My Genealogy Hound

Calvin A. S. Shaw, circuit court clerk of Somerville, was born in Fayette County, August 26, 1842, and is the son of John T. and Fannie (Pate) Shaw, who were natives of North Carolina. They were married in that State in 1834 and had three sons and two daughters: Eva S., Urcillia P., Henry C., Thomas I. W. and Calvin A. S. The father died in 1846 and the mother in 1844. Our subject was the youngest child; he was raised on a farm in Fayette County by his uncle, Maj. Alsey M. Shaw, and was educated at Somerville. In 1858 he went to Memphis and was engaged in clerking and bookkeeping until the war, when he entered the Confederate service in the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Tennessee Regiment as a private, his company being known as the Southern Guards; was detached from the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Regiment and placed in the artillery until 1862, and was then transferred to the Sixth Tennessee Infantry, Company D, under Col. W. H. Stevens and Capt. William M. R. Johns, and this company was known as the “Avengers.” Mr. Shaw participated in the battle of Shiloh, where he was wounded and afterward taken home and was then captured by the Federals and was sent to Memphis and was exchanged in 1863. He then joined the calvary service in Gen. Forrest’s command and was made first lieutenant and afterward was promoted to the rank of major by Gen. Forrest. After this Gen. Forrest’s command was consolidated at West Point, Miss., and he was thrown out; he then joined Company H, of the Fourteenth Tennessee Cavalry, commanded by J. J. Neely and was soon made captain of the company, which he commanded until the close of the war; he then returned to Somerville and engaged in the mercantile business until 1866, when he commenced farming in Fayette County and continued until 1878, when he moved to Somerville and went into the hotel business which he still continues, being now the proprietor of the Eagle Hotel. August 5, 1866, Mr. Shaw was elected circuit court clerk. April 25, 1886, he married Sallie N. Dickinson, a daughter of Edwin and Cornelia Dickinson of Fayette County. They had three children: Cornelia, Edwin D. and Neal S.; the last two are dead, and Mrs. Shaw died July 25, 1876, and September 4, 1877, he married Eva A. Dickinson, a sister of his first wife, and by this marriage has had five children: Fannie F., Sallie N., Mary M., John T. and Isaiah W.; the latter is dead. Mr. Shaw is of Scotch-Irish descent, he is a Democrat and since 1882 has been mayor of Somerville. He is a good business man and a most useful citizen.