I've shared this image of Matthew and Sarah Ann (McNeal) Shore and their nine children before, but was happy this week to be able to date it precisely after stumbling across the following reference in Pleasant Township news as published in The Chariton Democrat-Leader of Jan. 30, 1884: "On the 20th last, Matthew Shore and family were in Chariton and had a family group picture taken."
Unfortunately, the children are not identified on the photo --- from the Lucas County Historical Society collection --- so I can't tell you which is which, although I do recognize Archibald's luxuriant beard in the back row. Nor is the name of the photographer indicated.
Matthew and Sarah Ann were Pennsylvania natives --- he was born Aug. 17, 1827, and she was born Sept. 30, 1828, both in Huntington County. They married ca. 1849 in Pennsylvania and started their family there, moved west to Illinois during the mid-1850s, then moved on to Pleasant Township, Lucas County, during the Civil War.
Their children were: Sylvester (1849-1929), Mary (married Creighton Umphrey), Archibald (1853-1934), Ella (1855-1938; married Louis Duckworth), Emery James (1856-1905), George M. (1857-1935), Joseph A. (1863-1941), Elmer (1865-1833) and Charles (1868-1943).
Matthew died five years after this photograph was taken, on Dec. 2, 1889, so I decided to look farther and find out what it was killed him (it was the aftereffects of a stroke). And that brought me to this paragraph in The Democrat of Dec. 5, 1889:
"We note with regret the death of Matthew Shore, an old resident of Pleasant township. Mr. Shore had been sick for some time but was not supposed to be serious. On Monday morning the message came when only his son and daughter-in-law were with him. Mr. Shore was a very old man being near the three score and ten limit."
Very old? The reporter here must have been very young --- even back in 1889, 62 was not considered "very old." So old age I guess has been and still is a relative thing.
Sarah Ann outlived Matthew by more than five years, dying May 9, 1895, also in Pleasant Township. They are buried along with many other members of the extended Shore family in Zion Cemetery, Pleasant Township.
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