SHACKELFORD, AGNES MARIE

by Chelanie A. Adam

Entry F378 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Agnes Shackelford

Agnes Marie Shackleford was born on
January 11, 1908. Her father was John
Wesley Shackleford, and her mother was
Mary Louise Newkirk. She had three sisters,
Ila, Marcella, and Ruth, and two brothers,
Bill and Ernest.

Agnes lived on the kinkaid, which was
thirty-two miles north of Hyannis, Nebraska,
until her 10th birthday. She and her family
then moved to Elkins, Arkansas. During the
summer months in Arkansas she contracted
Polio at 11 years and 6 months of age. After
six months in bed, her father wrapped her in
blankets and took her to St. Louis where she
spent eight or nine months, in the St. Louis
Children's Hospital, when her parents were
notified that the hospital staff couldn't do
anymore for her.

Agnes' parents were living in Conway,
Iowa, where they ran The Conway Hotel for
about two years. They then returned to
Nebraska just north of Whitman. When
Agnes was 14, they found information on a
hospital that might be able to correct her
paralysis. So off she went to Pittsburg, Penn.
for nine months. They tried many things
including crossing the muscles in her legs
hoping to make them work, but nothing was
successful. When she joined her family, it was
north of Whitman at the Hoyt place. A year
after she was back in Nebraska, she took over
the King Post Office. In 1928 for two years
and six months she was the Postmaster and
Justice of Peace. In her spare time she began
gardening, painting, and writing poetry.

In 1927 the Shackelfords moved to the
Christy place which was south of the Hoyt
place. They then moved to the Smoker place
which was north of Mullen. In 1938, the
Shackelford's moved to the Berckman place,
18 miles south of Ellsworth. Here they hosted
the Paratrooper Trainees from the Alliance
Airbase. They practiced jumps on the dry
lake bed, which they used as a target. One
weekend they had two of the jumpers stay
with them.

The Shackelfords then moved to Whitman
in 1944, when J.W. retired from ranching.
Agnes then lived with her mother after her
father died in 1946. In 1949 she moved to
Mullen to work for Dr. Melvin Hoyt. She
rented a room from Mary Carpenter. Two
years and six months later Mary had a stroke
and died three months following the stroke.
Within the time she worked for Dr. Hoyt, he
did the ground work and Agues promoted the
Mullen Rest Home, which started out as a
hospital. About the same time that Mary
died, Dr. Hoyt moved. The next day Agues
went to work for Mathews Chevrolet Inc. as
a bookkeeper. She also, about this same time,
moved into the little house behind Mary's.

The first year in Mullen, Agnes joined the
Episcopal Church. She taught Sunday
School, was active in the Women's Church
Group, read the Bible to the people at the
Rest Home, and got very active in the Mullen
community. In 1973 she retired after 22 years
for working for Mathews. In 1983, she moved
to Alliance for a leisurely retirement at the
Good Samaritan Village.