Washburn County WIGenWeb Project

People Histories

Charles Alexander Shaver
(01 Dec 1864 - ?¹)

-As transcribed from the "COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF THE UPPER LAKES REGION"

by J. H. Beers & Co., Chicago, IL, 1905

pages 345 - 346

Charles Alexander Shaver is a well-known official of Washburn county, residing at Shell Lake. He was born in Osnabruck, Stormont county, Ontario, Dec. 1, 1864, son of William H. and Malvina E. (Hutchins) Shaver.

William H. Shaver was born in Pennsylvania, whither his father had come from Germany. When a young man he moved to Canada, and was for a time a guard in the Kingston penitentiary. In 1872 he went to Augusta, Wis., where he dealt in grain, and later carried on the same business in Baldwin, Wis. he was then for two years bookkeeper for Ball & Culbertson, lumbermen, at Kempton, Wis. His death occurred at Augusta in 1889, when he was about sixty years of age. In politics he was a stanch Republican, and was always actively interested in local affairs. He served as the first city clerk of Augusta. He was a member of the Baptist church. Mrs. Malvina E. (Hutchins) Shaver, who is still living in Augusta, aged seventy-two years, was born on the ocean, when her parents were emigrating to America. Her father was an Englishman, and her mother a native of Ireland. William H. and Malvina E. (Hutchins) Shaver had a family of six sons and three daughters, as follows: John, of Brockville, Ontario; Ellen, Mrs. John Y. T. Smith, of Phoenix, Ariz.; James R., of Augusta, Wis.; William A., of Burnett county, Wis.; Jennie A., Mrs. Seymour, of Austin, Minn.; Bertha A., who died at Phoenix, Ariz., in 1882, aged twenty years; Charles Alexander, mentioned below; George V. H. of Great Falls, Mont.; and Cecil E., of Juneau, Alaska.

Charles A. Shaver attended the public school at Augusta, and in August, 1884, came to Shell Lake, where he was employed as assistant shipping clerk by the Shell Lake Lumber Company. He retained this position until 1893, where he was elected register of deeds, an office to which he has been five times reelected. Mr. Shaver has always been a Republican, and has been a delegate to Assembly, Senatorial and Congressional conventions. Soon after entering the register's office he began preparing a set of abstracts of Washburn county. In 1902 the Washburn County Abstract Company was incorporated, of which he has ever since been president and manager. The abstracts furnished by him are considered by good authorities the most complete of any in northern Wisconsin.

On Jan. 1, 1885, Mr. Shaver married Sylvia J. Newell, who was born in St. Paul, daughter of Francis S. and Sarah L. Newell, of Shell Lake, now of Kent, Wash., who came West from New York State; her mother was a native of England. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Shaver, as follows: Archie L., Stella May, William W., Francis G. and Bertha Ellen. Mr. Shaver is a Mason, and has passed all the chairs in the local lodge and encampment of Odd Fellows; he also belongs to the Independent Order of Foresters and to the M. W. A.

1 - Editorial Note - No death or burial information could be found in Washburn Co. for Charles Shaver.