Elenor Ellen Reese, wife of Warren Waldo Shearer

© Kathy Duncan, 2018

Ellenor Reese, daughter of Solomon Reese and his first wife, married Warren Waldo Sherrer of Alabama.

The record of Ellenor, who was also referred to as Ellen, is found in the settlement of her father's estate in Lincoln County, Tennessee.

This entry in her father’s estate settlement related the events of her marriage to W.W. Sherrer:

Cullen E. Sugg Guard of Ellenor Reese minor heir of Solomon Reese dec’d 
- amt furnished Ellen to go to Blount Co., Alabama 25 Jany 1844.

Amt allowed [Sugg] for trouble as guardian for 8 years which is up to

the time Ellen intermarried with Walder W. Sherrer.

Amt paid Alexander Smith admin of Ellen Sherrer deceased who

intermarried with W.W. Sherrer of Alabama.

Dated 27 Jan 1847

[Source: Lincoln Co., TN Guardian Settlements p. 356]

The dates in this record are probably misleading. Ellenor may have gone to Alabama earlier than 1844 with the expenses of her journey being paid for at a later date.

To date, no record of Ellenor's marriage have been found in Alabama or Tennessee. 

The following cemetery record was found in an online list of tombstones in Myrtlewood Cemetery in Livingston, Sumter County, Alabama and adds a great deal of insight into Ellenor/Ellen's life.
Here are those two tombstones:

Shearer, Mrs. Ellen

Consort W. Waldo Shearer

Died: Oct 17, 1844 Age 18

Shearer, William Kirby

Son W.W. & E.A. Shearer

Aug 24, 1844 - June 3, 1848

We can guess from this that Ellenor/Ellen Reese was born in 1826. She place on the 1830 census can now be accounted for. 

Ellen Reese probably married Warren Waldo Shearer as an underage minor of about sixteen, suggesting that there should be a consent given for her marriage. She either married Shearer in Tennessee and traveled with him to Alabama, or she traveled to Alabama to live with some other relative, met Shearer in Alabama, and then married him there. They would have been married very briefly--maybe only two years. Was the reference to Blount County in the probate record an error, or did Ellen go to Blount County first and then remove to Sumter County?

Evidently, Alexander Smith was administrating Ellen's estate because he was looking out for the interests of her son William Kirby Shearer although William is not referred to in the probate records. This record of Alexander Smith's administration was found in Lincoln County, Tennessee:

Ellen's death two months after the birth of William suggests that her death might not have been related to childbirth. There had been a few instances of Yellow Fever in Mobile, Alabama that year, but it was not considered a epidemic.

This document leaves little doubt that W. Waldo Shearer was married to Ellenor or Ellen Reese although many Shearer researchers have theorized that his first wife was a Morrow.

Warren Waldo Shearer remarried to Elvira Huson and removed to Mississippi, where he died in 1878. 

Solomon Reese Estate Settlement Notes