| Date: September 30, 2007 |
"Sister" Sylvia, the D.A.R., and William C. Shelton's Diary
| My sister-like niece Sylvia is back in Danville, Virginia. She and John bought a second house and drift back and forth from Hot Springs Village in Arkansas. My dad died when I was 16 back in the “happy days” of 1957. I inherited the family 1951 Chevy “power slide” and Sylvia helped get together a car load of girls who rode with me to the Civil Air Patrol meetings at the airport and our “cabin” on the farm, which never seemed to get far off the ground. D.A.R. Sylvia Lee Lynch Matthews is a prolific producer of paperwork for the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). She made the Ricketts family famous in Arkansas, actually convincing them that we had accomplished something. In 2006, Sylvia invited us to Arkansas and I was presented both the NSDAR awards for History and Historic Preservation. My son Bobby, grandson Joey also received awards from the DAR and we all received the beautiful Arkansas Traveler Awards, which are signed by the Arkansas governor and secretary of state. See our DAR Awards page. Shelton Diary Lately, Sylvia has been a great help in finishing up the publication of an important and interesting diary for three years beginning in January of 1850. We now have the years of 1850, 1851 and 1852 listed separately on EBAY with Southside Books [NOTE: this was in 2007; the books are now out of print]. My wife and I have had this handwritten treasure for about 35 years. We bought a house on US 29 in 1972 where we began an antique shop called The Heritage Shop. We had JoAnn, age three, Bobby, age one, and then came Paul in 1973. Nancye was running the shop in her “spare” time while I carried mail and attended college for the GI Bill money three nights a week. A lady came in from North Carolina with some old magazines and the 1850-52 diary and sold them to Nancye. The lady promised to bring more old "magazines" to our shop, but we never saw her again. She said the landlord told them to clean out that old room, so instead of bringing it up to Danville, they may have thrown away everything else in the old house. Sadly, inside the cover of the diary was written “20th Album.” The writer of the diary was William Christopher Shelton (1814-1869). At the time of writing the diaries we have, he taught in a one-room log schoolhouse near the Greenfield Baptist Church, located about five miles east of Gretna, Virginia, in Pittsylvania County. His great grandfather Crispen Shelton came to the waters of Whitethorn (also called Panther) Georges Creek in 1762, five years before the formation of Pittsylvania County in 1767. Crispen had eleven children. When he died in 1794, he gave his youngest son Vincent Shelton, Sr. (Wm. C.’s grandfather) land and five of his 51 slaves. They were West, Essex, Betty, Rhoda and Edy. Vincent Senior was born in 1754 and served as an officer during the Revolutionary War. Wm. C. Shelton’s father was Capt. Vincent Shelton, Jr. who was born in 1792 and married Nancy Waller in 1813. Capt. Vincent was a Deputy Sheriff and served as a captain during the War of 1812. In addition to William C. Shelton, the Sheltons also had another child named Elizabeth Ann Shelton, born in 1816, who married William Stone in 1837. After he died, Elizabeth married William B. Swann of “Woodfern.” Swann gave the land for the Pelham, North Carolina Methodist Church. Pelham is a small community near the state border with Virginia. Elizabeth and William’s mother Nancy Waller Shelton died in 1875 and is buried in the church graveyard. The old home place where the diary was found and the Swann family lived is northwest of the church on the eastern side of the present highway US 29. William Shelton had hard times after the Civil War and met a tragic end. The first volume for 1850 has the story about his life after the 1850s. We have a section under Pittsylvania County, Virginia called William C. Shelton. Our next project is to publish the diary of a Danville attorney who was a Confederate captain who became very wealthy after the War. |
| Here I am with my older sister Idella and her new baby Sylvia - 1943 |
| DAR Hot Springs, Arkansas President Sheila Beatty, Danny Ricketts holds one of the awards, and niece Sylvia Lynch Matthews holds the other DAR award. |
| Uncle Danny Ricketts and Niece Sylvia Lynch - only two years apart in age. |
| My grandson Joey Ricketts' "Mary Desha Award" from the DAR - Daughters of the American Revolution |
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