My Genealogy Hound

DAVID O. SHAVER, master mechanic, Pittsburgh, was born in 1831 in Herkimer county, N. Y. His father, George Shaver, was descended from the early residents of Albany, as was also his mother, Nancy, daughter of Thomas Zielley. Both parents were natives of Herkimer county. In 1833 they removed to Geneva, N. Y., and five years after to the vicinity of Aurora, Ill., where Mrs. Shaver and the youngest son died in 1842. They had nine children, David O. being the sixth, and with them the father returned to Geneva. He died in Detroit, Mich., in 1849. Maria, Margaret, Catherine and Eleanor died in 1846. Archibald G., an artist, who was the eldest son, died in Geneva in 1866. Elizabeth N. (McDonald) resides at Adrian, Mich., and Martin V. B., near Lakeview, same state. David O., early in life worked on a farm, drove team and carried the hod. September 29, 1848, he was apprenticed to John Daggett & Son, manufacturers of woolen machinery, at Newark, N. Y. After serving three years with them, he worked nearly a year in a stationary-engine factory at Penn Yan. He then perfected himself in locomotive-building, and worked for short periods in the Rochester & Syracuse, New York & Erie, Michigan Central and Galena & Chicago Union shops. In 1854 he went into the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern shops at Adrian, Mich., and was foreman of an erecting gang for four years. For three years he was foreman of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago shops at New Albany, Ind., and resigned to take the same position with the Jeffersonville, Madison, & Indianapolis at North Madison.

March 1, 1867, he resigned and took his present position with the Pennsylvania railroad. Since 1868 he has resided at Edgewood station. He is a republican; attends the Presbyterian Church. In 1856 Mr. Shaver married Harriet S. Wadsworth, of Adrian, Mich., who was born in Springfield, Ohio, in 1835. Her father, Walter M., son of Joseph and Dorcas Wadsworth, was born in Hartford, Conn., in 1801, and died in1875. Her mother, Sarah (Guy), was born of French and English ancestry in Dunham, Canada, in 1810, and died in 1887. The Wadsworth ancestors came from Wales over two hundred years ago and located in New England. George Walter, only son of David O. Shaver, born in Adrian, in 1857, is farming near Burlington, Kan. Frank Gray, the daughter, was born Feb. 14, 1874.