It is exciting to share the following information with the Shively researchers. Ralph Arthur, Redford, VA writes: “My family tree is on the Arthur family and my wife’s Shively family. I started working on the Arthur family with John Arthur of Goose Creek, who moved from Caroline County, Virginia, to Bedford County, Virginia, in 1754, and the Shively family with John Shively who moved from Frederick County, Maryland, to Franklin County, Virginia in 1790. I have been working on my family tree and my wife’s since 1968. Before the Internet, I worked with family members and in county courthouses and local libraries. I have contributed to two books on related families. Also, during the early 1980’s I did a lot of work with the Arthur Family Newsletter mainly with the sections: the John Arthur of Goose Creek family in Bedford County, Virginia and the William Arthur of Flat Creek in Campbell County, Virginia. I have traced several of my family members and my wife’s back to Jamestown, Virginia, as early as 1609 and 1610. My father became the president of Ferrum College, and we moved to Franklin County, Virginia, in 1954, where I started fourth grade. All of my wife’s family are from Franklin County.”
Ralph Arthur did have two questions he would like to know if the Shively researchers could help him with the answers:
Do we know where exactly in Franklin County, Virginia that John and Susannah Shively lived? Was it on Shively Branch near the Shively Cemetery or on his 260 acres on Turner’s Creek?
Do we have copies of the properties that he owned in Franklin County? The only one I have is his first 260 acres on Turner’s Creek on Pigg River that he bought from Owen Ruble on 23-May-1790. This is not far from but isn’t the property on Shively Branch or at the Shively Cemetery.
John Shively And Susanna Christ/Crist Gussler/Gusler Who Moved To Franklin County, Virginia
By Ralph Arthur
(John Shively didn't die in 1790 in Frederick County, Maryland, he and the widow, Gusler, ran away to Franklin County, Virginia, and became the progenitors of the Shively and Gusler families in Virginia)
Ulrich "Uhli" Schäublin/Shively, son of Christian Schäublin/Shively and Barbara Spithaler/Spitler, was born estimated Oct 1724 and died before 1768 in Frederick, County, Maryland. Uhli emigrated as a youth of 14 with his parent's family, leaving Basel Switzerland 28 Apr 1736 and arriving in Philadelphia where the adult passengers took the oaths 15 September of that year. His wife, Elsbeth "Elizabeth" Thommen, was quite young when they married, for on 16 Oct 1745, when she was only 18, they sold her father's farm. Whether or not her mother Barbara was still living we don't know, she may have come to live with Elizabeth and her husband after the sale of the family home.
Uhli next appears in the land records 27 Sep 1752 when, recorded as "William" Shively, he purchased 300 acres of a tract of land called Three Friends or Three Rivers in Frederick County, Maryland, for £185 from John and Ann Jones of the same county [Recorded 24 Nov 1752, Frederick County Deed Liber E, Folio 2-4]. In the Fellowship of the Brethren Genealogists Newsletter [v. 24, no. 3, Fall, 1992, pg. 42] the location of the tract is listed as the small town of Fairview, which is near the Mason-Dixon Line in Maryland. It is about eight miles northwest of Hagerstown, and on the banks of Conococheague Creek. One might suspect that Uhli's name Three Rivers refers to the Conococheague Creek, the Antietam Creek and Potomac River, the latter two flowing less than ten miles from his land.
The seven children of Ulrich "Uhli" and Elsbeth "Elizabeth" (Thommen) Schäublin/Shively: Christian, Jacob, Elizabeth, Eva, Isaac D., John and Catherine.
1 Shively, Christian was born about 1745 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and died about 1834 in Montgomery, Ohio.
2 Shively, Jacob was born about 1747 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and died after 3 Feb 1814 in Osnaburg, Stark, Ohio.
3 Shively, Elizabeth was born about 1751.
4 Shively, Eva was born about 1756. She and Gottlieb Seidel were married 1778 in Frederick, Maryland.
5 Shively, Isaac D. was born about 1759 in Frederick and died 1823 in Montgomery, Ohio.
6 Shively, John was born about 1761 and "died before 6 Nov 1790". ((This is what has been written for years, but it is incorrect)) He and Catharine Troup were married before 6 Apr 1786 in Frederick, Maryland. Catharine was born estimated Feb 1764. She was the daughter of Adam and Catharina? (____) Troup.
7 Shively, Catherine was born 1764 and died 1844. She and Johannes Zook were married about 1787. Catherine and Johannes moved in 1789 to Morrison's Cove, Bedford, Pennsylvania, and in 1828 to Wayne County, Indiana.
There was a John Shively, private for 3 years, in the German Regiment from Maryland 27 Jun 1776, and in White Plains 5 Sep 1778
[ Pennsylvania Germans in Maryland, Daniel Nead, 1914]. The "German Battalion" was an infantry formation of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Authorized in May 1776 as an extra Continental regiment, the battalion recruited ethnic Germans from two Maryland areas and two Pennsylvania areas. The two Maryland regiments were composed of soldiers from near Baltimore and near Hagerstown. John Shively was in the Hagerstown regiment, as he lived within 8 miles of Hagerstown. His Revolutionary service may sometimes be confused with that of his cousin's, John Shively, son of Christen Schaeublin II 1718-1773.
John Shively’s father-in-law, Adam Troup, wrote his will 6 Apr 1786 which was proved 16 June of that year. In it Adam wrote "my son David Troup and my son in law John Shively is to live in said plantation and to work it until it be sold..., the one to live in the house with my wife and the other in the house where Jacob Teeter now lives, and til he leaves, that house in [which] the widow Beard did live as they can agree." It is to be hoped that they were, in fact, able to agree. By 6 Nov 1790, however, distribution of the estate to the widow and other heirs listed his daughter Catherine (Troup) Shively and her sons Isaac and Adam, ((so that John was thought dead by that date.)) Catherine received 66£ 2sh 9 1/4p at that time.
Back to John Shively, by 6 Nov 1790, however, for the distribution of his father-in-law's estate to his wife and two sons, Isaac and Adam, John Shively had disappeared and was thought dead. There are many stories about about early settlers going hunting and being killed by Indians. While all of his brothers and sisters lived in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, John had, about six months earlier on 23 May 1790, bought land in Franklin County, Virginia. John Shively moved to Franklin County around 1790 from Frederich County, MD, as stated in Franklin Co. Deed Book 3, page 684. He, resident of Frederick Co., MD, bought land on Turner's Creek of Pigg River in Franklin Co. 23 May 1790, from Owen Ruble $750, 260A. A great many Germans moved from Frederick County, Maryland, to Franklin County, Virginia, before and after the Revolution. They had originally, come from Switzerland and Germany, and were or became members of the Old German Baptist Brethren Church in Franklin, Roanoke, and Botetourt Counties in Virginia.
John Shively, the first Shively in Franklin County, probably lived on or near Shively Branch of Otter Creek near the Shively Cemetery (36.920863 x 80.137084) on Griffith Hill Road, County Route 637. This is in the Endicott community in the far southwestern corner of Franklin County about 8 or 9 miles southwest of Ferrum near the borders with Henry and Patrick Counties and just north of the Smith River.
After not showing up for his father-in-laws estate distribution and leaving his first wife, Catherine Troup and their two young sons, on 6 Nov 1790, he shows up in Franklin County, Virginia, in 1790 with a new wife, Susannah Christ/Crist, the former wife of Christian Friederich Gossler/Gusler who had died in 1789, and two of her five children, Jacob Gossler/Gusler and Johannes “John” Gossler/Gusler. The other three children, Heinrich Gossler-Gusler, Susan Gossler-Gusler, and Catharina Gossler-Gusler show up later in Berks County and Huntingdon County, PA.
It’s interesting to note that previous genealogies list both John Shively and Susannah Christ/Crist (Gussler/Gusler) dying in 1790, the year they disappeared from their homes and showed up in Franklin County, Virginia.
John Shively and his second wife, Susannah Christ/Crist (Gussler/Gusler) are the progenitors of the Shively family in Franklin County, Virginia. They had four sons after they arrived in Franklin County, Isaac 1793-1871, David 1795-?, Daniel 1796-1880, and William 1804-1895. Also, Susannah Christ/ Crist (Gussler/Gusler) and her two sons are the first of the Gusler family in this area of Virginia.
Backing up this story is my wife’s, Sarah Elizabeth Shively’s, DNA. She has 71 DNA matches with John Shively and four of his siblings and 73 DNA matches with Susannah Christ/Crist and four or five of her siblings.
Ralph Arthur on Ancestry.com with a public family tree of over 6500 individuals where you are welcomed -- ARTHUR / SHIVELY Family Tree
If you would like to share information on John Shively and Susannah Christ/Crist Gussler/Gusler please contact Ralph Arthur , 6466 Teeth Of The Dog Drive, Radford, VA 24141 or e-mail ralpharthur@verizon.net
