My Genealogy Hound

GEN. GEORGE T. SHAFFER has recently retired to his farm in Calvin Township, Cass County, from the position of Commissioner of the Land Office of Michigan, which he has filled with marked distinction for years. A native of Ohio, he was born near Springfield, Clarke County, October 9, 1822, and is the son of Peter Shaffer, who was born in Rockingham County, Va., January 10, 1791. The paternal grandfather, Abraham Shaffer, was a German by birth, and came to this country with his parents, whose names we have been unable to secure.

The family settled in Virginia, where Grandfather Shaffer became well and favorably known among the citizens of the Old Dominion. He was a man of liberal education and considerable ability, and by trade was a gunsmith. Although living in a slave State, none of the family ever owned slaves, in fact, without exception they were opposed to human slavery. Abraham Shaffer married a German lady and they had six children, namely: Jacob, Abraham, Sarah, Peter and Henry (twins), and David, all of whom with the exception of Henry attained to maturity and reared families. Henry died when quite young. The men of the family possessed sterling worth of character and were principally engaged in farming pursuits. Jacob and Abraham died in Ohio; Sarah married Henry Smith, in Clarke County, Ohio, and one of her sons. Maj. Joseph Smith, became a wealthy merchant and in an early day came to Michigan, where he served as Major of the State militia. An active politician in the early history of this State and a stanch Democrat throughout his entire life, he served as a member of the Michigan Legislature and occupied other positions of prominence. He died in Cassopolis about 1879; his mother died in this county about 1848. David Shaffer came to Michigan in 1829, but removed thence to Iowa in 1854 and died on a farm in that State.

Peter Shaffer, the father of the General, was born in Virginia, as stated above, and accompanied his father to Ohio about 1810, settling on land not far from the city of Springfield. Peter and a brother cleared and cultivated the land, while their father followed his trade of a gunsmith. While he had an excellent German education, Peter Shaffer had a somewhat limited knowledge of English. He was one of the best mathematicians of his day and was a man of more than ordinary ability and of indomitable will, always accomplishing what he started out to do. His wife was known in maidenhood by the name of Sarah Thomas, and was born in Pennsylvania, being a daughter of George Thomas, a native of the North of Ireland and of Scotch ancestry. Mr. Thomas accompanied his parents to this country when a mere child, and at the age of eighteen enlisted as a soldier in the Revolutionary War, serving throughout the entire period of the conflict until its close. His father and the father of Gen. George Thomas, who distinguished himself in the Civil War, were brothers and were named no doubt after George Thomas of Revolutionary fame. Having received a liberal education, he was rather in advance of the young men of his time, and in early life followed the profession of a teacher.

The father of our subject was usually known as “Captain,” having received the title from his service as Captain of militia in Ohio, and he also served in the War of 1812. In 1828 he came to Michigan and purchased a tract of land in what is known as Young’s Prairie, after which he returned to Ohio. In the spring of 1832, he brought his family to this State and bought five or six hundred acres of land where Gen. Shaffer now lives. He also engaged extensively in the lumber business and owned and operated sawmills. He aided in the organization of Calvin Township and was one of its first officers. For twenty years he filled the position of Justice of the Peace, and also served as Supervisor and Clerk of the township, being one of the foremost men in the community. After having attained to a ripe old age, he passed away, July 13, 1880, on the place now owned by our subject. His wife had departed this life in 1851, nearly thirty years prior to his demise.

There were seven children in the parental family, the General being the fifth. They are sketched as follows: Alcy married Leonard Keen, and died in Jefferson Township, Cass County, in 1889. Peter, her son, enlisted in the service of the Union during the late war, and, losing his health in the service, died after the close of the war. Mary died in 1834, when a young lady. Henry went to California in 1850, and died there in 1854. Nancy married William T. Reed, and after having reared several children, died in Newberg Township. Her husband and son Henry served in the Civil War and both died while in the Atlanta campaign. Sarah married John Keen and makes her home in Cassopolis. Abraham, during the great gold excitement in the West, went to California in 1850, returning six years later. In 1859 he again sought the Pacific Coast, and came East once more in 1863. He now makes his home in Colorado, and is widely known on account of having invented several pieces of farming machinery.

We have now given a brief outline of the family from which Gen. Shaffer sprang and of the more prominent members of the family, but it is to the General himself that our space must be given most largely, for he has had a most notable career. A modest, genial gentleman, with the record of a hero and a variegated experience such as falls to the lot of few men, the once sturdy form is a trifle bent now, and the hair is turning white, but the grasp of the right hand is still as strong and cordial as when its owner employed it in rocking a gold pan in the Californian placer mines away back in the ‘50s, or swung his sword for the charge on Southern battlefields. Teacher, farmer, miner, merchant, hotel-keeper, ranchman, soldier, prisoner of the war in the Libby hell, then farmer again for a score of years, and afterward for a number of years holding an important office in the State Capitol at Lansing, and now living in retirement on his farm, this, in a few words is the story of the life of Gen. Shaffer. It is the story of a brave man and one of indomitable pluck besides.

Most men who afterward become distinguished manage to be born in Ohio, and the General is no exception. He came to Michigan from Ohio with his father in 1832 and aided in clearing a heavily timbered farm, also worked with his father in the lumbering business. He attended the pioneer schools of the day about two or three months each year, and thus passed his years up to his majority. He then for two years was a student in a select school at Edwardsburgh. Early in life he developed a taste for music and became proficient in both local and instrumental music. These he taught, in addition to which he filled the duties of pedagogue in a district school until the spring time of 1850, when the stories of the wonderful gold discoveries drifted across the great American desert and set the pulse of the whole continent throbbing.

Among the scores of adventurous Wolverines who joined in the life and death hunt for the shining metal, was a little group of brawny young fellows from the vicinity of the Shaffer homestead, and our subject was one of these. By the time the little party reached Council Bluffs and was ready for the perilous overland journey across deserts and mountains, it was increased to about ninety in number. The qualities that afterward raised George T. Shaffer from the ranks to the position of Brigadier-General were already stirring in his blood, and by a unanimous vote he was chosen Captain of the expedition. Under his vigilant and soldierly leadership his party was conducted through the Indian country over mountains and across deserts in perfect safety, and four months after they left Cass County he marched them into a California mining camp, subsequently named Placerville. The next four years were filled with romantic and thrilling experiences, and Gen. Shaffer has a rich fund of quaint stories concerning old mining days and tells them with unconscious eloquence.

From placer mining, Gen. Shaffer conducted a trading-post and a hotel, also operated a ranch in the Sacramento Valley, his brothers Henry and Abraham being interested with him. In the spring of 1858 he cleared up his business in California, and returned to Michigan via the Isthmus of Panama and New York. Soon after his return to this State, he married Miss Alcy Jane Carmichael, to whom he was betrothed previous to his journey to the far West. He intended to return to California, but his father, broken in health, urged him to buy the old home farm and remain there until his father’s leave of life should end. This he did.

A few years later, when the Civil War broke out and the country had need of all her loyal sons, our subject enlisted in Company A, Nineteenth Michigan Infantry, of which he was chosen First Lieutenant. He was five times promoted for bravery, gallant service and strict attendance to duty. The last time, March 13, 1865, he was promoted to the rank of Brevet-Colonel and Brigadier-General of United States Volunteers for his gallantry in the Atlanta campaign of 1864, and at the battle of Wise’s Fork, N. C, three days previous to his promotion. Among the important engagements in which he participated were those of Thompson’s Station (Tenn.), Resaca, Cassville, Dallas, Golgotha Church, Twin Mountains, Culp’s Farm, Kenesaw Mountain and the siege of Atlanta.

At Thompson’s Station Gen. Shaffer was taken prisoner and was thrown in Libby Prison, where he was confined for two months before he was exchanged. At the battle of Culp’s Farm he was wounded in the right thigh. His wounds were dressed on the field and he remained with his command until after the battle of Kenesaw Mountains, when Gen. Sherman issued orders for his command to prepare to march, and, there being no ambulances to carry the sick and wounded, Gen. Shaffer was obliged to go to the rear. This was the only time in his four years’ service he was in hospital or off duty. He remained there less than thirty days and then returned to his command against the protest of the hospital surgeon. For six weeks thereafter his wound was daily dressed on the field. His regiment, the Twenty-Eighth Michigan, was retained in the service for more than a year after Lee surrendered, during which time Gen. Shaffer held several important positions.

For a time Gen. Shaffer was in command of the post at Shelby, N. C., and subsequently was in command of the posts at Goldsborough and New Berne. He relieved Brigadier-General W. D. Harden from the command of the district of Raleigh. Aside from his duties as commanding officer of the district and post of Raleigh, he was President of a military commission, also of a general court martial. Like thousands of other brave men he dropped the sword to grasp the plow handle once more, and settled down to the quiet life of a farmer again. For many years he devoted his time largely to contributing to the comfort and happiness of his aged father during the closing years of his life.

The General remained quietly on the farm until his party, looking around for good material for the State offices, turned its eye upon the farmer General, and he was elected Commissioner of the Land Office. From the duties of this important office he had just retired when the writer called upon him at his extensive farm in Calvin Township. It is a gallant record, but through it all its maker has remained the same unaffected, kind, courteous gentleman. Mr. and Mrs. Shaffer have three children, two daughters and one son. Their older daughter, Sadie S., is teaching at Birmingham, Mich. Both daughters were educated in the State Normal, and are ladles of great culture and fine musical educations. The son, William T. Sherman, was educated in the High School at Cassopolis, and for a time was book-keeper in the land office under his father, and is now on the home farm. Politically, the General is a Democrat, as were his father and grandfather before him. In his social connections he affiliates with the Knights Templar.