Jacob Shafer / Shaver / etc. born 1774 Botetourt, (West) Virginia
I'm researching a Jacob Shafer, sometimes Shaver, born 1774 in Botetourt, (West) Virginia. He appears to have married as Jacob Shawver in Monroe County (formed 1779 from parts of Botetourt and Greenbrier) on 26 Nov. 1808 to a Nancy Warren born about 1779/1780 in Botetourt Co., Virginia.
Jacob served in the War of 1812 as a Corporal in the 20th Infantry Regiment. In 1827 Jacob, who was then resident in Greenbrier County, was awarded bounty land by an act of Congress. This land was in Arkansas and was assigned by Jacob to a Samuel Kean. Subsequently Jacob moved to Monroe Co., Missouri where he obtained two tracts of land about a mile east of the town of Middle Grove.
Jacob died in January or February of 1838 shortly after selling one of the two tracts to a Charles Allen who owned land adjacent to Jacob. Jacob's will, dated 6 Feb. 1838, leaves all his possessions in Monroe Co., Missouri to his wife Nancy but mentions the land in Arkansas assigned to Samuel Kean. The bureaucracy, being what it is even back then, issued Jacob's two land patents in Missouri a little over a year after his death.
His widow Nancy appears on the Monroe Co., Missouri Census in 1840 and in 1850. On the 1840 she is listed as Nancy Shaver, although the index (Ancestry) had her listed as Nancy Shaw. The 1850 Census (listed as Shaffer) tells us Nancy was born in Virginia and was 70 years of age, thus born about 1779/1780. In 1850 she had in her household a Theodore Shaffer age 38 born in Virginia. In 1853 Nancy Shafer sold land to Theodore for $1.00 and "natural love and affection". Unfortunately the relationship between them is not spelled out in the deed but I assume Theodore to be her son. In the 1840 Census there were two young males 20 to 30 years of age in her household along with a female in the same age range and three children under five years of age.
I have not found this family in the 1830 or 1810 Census as of yet. However I believe them to be in Greenbrier Co., Virginia in 1820 where the Census shows a Jacob Shafer over 45 (age 46) an adult female 26 to 45 (Nancy age 40) with four male children and one female. Of the five children all but one are under the age of ten. The remaining child, a male, is listed as being 10 to 16. Given the age of the other children I would expect this child to be much closer to 10 years of age than sixteen. All of which seems to be quite compatible with a marriage date in late 1808.