Early last week I pulled from my shelf David Johnson's book on Fort Amanda. This is a several hundred page work that focuses on the War of 1812 supply fort. The book has its plusses and its minuses, but I will not get into all that here. For those who have an interest, and I mean a DEEP interest in Ohio during the War of 1812, then the book is a worthy addition.
I have not read the book cover to cover as it is more of a reference work, but in my recent perusal I went through the biography section of certain individuals that had a connection to the fort, whether posted there as part of the garrison, or passing through. This section contains details about the individual when known, as well as where the person is buried. I was paging through while doing laundry when it hit me - William Shafor. As I read through this man's bio I was beginning to realize that he might be a relative with clues such as born in New Jersey, moved to Ohio, lived in the Lemon Township area (near Middletown), and buried in the same cemetery that my Revolutionary war fifth great grandfather was buried. The last name spelling is different - father being Sheafor and son being Shafor, and I have seen other variations as well. But a quick check on Find A Grave and there he was. I had come across William's Find A Grave memorial before, having added a picture of William from an old Butler County atlas that also had biographies of prominent Butler Countians - William held the distinction of having been the oldest man in Butler County when he died. But I had no idea of his military service. A little research on the world wide web yielded a mention that William had been at the first siege of Fort Meigs in 1813, but I was not convinced of the source. Regardless, now I knew I had a War of 1812 ancestor, my fourth great grand uncle.
Last week I made the trek to River Raisin National Battlefield as I had not been there since the National park Service had taken over the site. I also planned to stop a Fort Meigs as while the fort itself was closed (a fort I have visited many times) the visitor center, and perhaps more importantly the gift shop were open. My stop at Fort Meigs was fortuitous as when I mentioned my recent ancestorial discovery to the friendly staff member she went to talk to the fort's historian. He and I had a brief chat, and he wen to do some research. Several minutes later I had more information that I could have hoped for with a stop to buy books! William was the lieutenant in Captain John Hamilton's Company from Butler County, part of Lieutenant Colonel James Mills' First Regiment of Brigadier General John Wingate's Third Ohio Detachment. Ironically I have visited Wingate's grave as it is located in the Grand Army of the Republic section of Hamilton's Greenwood Cemetery, a place where I have led several Civil War tours. Wingate had served under Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers.
Back to William - From the Fort Meigs historian I learned that Hamilton's Company, one of the first companies to form during the 1813 call up, served during both sieges of Fort Meigs, and that the captain had suffered a wound, which means, depending on how severe the wound might have been, that Lieutenant William Shaffer (Shafor) might have served as company commander. Also, Hamilton's Company has the most men listed as causalities during the sieges - this could stem from heavy action or the fact that the company might have simply kept better records than the other units at Fort Meigs.
William's time in service was only six months (February 6 until August 6, 1813) but he experienced the mustering in, the march to Fort Amanda, marching across the Black Swamp, two sieges, and then returning home. After the war he farmed in Lemon Township, and married Jane Ryerson, and the couple had eleven children. As previously mentioned, William was the oldest man alive in the county when he died on October 19, 1880 at the age of ninety-seven. I am related to him through his younger sister Elizabeth, grandmother of one of my Civil War ancestors, Daniel Cooper of the Thirty-Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
