WILLIAM S. SHAW is a native of Bedford County, Tenn., and a son of William M. and Mahala (Wilson) Shaw, natives of North Carolina.
Our subject was born May 26, 1834, and was reared on a farm, and received limited educational advantages. At the age of twenty-two he began farming for himself, continuing until 1862, when he entered the Confederate Army, Company G, Forty-fourth Tennessee Infantry, but served only a short time. He resumed farming, and December 16, 1858, was married to Nancy Clark, who was born September 1, 1839, and who died March 27, 1864, leaving one child — Martha H. September 12, 1867, our subject took for his second wife Julia Haskins. Mrs. Shaw died October 7, 1871, and for his third wife Mr. Shaw took Susan O’Steen, December 1, 1872. She was born March 26, 1852, and became the mother of three children: John Rufus, William Marvin and Edward Driskill. Mr. Shaw is a Democrat, and prides himself on never having been sued or in a lawsuit.
Transcribed by Kathryn Hopkins
Goodspeed Publishing Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford & Marshall Counties, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Reminescences [Sic], Observations, Etc., Etc. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1988.