My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography included in The History of Franklin County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1886.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

* * * *

GEN. FRANCIS A. SHOUP, D. D., professor of physics and engineering in the University of the South, was born in Laurel, Franklin Co., Ind., March 22, 1884. His father, George Grove Shoup, was a member of the State Constitutional Convention of Indiana, and for many years was a member of the Legislature of that State. He was an extensive merchant, and was a man of large property. The maternal grandfather of Gen. Shoup, James Conwell, was also a man of large property. He founded the town of Laurel, Ind., and was for a number of years a member of the Legislature. When Gen. Shoup was nineteen years old his father died, and about three years later his mother died. He was educated in the Asbury University, Greencastle, Ind., and in the Military Academy, West Point, N. Y., which latter place he entered in 1851, graduating in 1855. He was then assigned second lieutenant of the First United States Artillery, resigning in 1859. He then went to Indianapolis and began the practice of law. There he organized a company of zouaves. He then went to Florida and was commissioned in the regular army, Confederate States, and when the volunteer Confederate Army was raised he was made major of artillery, his first service being at Mobile Bay. He was then ordered to the Trans-Mississippi Department, and served through the early part of the war with Hardee’s army, chief of artillery, and was senior officer of artillery in the battle of Shiloh. After this battle he was made chief of artillery in Beauregard’s army. He was again ordered to the Trans-Mississippi Department with Gen. Hindman; was appointed brigadier-general, and commanded a division in the fight of Prairie Grove. Afterward he was ordered to the command of the harbor of Mobile; thence to the army at Vicksburg, where he commanded a brigade during the siege and at the surrender. After being exchanged he was again ordered to the defense of Mobile; thence to J. E. Johnston’s army at Dalton, Ga.; and was chief of artillery through the campaign before Atlanta. He designed and executed an original system of fortifications at the Chattahoochee, which was very effectual in repelling all attacks, and which has been much admired by great artillery officers. Gen. Shoup was then made chief of Gen. Hood’s staff, upon the appointment of the latter officer. After the war he was elected to the chair of physics in the University of Mississippi (Oxford, Miss.), and while there took orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was elected to the chair of mathematics in the University of the South, at Sewanee, in 1870. In 1874 he took a parish in the diocese of Albany, N. Y., and was made canon in the All Saints Cathedral, Albany, N. Y. In 1877 he returned to the South, and was in charge of Christ Church, New Orleans, for a time. He was elected to the chair which he now fills in 1883. Dr. Shoup was married in 1871 to Miss Esther H. Elliott, daughter of the late Bishop Elliott of Georgia. He has a family of three children: Francis, Charlotte and Stephen. Dr. Shoup received the degree of D. D. from the University of the South in 1880.

* * * *

This family biography is one of 83 biographies included in The History of Franklin County, Tennessee published in 1886.  The History of Franklin County was included within The History of Giles, Lincoln, Franklin & Moore Counties of Tennessee. For the complete description, click here: History of Giles, Lincoln, Franklin , Moore Counties of Tennessee

To view additional Franklin County, Tennessee family biographies, click here

Use the links at the top right of this page to search or browse thousands of other family biographies.