My Genealogy Hound

Miss N. Jane Shaw, a most highly esteemed resident of the village of Novi, Oakland County, belongs to a family which has taken a prominent part in the county’s history. Miss Shaw was born at Canandaigua, Ontario County, New York, in April, 1830, and is the youngest child of the late Philip and Chloe (Foster) Shaw, the former of whom was born in Massachusetts and the latter in the State of New York.

Philip Shaw, the father of our subject, was prepared in early life by hard discipline for many of the hardships that attended his later career. Deprived of his parents at the tender age of seven years, he was bound out to a hard taskmaster, who, up to the time of his majority, gave him less than $100. We are not familiar with all the movements of his young manhood, but for his useful services in the War of 1812 he was entitled to a tract of 180 acres of government land. He settled down to farming and was married in Ontario County, New York, whence he came as a pioneer, with his wife and nine children, to Michigan in 1830.

Looking over the well cultivated farms and thriving villages of Oakland County of the present day, it is difficult to recall the conditions of the country at that time, not long as measured by years, but remote in the light of achievements. When Mr. Shaw and his family reached Detroit, they secured a strong ox-team to transport them to their new home in Novi township, where Mr. Shaw had secured a tract of 160 acres of government land, located one and a half miles from the present village of Novi. This property still remains in the family, being owned by John Shaw, a grandson of the early pioneer. The journey was attended with hardships, no roads at that time having been constructed, and, our subject, who cannot remember the events of the journey from her own experience, being then but a babe, recalls the stories told her by her father in later years, of the necessary cutting of the underbrush and the fording of streams and the final settlement in the pioneer log house. The years that followed were with this family, like those of their neighbors, years of hard work, and the dear and devoted mother succumbed to hardships to which she had never been accustomed, and died in 1832, two years after locating on the homestead. Philip Shaw had been inured to hard work in his youth and faced the deprivations and dangers of the wilderness with a brave and courageous spirit. With the assistance of his sons he cleared the land, put it under cultivation and was rewarded for his industry by long years of competency. He took a deep interest in not only the development of the agricultural resources of his section, but assisted in the establishment of what are now some of the best highways in the county, and in the building of schools and churches. Mr. Shaw lived to the age of 96, passing away in 1866.

Miss N. Jane Shaw is the only survivor of the family of nine children, all of whom were born in the State of New York. The other members of the family were as follows: William; Riley, who left four orphan children, — Richmond, James, John and Betsey, deceased; Constant, who left three orphan children, — Hortensia, Lovina and Harriet; Gardner P.; Cebra; Seymour; Lovina; and James.

William Shaw, the eldest brother of our subject, purchased the well improved farm of 20 acres in the village of Novi, which is the home of our subject. William died at this home and left the property to his devoted sister.

Miss Shaw is well known all through Novi township and is held in high esteem. From intimate knowledge she has always held the achievements and character of the pioneers in reverence and endorses the sentiments expressed in the tender and appreciative little poem, with which we take the liberty of closing this all too inadequate a sketch:

TO OUR PIONEERS.

Oh, let them still remembered be
Thro’ all the coming years,
The germ of this, our Nation’s worth,
Our grand old pioneers.

What tho’ the arm that swung the ax
Through many a by-gone year
Is palsied now, we’ll not forget
You, grand old pioneer.

Here stands to-day the busy town
Whose site you helped to clear,
We walk the streets you underbrushed,
Our grand old pioneer.

See now the smoke from factories rise
Where oft in former years
The pale blue clouds from log heaps curled,
Lit by our pioneer.

Sons then of sires who lit the fires
That shone thro’ hopes and fears,
Walk in the light reflected by
Our grand old pioneers.

Revere their faith, trust thou in God,
To honor still adhere,
Transfer the “blaze” from tree to time,
Marked by our pioneers.