Page:One of a thousand.djvu/567

 SHUMW.W SIMONS. 553 Mr. Shores has served on the school board of Pelham, his present residence ; held the office of assessor and selectman ; been forty years superintendent of the Sab- bath-school, and director of sacred music. SHUMWAY, AMOS WIGHT, son of John and Abigail Shumway, was born May 13, 1819, at Dover, Norfolk county. He received his education in the public schools of his native town, and after leav- ing school, entered upon the occupation of farming, which he has ever since followed. He has been chairman of the Democratic town committee, and has held the office of selectman for twenty-three years, and that of assessor for thirty-four years. He has been a member of the school committee for six years, and in 1873 he was sent as a representative to the General Court from the 9th Norfolk district. He was commis- sioned a justice of the peace in 187.4, and has held many offices of trust, to the satis- faction of his fellow-townsmen. Mr. Shumway was married December 1, 1847, at Dover, to Hannah, daughter of Oliver and Sarah Harding, by whom he has three children : Hannah Louisa, Amos Wight, and William Frederick Shumway. SHUMWAY, ELIEL, the son of Peter and Sarah (Spaulding) Shumway, was born in Townshend, Windham county, Vt., Sep- tember 29, 1809. After attending the public school at Townshend for one year, his parents re- moved to Oxford, Mass., where he was sent to the public school, in which he re- mained eight years. In 1S35 he started in business at the West Groton grist and saw mills, where he remained twelve years. In 1847 ' le removed to Groton Centre, upon the farm he still owns. In 1856 and '57 he held the office of selectman for the town of Groton. In 1858 he was elected to represent his dis- trict in the House of Representatives. Mr. Shumway was recruiting officer for the town all through the war, and also held the position of deputy provost-marshal. In the spring of 1862 he was elected chairman of the board of selectmen, asses- sors, and overseers of the poor, and was re-elected for five successive years. In 1873 he was again elected to the same offices, and was honored with a successive re-election in 1874 and '75. He was for fifteen years treasurer, and for twenty years trustee, of Lawrence Academy, Groton. At the time of re-build- ing the academy, he was appointed to superintend the same. Mr. Shumway was married October 24, 1833, to Lucy E., daughter of Noah Ball of Townsend, Mass., who died December 1, 1864. He married again May 16, 1867, Mrs. Emma Perry, daughter of Jonathan Storer of Norwich, Conn. SIMONS, SELAR, son of Reuben and Theda (Phelps) Simons, was born in Orford, Grafton county, N. H., September 22, 1803. He acquired a very limited education in the public schools of those days, and from a few terms' attendance at Gilmanton Academy, N. H. Reared on a farm, he followed a farmer's occupation, with a di- version by way of teaching during the win- ter season. In 1S24 he went to Portland, Maine, and embarked in trade. There he remained four years. In 1828 he went to New Or- leans, La., where, for three years and eight months he taught a public school for boys, when the debilitating effects of the climate made it necessary for him to go North, and he removed to St. Louis, Mo. His first business there was mercantile. His first public employment was that of sheriff, to which office he was twice elect- ed. His next occupation was that of a steamboat captain on the Mississippi River, from St. Louis to New Orleans. Upon the death of a relative he was called home in 1854, and went to Carlisle. Here he has since remained, giving his at- tention, up to 1883, principally to farming. He has been a member of the school board, selectman, and town clerk; was con- nected with the assessment of internal rev- enue eight years ; was census enumerator in 1870, and has been superintendent of schools. He made his last annual school report at eighty-six years of age. He is the oldest school superintendent in Massa- chusetts, and his report is full of sugges- tions showing intelligence and good judg- ment upon educational matters, and a soundness of theory in discussing the school curriculum that is at once conserva- tive and yet progressive. In politics he has always been conserva- tive. His first vote was for John Quincy Adams, not having at that time nor since any faith in the democracy of Jefferson or Thomas Paine, as a sovereign remedy for political ills, or as calculated to secure to any people an orderly or stable government. Mr. Simons is a liberal and public- spirited man, possessing the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens. He was married in Carlisle, October 5, 1834, to Clarissa, daughter of Zebulon and