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Truman B. Shew. 1817 - 1848

11/9/2018

4 Comments

 
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    Truman B. Shew was the son of Elizabeth Beecher and Godfrey I. Shew, a cousin of Godfrey Shew Jr., the first settler of Fish House.  Truman was one of six brothers.  Two became doctors.  Truman and his other three brothers (William, Myron, and Jacob) became photographers. They were trained in 1841 by Samuel T, B. Morse (the telegraph inventor) in the art of daguerrotype. Samuel Morse had been in Paris in 1839 , when Louis Daguerre had demonstrated this process of photography for the first time. It was the first form of photography and it was the primary form from 1839  to 1859.  
   The four brothers, after being trained,  first traveled in upstate New York doing their own daguerrotype photography.  Eventually they settled in different east coast cities and ran photography studios for John Plumbe Jr.  Truman ran a studio on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia.
    “[Daguerreotype] creates a silver image on a silver surface using some of the more dangerous chemicals like mercury and iodide, and that’s why a lot of early photographers, especially daguerreotypists, didn’t lead the longest lives.” – Arthur Kaplan of the Getty Conservation Institute.
 Truman Shew became very ill.  His brother, Joel, was a doctor in New York  City and tried to cure him, but to no avail. Truman died in 1848  at the age of 31. He was buried next to his maternal grandparents in the Fish House cemetery next to the Presbyterian church where his grandfather had been a deacon.  Myron and Jacob bought Truman’s Philadelphia studio, but a year after Truman’s death,  Jacob joined the gold rush of 1849 and went to California.  William and Myron headed to California a short time later.  All three brothers continued in the photography business but it was William who became well known.  William died in 1903 and unfortunately most of his work was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.  Some of his works can still be found in history books and also in the Smithsonian.    
     The above information on Truman Shew is also found in the bios of the cemetery residents on a different page on this website.  I have just started this project of learning everything that I can about the people who are buried in the cemetery by the Presbyterian Church here in the hamlet of Fish House.  Fish House was first settled in 1762 and it slowly grew into a beautiful little town that included humble people making a living here as well as wealthy people who were summer residents.  What has surprised me in my research are the connections to the "big" names in history.  Truman Shew, was trained by Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph.  Truman then worked for John Plumbe Jr. who is the photographer that took the very first photo of the White House.  Truman's brother, William, became a noted photographer and some of his photos are in the Smithsonian.  Truman's mother, Elizabeth Beecher, was related to Harriet Beecher Stowe.  So how is it that residents in such a little town, such as Fish House,
​ intersected with famous people in our American history?  


​

In the fall of 2018, I started to clean some of the gravestones using Biologic D2. Then, when the weather warmed up in 2019, I went back up to the graveyard and was amazed that Truman's gravestone was even cleaner!  The Biologic D2 continued  to work on the stone during the winter months. I was encouraged by the results and worked on his gravestone even more, as well as most of the other gravestones.  Truman B. Shew's gravestone has had a dramatic transformation. I have posted below, the before and after shots.
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This is the earliest known photograph of the White House.  It was taken in January of 1846 by John Plumbe Jr.  It is a daguerreotype.  
Plumb took several photographs of government buildings that year.  But the photographs were lost until 1972 when they were discovered  in a flea market in Alameda, California , The  six daguerreotypes were cleaned up and are now at the Library of Congress.

4 Comments
Paul Shew
4/30/2019 07:35:07 pm

Thank you for the material on one of our ancesters, Truman Shew. Your work and references are very helpful. We visited his site last fall, and noticed the advanced deterioration of the Church. Both it and the wood frame structure next to it appear to be abandoned.

Reply
Joanne Blaauboer link
5/1/2019 12:21:46 pm

Hi, thank you for your comment. As deputy historian of Northampton it is one of my goals to get the town to help repair the gravestones. As for the church, that is privately owned and its main function is that of a storage building. Maybe someday it could be repaired.

Reply
paul shew
9/20/2019 10:53:09 pm

Joanne, Thank you for your continued efforts. We are descendants of Godfrey Shew and recently spent a weekend at Fish House. With the help of Dave Newton, we were able to have Truman's headstone cleaned. You can now read the inscribed poem.

Pete Shew has spent a great deal of time on Fish House, and deserves a round of applause for his efforts.

We hope to return and research more family history when possible!
S

Reply
Richard B. Brown
1/11/2020 05:46:54 pm

Joanne
Thank you for your time and efforts. I am a descendant of Godfrey Shew and visited the cemetery in October of 2015, photographing Truman Shew's marker which was at that time very dirty and stained. The cleaning result has been extraordinary-the marble looks like new and your efforts are greatly appreciated!.

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    In 2009, I prepared the first Historical Tour of Fish House. As a result of my work and interest, the Historian of Northampton made me Deputy Historian, concentrating on Fish House which is part of Northampton.

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