However we can share this photograph from the 1907 Men of Mark in Virginia: Ideals of American Live; a Collection of the Leading Men in the State, Volume 3. The book also includes this biography:
JOSEPH WESLEY SHACKFORD
Shackford, Joseph Wesley, minister of the Gospel and educator, was born at Orange Grove, near Walkerton, in King and Queen county, Virginia, July 21, 1848. His father was the Rev. John William Shackford, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, who was a member of the Virginia conference from 1843 to 1849, and who during the latter part of his life preached in King and Queen and adjacent counties. Mr Shackford's mother, before marriage was Martha Cole McLelland.
In his paternal line Mr Shackford is descended from William Shackford, the founder of the American branch of the family, who came from England about the middle of the seventeenth century, bought lands in Massachusetts Bay colony, and settled that part of ancient Dover that is now Newington, New Hampshire. His descendent, John William Shackford, who was the second child of Samuel and Nancy Shackford, of New Hampshire, came to Virginia in 1837, at the age of eighteen, taught school near Norfolk, joined the Virginia conference in 1842, and died July 10, 1900 at Orange Grove. On his mother's side Mr. Shackford is descended from Joseph Temple, of England, whose wife was Ann Arnold, of England, and who came to Virginia in the early part of the eighteenth century, and settled at "Presq' Isle," in King William county, Virginia, where he owned a large landed estate along the Mattapoini river.
Mr Shackford grew up in the country. When quite young he had occasional duties to do about the house and farm, and after the emancipation of the slaves he worked for several years on the farm-an experience which he regards as having been of great practical value.
Mr Shackford acquired his primary and academic education at Walkerton academy, and Aberdeen academy, in King and Queen county; and then went to the University of Virginia for one session; 1869-1870; taking only a partial course in the academic department, and graduating in the school of Latin, in 1870.
On September 20, 1870, he began the active work of life as an assistant teacher in the Aberdeen academy, of which Colonel J. Calvin Councill was president; and he preached his first sermon in July, 1871, at Lebanon church, Essex county, Virginia. Since those dates he has taught in academic schools fourteen years, and has been a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, for thirty-four years. He was an assistant teacher in Aberdeen academy from 1870 to 1874, and from 1878 to 1880; and was successively principal of the Richmond academy in Rockingham, North Carolina, 1881-1882; of Stevensville academy, 1887-1887; and of Walkerton academy, 1887-1889. He has been pastor of the following charges: Warrenton, North Carolina, 1875-1886; Henrico, Virginia, 1877; Ashland Circuit, 1889; King and Queen, 1890; Westmoreland, 1891-1894; Martinsville, 1895-1896; Bedford Ciruit, 1897-1900; Bedford City, 1901-1904; and Rivermont Avenue, Lynchburg, Virginia, 1905. In November 1906, he was appointed presiding elder for the Lynchburg district.
He service in 1878-1880 as secretary, and then as master, of a farmer's organization at Bruington, in King and Queen county. In 1899, he was appointed a trustee of the Virginia Conference orphanage. He was chairman of the Lynchburg district board of education, 1900-1904; and was elected a member of the Virginia conference board of education for the term 1902-1906.
Mr. Shackford is a Mason and a member of the Royal Arcanum, in both of which organizations he has been chaplain; and he has been senior warden in his local Masonic lodge. He is a Democrat in politics; but reserves the right to vote against the party nominee if the latter does not commend himself to his judgment as a worthy person. He has contributed various articles to the religious and secular press, but has published no books.
Mr. Shackford married, November 25, 1875, Cora Kingsbury, daughter of T. B. Kingsbury, LL. D., of Oxford and Wilmington, North Carolina; and their marriage have been born seven children, of whom five are now (1906) living.
REFERENCES
Johnston Joseph S, editor, The Diary of Joseph Wesley Shackford King and Queen County Virginia 1868-1893 (Library of Congress: Library of Congress, 1991), p. 394
Tyler Lyon Gardiner, Men of Mark in Virginia: Ideals of American Live; a Collection of the Leading Men in the State, Volume 3 (Men of Mark Publishing Company: 1907), page 357-359; digital images, Google eBooks and at Hathi Trust, http://books.google.com; http://babel.hathitrust.org (: accessed 29 September 2013
Copyright 2014 Joanne Shackford Parkes