[Elvirah Walker Shumway and her husband James(B. Shumway) emigrated to Kendall County in 1847, settling near her brothers,
Seth and Lauriston Walker, on a farm just east of the intersection of Douglas and Simons Road in Oswego Township(Ill.). She found
there was a serious lack of apple trees with which vinegar could be made. She didn’t let that stop her, though. In a letter written to
her sister back in Massachusetts in September of 1847, she reported she had two three gallon pots of pickles stewing— if you ask what
I do for vinegar! Oh I use whiskey and water. Which may help explain all those crazy pioneer parties.
SOURCE: Ledger Sentinel - newspaper published in Oswego, Illinois
Article: Apples, honeybees were frontier necessities - 11/21/2002
http://www2.ledgersentinel.com/article.asp?num=1583
Buried: Oswego Cemetery, Oswego, Kendall, Illinois
SOURCE: Steve Shumway -shumways@@petershumway.org
Who is this family member?