Meedy Shields
Encyclopedia
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
Pioneer, the founder of Seymour, Indiana
Seymour, Indiana
Seymour was the site of the World's First Train Robbery, committed by the local Reno Gang, on October 6, 1866 just east of town. The gang was put into prison for the robbery, and later hanged at Hangman's Crossing outside of town....
, a successful capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
politician. He was first cousin to General John Tipton
John Tipton
John Shields Tipton was an American politician.Tipton was born in what is now Sevier County, Tennessee. His father was killed by Native Americans. His great uncle, also named John, was a prominent man in the area...
and a distant cousin of Robert Shields (diarist)
Robert Shields (diarist)
Reverend Robert Shields was a former Minister and high school English teacher who lived in Dayton, Washington, USA, who, after his death, left behind a diary of 37.5 million words chronicling every five minutes of his life from 1972 until a stroke disabled him in 1997...
.
Early life
Shields was born in what is now Sevier County, TennesseeSevier County, Tennessee
Sevier County is a county of the state of Tennessee, United States. Its population was 71,170 at the 2000 United States Census. It is included in the Sevierville, Tennessee, Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Knoxville-Sevierville-La Follette, TN Combined Statistical Area. The...
at Shields Mountain near the site of Fort Shields (aka Shields Fort) built by his grandfather, Robert. His father James was one of the "Ten Brothers" of the Irish Shields family who had left Tennessee for the Indiana Territory
Indiana Territory
The Territory of Indiana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1800, until November 7, 1816, when the southern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Indiana....
.[1] One of these Ten Brothers was John Shields who was recruited by Lewis and Clark for their 1804 expedition as a gunsmith and scout.
At the age of 7, Shields moved to Harrison County
Harrison County, Indiana
Harrison County is a county located in the far southern part of the U.S. state of Indiana along the Ohio River. It is divided into twelve townships, and the county seat is Corydon, the former capital of Indiana. The county is part of the larger Louisville/Jefferson County, KY–IN Metropolitan...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
. In 1816 his father acquired about 1200 acres (4.9 km²) of land to the north, in Jackson County, Indiana
Jackson County, Indiana
Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2010, the population was 42,376. The county seat is Brownstown.-History:...
.
At the age of about 16, he manned flatboat
Flatboat
Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with (mostlyNOTE: "(parenthesized)" wordings in the quote below are notes added to...
s on the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
carrying goods to New Orleans returning via the Natchez Trace
Natchez Trace
The Natchez Trace, also known as the "Old Natchez Trace", is a historical path that extends roughly from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers...
[2]. He eventually owned several flatboat
Flatboat
Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with (mostlyNOTE: "(parenthesized)" wordings in the quote below are notes added to...
s of his own.
In 1827, he was sued for Malicious Trespass by his neighbor to the north, James Reno, father of the notorious Reno Gang
Reno Gang
The Reno Brothers Gang, also known as the Reno Gang and The Jackson Thieves, were a group of criminals that operated in the Midwestern United States during and just after the American Civil War. Though short-lived, they carried out the first three peacetime train robberies in U.S. history...
. This was part of a long-standing feud between the Shields and Reno families. James Reno had settled in Jackson County, Indiana
Jackson County, Indiana
Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2010, the population was 42,376. The county seat is Brownstown.-History:...
in 1813, three years prior to James Shields.
Mid Life
Shields then joined the Indiana Militia in 1832 to fight in the Black Hawk WarBlack Hawk War
The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict fought in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans headed by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos known as the "British Band" crossed the Mississippi River into the U.S....
and by the fall of the that year, acquired the title of Captain. His only brother William, a member of the Indiana Legislature, died in office in 1841 and his father, James, died in 1848. Shields received a sizeable inheritance by this time. He opened a gristmill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
in nearby Rockford, Jackson County, Indiana
Rockford, Jackson County, Indiana
Rockford is an unincorporated town in Redding Township, Jackson County, Indiana.- History :Rockford was named for the "rocky ford" of the East Fork of the White River where easier crossing was permitted by a rock river bottom....
which was the largest commercial center in Jackson County, Indiana
Jackson County, Indiana
Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2010, the population was 42,376. The county seat is Brownstown.-History:...
at the time[2].
He was on the Board of Directors for the new Ohio and Mississippi Railroad
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad
The Ohio and Mississippi Railway was a railroad operating between Cincinnati, Ohio, and East St. Louis, Illinois, from 1857 to 1893.General Ormsby M. Mitchel was a civil engineer on this project....
Eastern Division[3] and successfully persuaded railroad engineer, John Seymour, to bypass Rockford, Jackson County, Indiana
Rockford, Jackson County, Indiana
Rockford is an unincorporated town in Redding Township, Jackson County, Indiana.- History :Rockford was named for the "rocky ford" of the East Fork of the White River where easier crossing was permitted by a rock river bottom....
on the White River
White River (Indiana)
The White River is a two-forked river that flows through central and southern Indiana and is the main tributary to the Wabash River. Via the west fork, considered to be the main stem of the river by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, the White River is long.-West Fork:The West Fork, long, is...
and cross his land. In Seymour's honor a new town would be build and named Seymour, Indiana
Seymour, Indiana
Seymour was the site of the World's First Train Robbery, committed by the local Reno Gang, on October 6, 1866 just east of town. The gang was put into prison for the robbery, and later hanged at Hangman's Crossing outside of town....
.
The new east-west rail line would intersect the established north-south Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad
Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad
The Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad was formed in 1866 as a merger between the Indianapolis and Madison Railroad and the Jeffersonville Railroad.- Genealogy :*Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad...
. To assure that both trains would stop, he joined the Indiana Legislature and authored a Bill requiring them to do so for safety purposes. This assured the demise of nearby Rockford, Jackson County, Indiana
Rockford, Jackson County, Indiana
Rockford is an unincorporated town in Redding Township, Jackson County, Indiana.- History :Rockford was named for the "rocky ford" of the East Fork of the White River where easier crossing was permitted by a rock river bottom....
.
Later life
Shields sold lots to speculators for the formation of the new town and built a personal fortune valued at over $2 million according to the US Census records of 1860. He died from a stomach ailment in 1866 a wealthy and respected citizen by many, except perhaps by the Reno GangReno Gang
The Reno Brothers Gang, also known as the Reno Gang and The Jackson Thieves, were a group of criminals that operated in the Midwestern United States during and just after the American Civil War. Though short-lived, they carried out the first three peacetime train robberies in U.S. history...
who had used the burned-out Ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
of Rockford, Jackson County, Indiana
Rockford, Jackson County, Indiana
Rockford is an unincorporated town in Redding Township, Jackson County, Indiana.- History :Rockford was named for the "rocky ford" of the East Fork of the White River where easier crossing was permitted by a rock river bottom....
as their home base.[4]
Footnotes
[1] Selected History of the Shields Family[2] 1886 History of Jackson County, Indiana
[3] 1856 US Railway System
[4] Anarchy in the Heartland, 2008, by A. David Distler