A very similar article appeared in The Middlebury people's press., (Middlebury, Vt) November 30, 1841, Image 3 (next article I was reviewing for a blog). It also appeared in The Public Library Quarterly, Volume 9 (Google eBook), Board of Education, 1909, p. 78 but in that article, his name is mispelled as Shackleford.
John E Shackford
John E Shackford, the son of John and Amelia (Moore) Shackford was born Sep 2, 1786 in Maine. He was the third great grandson of William Shackford, John (5), John Josiah (4), Paul (3), John (2), William (1). In 1800, when he was 14, his father, Captain John Shackford, died at sea aboard the ship the Little Cherub. When he turned 21, he already had the title of Captain John Shackford when he married his wife Jane C Smallcorn. (I'm not sure what capacity he earned this title.) His two brothers William Moore Shackford (1789-1875) and Samuel Shackford (1798-1842) became shipmasters and merchants.
I'm not sure when John moved to St Louis but by 1824, he was involved the development of city ordinances. He also set up business with Nathan Ranney as a wholesale grocer at a key location along the St Louis Levee. The products he was stocking in his warehouses were delivered via the Ohio River and during certain times of year, the river was impassable due to the Ohio Falls in Louisville, Kentucky, about 500 miles down the river. This problem impacted his own business and also the growing city of St Louis. To resolve this issue, in 1825, John Shackford invested in the development of a canal around the falls in Louisville. In 1826, Mr Shackford was asked by the major stockholders to meet with the Secretary of War to support Louisville as the next location for a national armory site. While he was not successful with this request, he impressed the members of Congress so much that in 1833 he was selected as the Senate's Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper, elected by the members, serves as the protocol and chief law enforcement officer and is the principal administrative manager for most support services in the United States Senate. While serving in Washington, he publically committed to paying $1,000 to the American Bible Society in four annual installments of $250 each from 1836-1840. In March 1837 the Senate voted that John Shackford, Sergeant-at-Arms and Doorkeeper have a leave of absence during the remainder of the session. He died later in August of that year at the age of 51 at the home of Nathan Ranney, his business partner who was also his son-in-law.
I believe that John Shackford kept slaves as there are 7 slaves documented in the 1830 census of John Shackford in St Louis. Also there is a mention of slaves in his household in an 1834 letter from Mr Nathan Cole to Mr Arthur Tappan refering to John Shackford, Esq, present doorkeeper of the Senate. I'm uncertain how he obtained the esq title but as always leave the door open for more research.
After John's death, his wife Jane returned to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, living at 55 Daniel, corner of Mulberry and then returned to St Louis where she lived with her daughter Amelia Jane (Shackford) Ranney. She died in St Louis at the age of 78.
Children:
Amelia Jane Shackford, (1809-1882). Married Nathan Ranney, gave birth to 14 children, many of whom died young.
Caroline Shackford, (1813-1818), Died young
Ann Deborah Shackford (1815-1898). Attended Yale. Married Joshua Thomas Tucker clergyman and moved to Massachusetts
Cornelia W Shackford (????-1873) Married Archibald Scott Rutherford and lived in St Louis, Missouri.
George R Shackford (???? - 1871) Lived in Portsmouth, New York, and New Jersey. Single
Charlotte Louisa Shackford (????-1845) married Charles Chauncy Shackford.
Note: John's brother, William Moore Shackford (1789-1875) sent his son, John Ellis Shackford (1825-1873) to live in St Louis after John's death.
Have added a trip to St Louis to my dream list of travel places to continue research on John E Shackford, starting with a search for birth certificates of John's children and to find some documents that help explain what drew him to St Louis.
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Baltimore Patriot, 1831-12-20, Vol XXXVII; Iss: 137; Page 2
Johnson, Leland R and Charles E Parrish, Triumph at the Falls, The Louisville and Portland Canal, Louiville District US Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville, Kentucky p. 30, 31, 35
http://www.senate.gov/reference/office/sergeant_at_arms.htm
Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1873, WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1833
Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1873, MONDAY, December 9, 1833
Journal of the executive proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1873, MONDAY, March 6, 1837
May, Samuel, J. Anti-Slavery Pamphlet Collection, http://encompass.library.cornell.edu) Of Portsmouth, NH (Gates, Charles Horatio, The Class of 1835, Harvard University, (Boston: David Clapp & Son, 1886), p. 69-7
The Middlebury people's press., November 30, 1841, Image 3
Missouri Republican (St. Louis, MO) June 21, 1824
New Hampshire Marriage Records Index, 1637-1947
New-York Tribune, November 17, 1841, Image 2)
Portsmouth New Hampshire City Directory, 1839, p. 68
Schultz, J H, American Railroad Journal, Volume 4 (Google eBook), p. 382
Shepard, Elihu Hodchkiss, The Early History of St. Louis and Missouri: From Its First Exploration by White Men in 1673 to 1843 (Google eBook), Southwestern Book and Publishing Company, 1870, pages 142-143
Steves, Walter Barlow, St Louis, p. 597
Third Record of the Class of 1833 in Yale College: printed for the use of the class