JosJoseph Henry Shackelford, Sr sold his Jefferson County, Alabama property which was just south of Vulcan Statue on Red Mountain which includes a large portion of Homewood section in Birmingham on 18-Mar-1848 (Ala records Vol 58). Three generations of Shackelfords moved from Alabama to Union Parish, Louisiana between 1848 and 1850. Joseph and parents and children relocated after selling their land and holdings after three years of drought, during which they made no crops.

He bought 1/2 square mile of land for $520 on 27-Nov-1858 from John C. McCurdy. It is two miles northwest of Bernice, Louisiana along east side of Parish Road 9312. Ina was the first child born there.

SHILOH POST OFFICE ESTABLISHED:
16 April 1851

HISTORY OF SHILOH POST OFFICE, 1851 - 1906:
discontinued 28 June 1866
re-established 17 June 1867
discontinued 21 Dec 1869
re-established 12 Oct 1871
office closed effective 31 Oct 1906, with mail forwarded to Bernice.

Shiloh was located in western Union Parish in Section 20, Township 21 North, Range 2 West, not too far from Bayou Corney. It was a thriving business center between the latter 1840s and 1898, when the business district burned. The fire plus the decision of the railroad commissioners to bypass Shiloh and place the north/south rail line several miles west of Shiloh led to its demise. Business had shifted to Bernice within only a few years.

BERNICE POST OFFICE ESTABLISHED: O7 October 1899

James Dewey O'Brien - Mar 30, 2003
An interesting ancestor of grandmama's mother, Harriet Massey Shackelford, was John Valliant of France, England, and Talbot County Maryland. The line goes through the Masseys of Kent County, Maryland, where James Maynard Massey of Jefferson County, Alabama was mentioned in his father's will, through the Spry family, and on to John Valliant who had fled as a youngster with his mother and uncle to London just before Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes which had given some protection to Protestants (1685). Lucky he got out just in time, as all roads out of France for Protestants were closed and they were given the choice of converting to Catholicism or the severest penalties. John was apprenticed to go to Maryland where he married and left many descendants. Thus, our family is partly of French Huguenot (Protestant) ancestry.
Proof: wills of each generation from James Massey in Alabama and all those thereafter to John Valliant; public records in London and records of the "French Church" on Castle St., London, Eng.

Gen. 9. Harriet Massey Shackelford, b. 1 Feb. 1828, married Joseph Henry Shackelford b. 24 June 1826, both born in Jefferson Co., AL. Harriet died 29 Dec. 1888; her husband d. 26 Aug. 1910. (Cemetery Records, Union Par., LA)
Successions of Harriet Massey and Joseph Henry Shackelford show children and husbands of daughters.

The Genie, 1990 2nd Qtr (son of J H Shackelford).