The following piece was received over Prodigy (a communications network) by my son, Michael. I have no way of verifying its accuracy but it does make for interesting reading:
Message from Mark Shanks to Mike Shanks dated February 18, 1991
"Incredible, my name is Mark Shanks originally from Detroit, MI but now living near St. Louis. Your history of the family is the same as the one that I have in a handwritten "Tradition and History of the Shanks Family", written in the 1880s by George M. Shanks who lived in Dexter, MI. He says that the SHANKS migrated from County Down, Ireland in 1765 and settled in Pennsylvania.
Joseph Shanks was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and was wounded but returned to service and eventually was killed at the Alamo. A visit to the Alamo, however, did not turn his name up.
Another name was John Peter Clever (J.P.C.) Shanks who was a hero at the (Civil War) Battle of Bull Run. He was presented a sword by Abraham Lincoln and he commanded the 7th Indiana Cavalry. I have a copy of a recruiting poster that is a popular eastern souvenir. The poster says:
ANOTHER CHANCE TO AVOID THE DRAFT!
Enlist in the 7th Indiana Cavalry...commanded by J.P.C. Shanks
He was later made Commissioner of Indian Affairs and was adopted by the Cherokee Indian Tribe and given the name of "Silver Locks".
George M. Shanks claims to be the only one able to trace the family, evidently forgetting the southern branch of the family.
My father was one of seven brothers. The boys were sent out to foster homes at an early age because of the depression and as far as I know only two survive - my Uncle George, who is a Doctor in Grand Rapids and my Uncle Paul, who lives in Arizona somewhere. My father retired from the Detroit police in 1973 after 25 years and became the head of security for the MI State Lottery.
I have one brother who is an engineer with GM and a sister who is a medical technician near Lansing, MI.
I am a 1976 US Air Force Academy graduate, flew B-52s from Loring AFB, ME and have been an engineer with McDonnell Douglas since 1982. I would like to exchange information with you."
Mark Shanks
February 18, 1991
During some later research I found some additional information on J.P.C . . . . John Peter Clever Shanks was apparently quite a man. The book I found, The Civil War Dictionary by Mark M Boatner, III, had a little article about him. It described him as follows:
SHANKS, John Peter Clever. Union officer. Virginia. Appointed from Indiana. He was commissioned Colonel Aide de Camp to General Fremont from September 20 to November 19, 1861. He was named Colonel Additional Aide de Camp
on March 31, 1962. On October 9, 1963 he was named Colonel of the 7th Indiana Cavalry where he served for the remainder of the war and was mustered out in September, 1965. He was promoted to Brigadier General United State Volunteers on December 8, 1964 and Major General of the United States Volunteers for war service.
In that same book, there was some additional information on a John T. Shanks, apparently one of our ancestors. This particular information was mentioned in an article about a gentleman named Benjamin Jeffery Sweet, a Union officer (1832-1874). I gotta’ tell you, I really have mixed emotions on this story. On the one hand, it seems to portray him as a traitor, but, on the other hand, a man of his convictions and his word.
This is the first I have found on John T. Shanks so I am not sure where he fits into the family tree. In any event, the story is interesting.
It said in part (and this is my interpretation of the article) that:
Major Sweet had malaria and commanded several Wisconsin regiments. After being seriously wounded, while mounted on a horse, he took command of Camp Douglas (Illinois) where 10,000 prisoners were held. He received word that there would be an outbreak on July 4 and the prisoners would arm themselves to sack and destroy Chicago. He quickly added to his garrison (guards) and strengthened his force and by doing so discouraged the outbreak.
The following November, however, he received word that there was another break planned by the prisoners for election night, just 3 days away. The word was that, that after the break, Chicago was to be burned and that was to be the signal for a general uprising of 500,000 well-armed men throughout the western country. Sweet only had 796 men. Most of them were unfit for duty. There was no way, with those few un-trained men that he could stop an uprising of 10,000 men.
He realized that in order to stop the men, he must arrest the leaders of the uprising. He called on one of the prisoners, John T. Shanks, to locate the rebel conspirators. Sweet arranged for Shanks’s escape from the camp to allay the Confederates’ suspicions and then had him trailed by detectives under orders to kill him at the first sign or treachery. Shanks, however, served Sweet well. The leaders were under arrest within 36 hours. The citizens of Chicago were most appreciative and held a mass meeting to thank the man who saved their city. Sweet was promoted to Brigadier General of the United States Volunteers
for his actions in saving the city. After the war ended he practiced law and held several offices
in the federal pension and internal revenue offices.
While these stories seem to indicate that our family had a considerable military background, our research into our family seems to reflect that our ancestors were mostly farmers.
That changed along the way - somewhere around the middle 60s. The 1970s, 80s and 90s brought about a more divergent occupational group in our family. Unfortunately, there are few farmers. I am sure that my father would be most disappointed! He was a farmer at heart and would have loved to see one of his sons become a farmer.
There are now school teachers, computer specialists, computer salespersons, salespersons, manufacturing management, physical therapists, floral shop owners, architects, bankers, insurance executives, airline folks, day care and early childhood specialists and providers, administrative-type and on and on and on. There are no farmers among my nephews and nieces! Again, Dad would not have liked that.
The Shanks families in our ancestral studies were quite large in the late 1800s and early 1900s with 9-10-11-12- children in a family with one family having 18 children! I think that was quite common for that time period. Now, however, that has changed dramatically with the average family now having only 2 or 3 children and I think that, too, is common for families of the 1990s.
Our family was not a wealthy one. Probably average. The Shanks' were never known to be poor, nor did we have a reputation for being rich. I suppose that puts us somewhere in the middle. Everyone seemed to have a nice house, nice cars and the usual nice amenities of our time but few of us had many real luxuries. There were exceptions, of course, but we won't mention any names.
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