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Note: William Marker Shipley was born near Confluence, in Henry Clay Township,
Fayette County, PA, Dec 11, 1832 and died at Uniontown on Jan 16, 1900. He was a son of the late Judge Samuel Shipley.
William M. Shipley was educated in the public and subscription schools of his native township. From 1859 - 1854 he was employed by his father as a teamster on the National Road between Cumberland and Wheeling. The money thus earned he invested in 1855 in the establishment of a general store at Chalk Hill,
which he continued successfully to conduct for ten years. During this period he
served as postmaster under President Pierce for two years and through President Buchanan's administration. Immediately following the close of the war, [Civil War] Mrs. Shipley, Mr. Shipley went west with a view to locating, but soon returned to Fayette county, and in 1866 purchased the Benjamin Hayden property at Hopwood where he opened a general store and remained for 12 years. During all this time he served as school director and for ten years of the period as justice of peace.
From 1853 to the close of his mercantile career at Hopwood, Mr. Shipley was active in his identification with Democratic party interests in Fayette County. In
1878 he removed to Unionstown where he continued to reside up to the date of his decease.
From 1881 - 1888 he conducted a grocery store on East Main Street, but since the latter date was retired from other business than the management of his own and his father's estates. Mr. Shipley's mercantile career was characterized by
enterprise, close attention to business and integrity; and the duties of such offices as he has been called upon to fill were discharged with credit to himself, benefit to his community and satisfaction to his constituents. He contributed in a material and direct way to the growth of Uniontown by the erection of four dwelling houses and the store building on Main Street above referred to. Mr. Shipley became a member of Fort Necessity Lodge No 254 IOOF in June 1855; has held all of the offices of the order in that lodge and has twice represented his lodge in the grand lodge of the state. He was a member of Alpheus E. Willson Lodge No 208, Knights of Pythais; was one of its charter members, has held all the offices of the order in that lodge and has twice represented it in the grand lodge of the state.
He was married March 8, 1856 to Elizabeth, daughter of the late Samuel Huff, a
millwright of Cumberland, MD, who removed with his family in 1854 to Mahaska
County Iowa, where Mr. and Mrs. Huff died within a short time after their removal
thither, and where Mr. Shipley on the western trip heretofore named met and married the daughter.
Of three children born to Mr. and Mrs. Shipley, two, Samuel and Mary Elizabeth are deceased. The remaining child is Harry Shipley, a collector and salesman for Solomon & Ruben, merchants of Pittsburg. Mrs. Shipley is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church Uniontown.
In 1894 Mr. Shipley united with the Central Christian church and has since lived a
faithful, consistent Christian life. He was a man of strong convictions, ever holding fast to that which was good. He was not a rover or a shifter, playing fast and loose with duty, but an earnest man, who having found truth planted himself on it with a firmness invincible. In his death the church has lost a faithful supporter and the community at large a good citizen, a loyal neighbor and example worthy of imitation.
The funeral occurred from his home on East Main Street at 2 o'clock Friday
afternoon, Rev. C.H. Plattenburg, assisted by Dr. T.F. Pershing and Rev. Earl Wilfley conducted the services. Fort Necessity lodge of the order of Odd Fellows of which deceased was a member, attended in a body.
The pall bearers were: Dr. A. P. Bowie, I.H. Johnson, Samuel Dannels, and J.A. Glenn, and the honorary pall bearers: Judge Nathaniel Ewing, M.H. Bowman,
Robert F. Hopwood and W.H. Miller. C.
(Source: Virginia Crilley <crilley@@eramp.net>
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