In March 1873 after attending the Presidential Inaugural (for Ulysses S Grant, inaugurated on March 4, 1873), Charles, his wife and their son Charlie visited Joseph's family in Orange Grove, Virginia joining Charles' daughter Isabel who had been visiting since November 1872. Joseph described his uncle in his diary as "overflowing as he always is with life and humor" and "the center of attention among the gentlemen". On March 27, 1873 when Charles departed to return to Chelsea, Joseph wrote "I do not think I have seen Pa in better spirits for many years than he has been during his brother's visit. In all the phases of human life there are but fewer sadder things than the 'drifting apart' of brothers and sisters, who have been brought up around the same hearthstone." He goes on to describe that these brothers could talk about the Civil War but "brotherly love was not forgotten where they may have differed in political or national views."
Charles H Shackford, was the fourth great grandson of William Shackford (Samuel (6), Samuel (5), Samuel (4), William (3), Samuel (2), William (1)). He was born Aug 9, 1824 in Barrington, Strafford, New Hampshire. He graduated from Harvard in 1849 and began practicing as a physician in Somersworth, New Hampshire in 1850, where he was elected as a member of the New Hampshire Medical Society in June of that year. Three years later, in October 1853 he married Ariana Marston, the daughter of Winthrop A and Mary Elizabeth (Waldron) Marston. She gave birth to two children; Isabel in Dec 1856, and Charles Winthrop Marston Shackford about 1861. Charles W Shackford completed a Civil War draft registration card in 1863 reflecting that he lived in Somersworth and that same year he paid excise tax of $6,67 for a physician's license. He may have also been practicing in Pembroke, as he was also taxed there that year.
Sometime before 1866, Dr Shackford relocated to Chelsea, Massachusetts and established an office at 138 Broadway boarding at "the Chelsea House" He then moved to 238 Broadway in 1868 which is probably the home where Joseph Wesley Shackford stayed. In the 1870 census, he is 44 years old, owning real estate valued at $10,000 and property valued at $3,500. His wife Ariana is listed as ten years younger but according to birth dates was probably 13 years younger. In this census, his daughter Isabel is 13 and his son Chas W is age 8 and two servants are living with the family.
In the 1900 census, Charles was listed as head of household, age 75, living with his wife Ariana, age 63, who gave birth to two children, both of them living. Their daughter, Isabel age 43 lived with them along with their two grandchildren (Charles W. M.'s children), Jessie D, age 14 and Mary W, age 13. At that time, Charles was President of the Frost Hospital Medical Board.
In 1903, the Boston Daily Globe Sunday edition described the Shackford's golden wedding anniversary titling the article "House Full of Friends". About 500 guests attended this event including ex-governors of three states! The newspaper mentioned that this was the fifth wedding anniversary in the Shackford family, that Charles came from a family of ten children, eight of whom were married and three of four in that family had already celebrated their 50th anniversaries. The article also mentions that Charles and Ariana had been married in the house in which he was born and refers to his two children, "Charles, a prominent Boston musician, and Miss Isabelle."
The last four years of Dr Shackford's life must have been very difficult. He was still practicing medicine into his 80s and in February 1905, Marion A. Sackett, a 3 week old baby in his care died after an overdose of opium. An inquest was held in March 1905 to clarify if he had prescribed incorrectly or if the pharmacy had filled the prescription incorrectly. In June of that year, the judge ruled that Dr Shackford was not guilty of criminal negligence and that the pharmacy clerk was mistaken in the physician directions and also not guilty of any criminal negligence. In July of that year, some boys "playing fire" in his yard tried to make cigarettes out of leaves and set fire to his yard. The fire spread destroying the Mt Bellingham Methodist Church next door. In 1908 he must have been affected by the Great Fire of Chelsea which resulted in the death of James Cole in the alley in the rear of "Shackford's Block". Sometime during 1908, he became ill. At the same time, the Sackett family must have continued to pursue court action related to the death of their child. Dr Shackford died on December 24, 1909 at the age of 85 of mitral stenosis the same day the Fitchburg Daily Sentinel published an article stating that he was ordered by the Supreme Court to pay $2,500 to George R Sackett, the father of the child who died in 1905. His obituaries state that he had been ill for 2 - 2 1/2 years. They also mention that he was "well known localy and was prominent throughout medical circles in New England". The obituaries mention that he was on the board of the Frost Hospital for thirteen years, a member of the Masonic fraternity and that he attended the Central Congregational Church.
While writing this article I added a trip to Chelsea Historical Society to my future travel genealogy research plans. I'd like to find a picture of Dr Charles Shackford. While researching him, I noticed that the Chelsea Historical Society lists a William B Shackford as one of the "Chelsea forefathers". This William B may be my William Bell Shackford (1860 - ????) or my ancestor William Brown Shackford (1812 - 1866).
Thanks again to Donna McCarthy for her help finding articles about Charles H Shackford and sharing them while I worked on this article!
Next: Joseph Wesley Shackford meets Frederick Samuel Hayes, son of Samuel Hayes and his aunt Caroline Jenness Shackford.
Copyright 2012 Joanne Shackford Parkes
Ancestry.com. U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918
[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010
Boston Daily Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, Sunday, Oct 11, 1903, page 2
Boston Daily Globe, 21 May 1905 [Src 5], http://www.sackettfamily.info/newsmaboston.htm
Boston Daily Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, Saturday, July 1, 1905, page 7
Boston Evening transcript, Sept 26, 1905, page 16
Boston Globe, 26 Dec 1909
Chelsea Historical Society (http://olgp.net/chs/)
Chelsea Historical Society, http://olgp.net/chs/photos/fire1908/casualties.htm
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Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Friday, Dec 24, 1909
Johnston, Joseph S., editor, The Diary of Joseph Wesley Shackford, Library of Congress, 1991 p. 6-21, 82. 83
Federal Census 1850, 1870, 1880
The Harvard Graduate's Magazine, p. 547)
Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 4 (Google eBook), American Medical Association., 1885, p. 179
LaFontana, Dave, Chelsea High School, This was Chelsea ...
http://www.tritec-inc.org/becomingamerica/chelsea-unit/dlafontana/resources.html
Luce, Twenty Thousand Rich New Englanders: a list of taxpayers who were assessed in 1888 to pay a tax of one hundred dollars or more (Google eBook), 1888, p. 19
New-Hampshire Medical Society, Records of the New Hampshire Medical Society from its Organization in 1791 to the Year 1854 (Google eBook), Rumford Printing Co, 1911, p. 380)
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical Society, 1900, Volume XiV, Published by the Committee on Publication, Boston: Daniel Gunn & Co, 31 Hawley Street, 1901, p. 39
Thayer, William Roscoe, William Richards Castle, Mark Antony, De Wolfe Howe, Arthur Stanwood Pier, Bernard Augustine De Voto, Theodore Morrisone The Harvard Graduate's Magazine, Harvard Graduates Magazine Association, Volume 18, 1910, p. 547