Allen Garrido Family Wiki

Philemon Shirley (1846) was born in Marshall County, Indiana to John and Lydia Shirley.

He married Lydia Jane Severs on 26 March 1868 in Marshall.¹⁾²⁾

Philemon first shows up on the 1850 census living with his father and step-mother Martha in Marshall, Indiana.³⁾ His mother died when he was two years old two years earlier. He lived with his family through most of the 1860s but by 1870 he was living with his wife Lydia, still in Marshall.⁴⁾ He continued to live in Marshall with his growing family through at least 1880.⁵⁾

According to the Shirley Association, Philemon and his family moved west over the course of 3 or 4 years traveling by covered wagon. Around 1888 he was in Kansas where his youngest son Fred was born, and in Nebraska in 1890 where his daughter Mable was born. In 1895 his residence is listed as Norton, Kansas.⁶⁾ He lived in Kansas at least until 1905.⁷⁾

Something happened after 1905 because in 1910 Philemon was living just over the Kansas border in Yuma County, Colorado near his sons William and Owen.⁸⁾ His wife Lydia was still living in Kansas with James and Fred.⁹⁾ Both are listed as being widowed. Between 1912 and 1913 Philemon, William, and Owen were given adjacent land grants in Yuma County.¹⁰⁾

It is unlikely that the family found success there since Philemon passed away in Kansas in 1918, William was registered for the draft in McDonald County, Missouri in 1917, and Owen was widowed, living with his brother Fred in Norton in 1920.

There is no record of Philemon's schooling but on the 1860 census, when he was 13 years old, he was listed as having attended school within the past year.¹¹⁾ On all subsequent censuses he's listed as being able to read and write.

In 1870, Philemon is listed as working as a laborer.¹²⁾ After moving to Kansas he is listed as a farmer on the 1895 Kansas census.¹³⁾ In 1900, at age 54, he has no employment listed, although his sons James and Owen are listed as working as farm laborers.¹⁴⁾ On the 1905 Kansas census he is again listed as a farmer in Norton, Kansas.¹⁵⁾

In 1910 He is listed as a farmer laborer in a house he owned outright in Hale, Colorado.¹⁶⁾