Pages 127-138
(1 mi. s, 1/2 mi e, 2 mi s, 1/2 mi w)
New remember when you read this information that this was printed back in July of 1979 and I have no idea what the home looks like today. Is there someone out there that does?
The Benjamin Shackelton homestead is in good repair and is being lived in by a family. It was completely refinished inside with paneling and a bathroom was made out of the kitchen pantry. The original was the one story-one room which is butted to the two story part of the house. It stood a quarter of a mile south of the present house and was moved. The room has a leaned-too kitchen attached and is used as the dining room at the present.
A Quit Claim Deed was made out in hand writing to Benjamin Shackelton 1869 in November between Zimri Harlan of the county of Crawford, State of Kansas.
Benjamin was the eldest son of John Ogden Shackleton and Anny Marie WIntermute. He was born in September 15, 1815 in Knowlton twp. Sussex Co. (Warren) on the Shackleton farm between Blairstown and Hope, New Jersey. he married Lavina Miller February 4, 1857. he died August 20, 1889 in Walnut, KS and is buried in the Walnut cemetery.
Oscar Shackelton of Pittsburg was born in this house, March 12, 1907. His father, John Wesley farmed the homestead from 1914-1924 when the farm was sold. His sister, Esther St. John of Kansas City who was born in Chanute, KS in 1910, also grew up on the old homestead.
The farm was in John Wesley's name until 1923 when on the 10th of December, the Peoples State Bank of Walnut brought a foreclosure against the homestead. The World War of 1918, crop failures and the general depression the country was in, which Crawford County entered in the twenties due to the Coal Strike of 1921, caused many farms and home foreclosures.
Benjamin Shackelton is always mentioned as a pioneer of Walnut. A two room house stands on Main Street which has been said to have belonged to him in hte early days as a store. But no member of the family seems to recall this fact as being true.
There are a number of Benjamin's in the Shackleton family. We are sure that he was named for his grandfather, Benjamin Shackleton of New Jersey (1756-1800); buiral in Union Brick Cemetery. It was the custom in those days for the eldest child, if a son, to take the grandfather's name.
Benjamin Shackleton Memorial
Horace Shackelton sent a letter with the adventures of himself and Paul and Betty Jorgensen. Paul and Betty traveled to see Horace and to order the replacement stone for Benjamin. Contributions to the fund were made by, Horace E. Shackelton, Paull and Betty Jorgensen, Esther and Carl St. John, Oscar and Bernice Shackelton, Earl and Ruth Shackelton, and Ethel Jones.
Deaths
Ethel E. Shackelton Jones-died in Buffalo, February 8, 1979. Burial in Forest Lawn Cemetry in Buffalo; Arrangements by the Rubins Memorial Home, Inc.
Francis Richard Shackleton
sent in by Jonathan Shackleton
Francis Shackleton was born at Kilkee House in County Kildare in Ireland in 1876. He was a younger brother of the famous Antartic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton. His father moved the family to England in 1884 to take up practice as a doctor. Francis, after spending some time working as an assistant in the heraldry office in Dublin Castle, did military service in South Africa in 1901. He left the army in 1903 and went to work in London. He kept up his connections with Dublin Castle and was appointed to the office of Dublin Herald. In July 1907, just before the visit of King Edward VII to Ireland the priceless Irish Crown Jewels-the Insignia of the Order of St. Patrick, were stolen from Dublin Castle. The jewels were never recovered nor anyone charged with the theft, and it remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of this century.
Two books have been written about this mystery: "Vivious Circle" by Francis Bamford and Viola Bankes and "Jewels" by Robert Perrin. There seems to be quite a lot of evidence that Francis Shackleton and the Captain Richard Gorges plotted together to steal the jewels. There was an inquiry in 1908 following which Francis Shackleton feft Ireland forever. In 1910 Francis left for Portuguese, West Africa. In 1912, he was extradited to England on charges of defrauding the people of $114, 000 in business transactions before he left England. He was imprisoned and was released in 1921. he lived under an assumed name until his death in 1941.
It is perhaps not surprising that Margy and James Fisher in their very complete biography of Sir Ernest Shackleton "Shackleton and the Antartic" hardly mention this very disreputable brother, Francis.
