Shaw was married in the of Dr. William Killebrew (located where the Exxon Service Station is now located across from the Courthouse -- to the west, at the intersection of Highways 6 and 7), to Nancy (Sypert) -- called "Nannie", b January 9, 1862 in Clarksville, Tennessee, d May 27, 1960 in a convalescent in Marlin, Falls County, Texas -- daughter of S. G. and Mary (Killebrew) Sypert. He was a native of Kentucky; she of Tennessee.

     John Crosby Shaw entered the university in 1863, but enlisted in the Confederate States Army the following year, as a member of Company E, Eighth Alabama Cavalry. After serving fifteen months, he took the oath of allegiance, and in 1865, he resumed his literary course in connection with a medical course, and studied medicine under his father, who was educated at Fayettesville, North Carolina, and received his medical education at Louisville, Kentucky. In 1869, John Crosby Shaw began a course of lectures at what is now known as Tulane University in Louisiana; and he received his M. D. degree in 1871 form Mobile, Alabama medical College. In 1872, he moved to Texas, located in Waco, and began his medical practice. He subsequently relocated his medical practice in Reagan, with a final move to Stranger, where he established his gamily home, where they lived for twenty-one years. Dr. Shaw practiced medicine throughout the east Falls County area -- primarily in the Hog Island (now Rosedale) Community near the present-day Reagan Community, and at Stranger and Marlin.

     Nancy (Sypert) Shaw's father also served with Terry's Texas Rangers in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. They loved a Springield when Mr. Sypert returned after the Civil War, and later resided on a ranch near Mt. Calm, where Nancy attended Mt. Calm Masonic Institute -- having moved there after loving in Marlin for a time. Nancy's mother died there, and Nancy returned after education to Marlin to reside with her uncle, Dr. William Killebrew. She taught school at Perry, Taylor's Chapel, and in Groesbeck -- having become a teacher at age sixteen.

     In 1904, Mrs. Shaw established a second in College park, at Sherman, Texas and took charge of a dormitory while her son, Frank, was enrolled at Austin College, and her daughter, Eunice, attended high school.

     Dr. and Mrs. John Crosby Shaw were active in church affairs, and were of the Presbyterian faith -- with membership in the Methodist -Presbyterian Union Church at Stranger. She also united with the Presbyterian Church in Sherman while there, and subsequently in the First Presbyterian Church of Marlin. She appeared on the program of the Ladies Missionary union of the Dallas Presbytery, held at College Park Church in Sherman, on April 18-19, 1905, and was a vice-president in representing the Sherman church. She was active as a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Marlin, the WCTU, a charter member of the first garden club organized in Marlin, which was called the "community Garden Club," and was active in various other organizations until physical disabilities prevented further service to her community.

     Dr. John Crosby and Nancy ("Nannie" Sypert) Shaw were parents of four children:

     Pauline Shaw, b 1881, d 1973 -- married John James Spencer, b 1874, d 1934 and buried in Calvary Cemetery.

     Frances E. Shaw, (called "Fannie"), b December 24, 1882, d August 12, 1893 at Stranger, Falls County, Texas, and buried in the Stranger Cemetery.

     Frank Hawthorn Shaw, b October 28, 1884 at Stranger, Falls County, Texas, d January 16, 1971 in Marlin -- married in June 1910 to Constance Harlan, b October 21, 1887, d February 11, 1978.

     Eunice Shaw -- who married G. A. Ralls, of Houston.

     Descendants of Dr. and Mrs. John Crosby Shaw continued to reside at Stranger and in Marlin, Falls County, Texas. They left a rich heritage to their children. Dr. Shaw was a member of the Democratic Executive Committee -- serving as a delegate to the State Convention in San Antonio, Texas in 1890. He was a member of the Central State Medical Association; was a Mason, and served as an Elder in the Presbyterian Church in Kosse for a time between their memberships in the Stranger and Marlin Churches. When Mrs. Shaw died, she was survived by three children, seven grandchildren, a four great grandchildren. She was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Marlin, next to her husband's grave.

 
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Copyright Permission granted to Theresa Carhart and her volunteers for printing these bio of these Falls County Families to this Web page "Families of Falls County," Compiled and Edited by the Falls County Historical Commission, page 412, column 2 and page 413 column 1 & 2. Member of Falls County Historical Commission. This book is out of Print, and very few copies are available.