The Shells of Pigeon Creek Genealogy Web Site
The ancestors, descendants, and cousins of the Shells of Pigeon Creek, Alabama.
Notes for Abigail
No clue has been found to Abba's maiden name. It was thought it might be Dollison, which was the middle name of Cornelius but, it appears that this rather uncommon name, absent from the Virginia or South Carolina records, was quite well known in the past of Pennsylvania from which the Shells had come (?MDS), so that it may be a family name from the Shell side. There were many people of Pennsylvania German descent among the inhabitants of Newberry Co. and the Shells were much associated with them.
Sometimes after the death of William Shell, the twice-widowed Abba moved to Morgan Co., GA, probably because some of her own relatives were there. Her oldest son John Collinsworth was licensed to preach in 1807, and her second son William was licensed in 1813. Her daughters Hanna and Elizabeth Collinsworth were also grown up. Hanna, born in 1788, died 1861, married first John Thomas Peacock, and after his death Isiah Ball of Morgan County, GA. In a letter to a niece written in 1848, and which has been preserved, she gives information which leaves no doubt in my mind that her half-brother was Cornelius Dollison Shell of Alabama. She says, "Cornelius Shell came by" (evidently on a visit), and "your Aunt Martha has had a hard time," and again, "Cornelius and Martha have ten living children. Their oldest son Joseph has died." She says, "Zilpa Ball is dead" and mentions others of the Ball family, to whom she and Cornelius were related by marriage. All of this was apparently repeating the news that Cornelius brought.
The fact that the other Shells moved to other parts of Georgia no doubt accounts for the fact that their descendants did not keep up with Abba, the widow, Cornelius, or Dorothy, the baby of the family. We know, of course, that Cornelius went to Talladega County, on the Coosa River about 1830. We do not know what happened to either Abba or Dorothy.
(Ovid B. Hundley, Dr. J.T. Griswold. William Shell Notes from Cornelius' Descendants. 1951)
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