David Shields

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69833301/david-shields

David was the 3rd of "The Ten Brothers".

David moved in 1808 to Louisville, Kentucky, and flat-boated freight from Cincinnati to New Orleans He retired to Athens, TN and died there.

According to John A. Shields, David Shields went to Louisville, Kentucky in 1808 and, for 40 years, operated a flatboat on the river. Was said to have many descendants there, throughout Kentucky and Tennessee and around Canton, Illinois. Buried at Athens, Tennessee.
Some accounts say he was born in Rockingham County (Harrisonburg), Virginia

John A. Shields says David was called "Big Dave." He was a powerful, large-framed man, and few men could beat him in bare-fisted fights that were popular on the frontier. Men came to Sevierville from throughout East Tennessee to challenge him, and none succeeded. In later years, his nephew James assumed the title.

He lived at the Shields Fort from 1784 until 1808 and brought the first bride to the fort. In 1808 David and his family settled at Louisville, and he engaged in flat-boating freight from Cincinnati to New Orleans, floating downstream and walking back to Louisville. He was noted for his strength and his rowing ability on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
He was bitterly opposed to slavery and is credited with helping scores of slaves escape from the South. He had effective slave-running organizations at several points along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and, in his later years, was an associate of Levi Coffin in the underground railroad. [See also the note under John Shields 1811-89.]

John A. Shields says David's second wife, Susan, was from New York. Christine Brown says David's first wife is unknown. She says they probably lived in Jefferson County, Kentucky, where David was on jury duty in the August 1794 term of court and appeared as defendant in an action by David Black. (But Jacob Edwards Shields was born 1803 in Tennessee, undoubtedly at the fort.] In about 1808, Ms. Brown says, David took his family to Louisville.

David spent his last years at Athens, Tennessee, where he died and is buried.

David and the Unknown wife had one child (known to us) that is Joseph Shields born 1785 in TN

David did have other children with his second wife Susan Edwards: