PVT Aaron Shirley

http://www.shirleyassociation.com/NewShirleySite/NonMembers/UnitedS...

Confederate - Member of 31st Regiment Arkansas Infantry, Co E-Pope County. Died from disease while in Mississippi.

The biography of Aaron Shirley--source Family records sent to my mother in 1990
Aaron Shirley was born around 1810 in South Carolina probably in Laurens or Abbeville Co. We believe his father was Robert Shirley. The family moved to Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.
Anna Cleveland (his wife) was born in Alabama or Georgia around 1916. Aaron and Anna were married 6 June 1832 in Tuscaloosa, County Ala. Their second child and first son was George Washington Shirley born around 1837.
We find the Aaron Shirley family on the 1850 Census of Tuscaloosa County. There were numerous other Shirley families living in and around Tuscaloosa Co., Ala.
In the early 1850s Aaron & Anna Cleveland Shirley and their young family, along with Aaron's brother Lewis F. Shirley and his family joined a wagon train and headed west. They settled briefly in “east” Texas. The Wagon train then moved north into Arkansas ”helping to blaze a trail through the wilderness.” They stopped in Montgomery County Arkansas where son, Doctor Aaron Shirley was born on 16, January 1856 near Mt. Ida.
Aaron Shirley had gone on North across the Arkansas River and applied for a land patent on 80 acres of government land in Big Creek Valley south of Mt. Judes, in Newton Co., Arkansas. The land office was at Fayetteville. He paid $100 fee with gold coin.
The land is described as Township 14 N R 20 W, SW1/4 of SW ¼ of Sec 23, 40 acres, $50 Jan 11, 1856 ert 8056 and NE ¼ of NE1/4 in Sec 27, 40 acres, $50 Jan 11, 1856 Cert. 8056
He acquired another 40 Acres in 1859
NW ¼ of the SW ¼ in Sec 23, 40 acres, $40 Feb 2, 1859 Cert. 11200
These pieces of land are all joined.
(As of 1990, Aaron Shirley's 120 acres are a part of the Ozark National Forest.)
Aaron and Anna's close neighbors were Asa Holt, Lewis Shirley, Minerva A. Cheatham, William B. Cheatham, William C. Rockley, and Ne-Com-Be, a Choctaw Indian.
In the 1860 Census of Newton Co., Ark his Shirley family is listed in dwelling #399in White Township P.O. Mt. Judes (the home was about 5 miles south of Mt. Judes). Seven Children are at home. The three oldest apparently have established homes of their own, including George Washington Shirley—who we think was in Texas).
The Civil War started in 1861. It is said that Aaron Shirley died during the war and was buried at Holly Springs, Mississippi. In the 1870 census of Newton Co., Ark we find Anna (Cleveland)Shirley, a wido, with her four youngest children. Nearby are sons George Washington Shirley with his wife Sultana and their five oldest children, Robert and Safrona Shirley and and their two children, and Mary A. Shirley Holt living in her brother Robert's household.

In 1880 Pope Co., Ark., which joins Newton to the south, we find Robert and Safrona Shirley and six children. Next door is Doctor Aaron Shirley (next to the youngest child of Aaron and Anna) with his wife Arkansas “Caney” and two children.
In the same year George Washington Shirley wife Sultana and Children, were in Polk County Arkansas, south of Fort Smith.
Joseph Shirley, son of Aaron and Anna) married his cousin, Martha Jane Shirley 9daughter of Lewis F. Shirley and Mary Ann “Polly” Patterson). Joseph became a Baptist preacher and in 1868 moved back south across the Arkansas River to Montgomery County with his uncle Lewis and family. These families settled in an area west of Mt. Ida.
It is said that Anna Cleveland-Shirley died around 1884 in Newton or Pop County, Arkansas.
11 Children of Aaron & Anna:
Jane Shirley b. 1834 in AL m. Daniel Brown
George Washington Shirley b. 1837 d. 1899 m. Sultana Holt
Mary A. Shirley b. 1840 m. surname Holt 2nd m. surname Fulton
Joseph Shirley b. 1842 d. Mar 19, 1885 AR m. Martha Jane Shirley
James "Jim" Shirley b. 1844 d. in Civil War
Robert Shirley b. Nov 9, 1846 d. July 9, 1908 m. Safrona C. Ross
Elizabeth Shirley b. 1849 m. surname Davis
Anna Shirley b. 1851 m. surname Ellison
Rhoda "Rhody" Shirley b. 1852 AL d. AR m. surname O'Neal 2nd m. Bird "Bud" Jones
Doctor Aaron Shirley b. 16 Jan 1856 AR d. 31 Aug 1942 OK m. Arkansas "Caney" Bolin
Andrew Jackson Shirley b. 3 July 1861 d. ? 1st m. Martha A. Nobles 2nd m. Lucinda Fulton

Above Bio courtesy of Delaine Shirley-Noyer.* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jul 28 2022, 20:38:54 UTC