JEREMIAH SHAY
JEREMIAH SHAY, SECOND SON OF LUKE AND JULIA SHAY, PIONEER RESIDENTS OF RINGGOLD COUNTY, WAS BORN NEAR OLDENVERY, KY., DECEMBER 15, 1850. HE DIED AT THE HOME OF HIS SON, CHAS. SHAY, NEAR DELPHOS, MARCH 3, 1919, AGED 68 YEARS, TWO MONTHS AND EIGHTEEN DAYS.
WHILE HE WAS STILL A LITTLE CHILD HIS PARENTS MOVED TO CLARK COUNTY, IA. IN THE SPRING OF 1851 AND LATER IN 1854 CAME TO RINGGOLD COUNTY. SINCE THAT TIME MR. SHAY HAS LIVED IN AND NEAR MALOY.
HE WAS MARRIED FEBRUARY 9, 1873 TO ANNA B. CUNNINGHAM. TO THIS UNION WERE BORN SIX CHILDREN, THREE DAUGHTERS AND THREE SONS. THE WIFE, WHO PASSED AWAY SEPTEMBER 7, 1903, AND DAUGHTER, MARGARET, MARINETTA AND JULIA PRECEDED HIM IN DEATH. HIS SONS, CHARLES OF NEAR DELPHOS, CLEMENT WHO WAS RECENTLY DISCHARGED FROM THE U.S. ARMY AND EDWARD, WHO IS WITH THE ARMY STATIONED AT SAN ANTONIO, TX., WERE PRESENT AT THE FUNERAL. JERRY OR UNCLE JERRY, AS HE WAS CALLED BY HIS FRIENDS AND RELATIVES, SEEMED IN THE BEST OF HEALTH WHEN RETIRING THE NIGHT BEFORE HIS DEATH AND THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS VERY SUDDEN DEMISE WAS A SEVERE SHOCK TO THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY. HE WAS A MAN OF MANY EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD TRAITS OF CHARACTER AND WAS LOVED BY ALL WHO KNEW HIM. HIS FRIENDS WERE NUMBERED BY HIS ACQUAINTANCES. HE WAS ONE OF THE EARLY RESIDENTS OF THE COUNTY, HAVING SEEN THE PRAIRIE CHANGE FROM A HUNTING GROUND OF THE INDIANS TO THE PROSPEROUS LAND OF TODAY.
HE LEAVES TO MOURN THEIR LOSS HIS THREE SONS, A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW, MRS. CHAS. SHAY, SIX GRANDCHILDREN, FOUR BROTHERS, J.V. OF BLOCKTON, T.S, W. H., AND M.C. OF NEAR MALOY, ALSO A SISTER, MRS. MARGARET HART, WHO IS AT PRESENT IN ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., BESIDES A HOST OF OTHER RELATIVES AND FRIENDS.
THE FUNERAL SERVICE WAS HELD, THURSDAY, MARCH 6, FROM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH OF MALOY. MASS WAS CELEBRATED BY REV. J. J. CONDON OF CHURCHVILLE, IOWA, A FORMER PASTOR OF THE DECEASED. REV. POUGET, THE PRESENT PASTOR, DIRECTED THE MUSIC FOR THE OCCASION. HE WAS LAID TO REST IN ST. MARY’S CEMETERY EAST OF TOWN.