The Shelton Children

In this photo are Lizzie B Lois, Mason, and Grace Anthea Shelton. Their parents were John Buford Shelton and Gelia Selina Hensley of Calloway County, Kentucky, who were married on 18 May 1885 in Henry County, Tennessee.

For many years, this was all the information available on this family. Grace told her daughter that her mother, Gelia Selina, had died when Grace was three or four years old (about 1893). After that, the three children were taken to an orphanage, presumably in Louisville, where they were left by their father for several years. After he remarried, Grace and her brother were brought to live with their father, his new wife (a widow), and her children from a previous marriage (Arnold). The youngest child, Lizzie B. was believed to have been adopted from the orphanage. Grace never saw her again, although in later years, she searched for her.

Grace also told the story that after a few years, her father abandoned his new wife, leaving her with her own two children, his two children, and three children they had together. She said that John Buford Shelton had “gone out West” and was never seen again in Calloway County. She and her brother had been sent away by the step-mother, and both had worked for a local farm family until they were grown.

As a researcher, I was intrigued by this forlorn family. During the Fall of 2013, I searched for facts to confirm this oral account of these children.

I started with what little we knew about their mother… Gelia Selina Hensley Shelton. Her full name is written on a photograph left to her daughter, Grace. Gelia Selina Hensley was born and lived in or near Calloway, Kentucky at the time of her marriage to John Buford Shelton on 18 May 1885. We have a photograph of her adult brother, John Hensley, taken in Nashville, Tennessee. We also have a photograph of her sister or sister-in-law, but the name is illegible.

Finally, we have a funerary card which merely says “Mrs. Shelton,” and gives a date of 22 April 1893. We know from Grace’s story, that she believes her mother died in about 1893 or 1894. There is a high probability the card is Gelia Selina Shelton’s, however, more concrete evidence is required to state this as a fact with certainty.

An online search quickly located a marriage license issued for John B. Shelton and “Salina” Hensley on the correct date. The license was issued in Henry County, Tennessee. It is probable that they were married in Paris, Tennessee.

Sadly, an 1890 census is unavailable to confirm that she was living with John Buford Shelton at that time. [Most of the 1890 census records were destroyed.]

[I find it humbling that the sum total of factual evidence to document a human life might be: a photograph, a marriage license, and (possibly) a generic funerary card.]

I then began my research on John Buford Shelton. His birth date is believed to have been 29 Jul 1863 (according to one Shelton Family Tree in Ancestry.com). I found no documentation to confirm this as a fact.

He is not recorded on the 1870 or 1880 census as living with his stated father and mother (John G. Shelton and Lucy B. Dunnaway). I also checked census records for various older siblings, aunts and uncles, etc. More data is required to determine his whereabouts and confirm his parentage.

The first official record to document his existence is the marriage license dated 18 May 1885.

Again, clues provided in family trees found at Ancestry.com indicate that in about 1895 he married Ludora Boyd, a widow. She had two children by her first marriage (William and Clarence Arnold). After 1895, she had four more children with John Buford Shelton: Connie, Coy, Nellie and Garland.

The 1900 census confirms Grace Anthea Shelton White’s story that she was restored to her father and lived with the new family. She and her brother Mason both appear on that census.

I have been unable to locate John Buford Shelton in any further census. As to the claim that he “went out West” I have no evidence to confirm or refute that story. I will continue my research to see if I can shed light on this family mystery.

Sources:

Ancestry.com. 1900 Census. Wadesboro, Calloway, Kentucky; Roll: 512; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 0019; FHL microfilm: 1240512

Ancestry.com. Family Trees: Dalrymple, Boyd.

Ancestry.com. Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002 [database on-line].

Personal knowledge of family members, including the written memoirs of Mildred Carline White (granddaughter of Gelia Selina Hensley Shelton).

Do you have more information? Would you like more information?