Achelus Shedrick Key
b. 18 January 1842, Surry County, North Carolina, to William S. and Lydia D. (Jones) Key
d. 13 June 1930, Sharpsburg, Taylor County, Iowa

m/1. 31 December 1862, Surry County, North Carolina
Martha Ellen Whittaker
d. Indiana

m/2. 1 November 1868, Jasper County, Indiana
Mary Grubb
b. 19 November 1846, Jefferson County, Virginia, to Adam and Elizabeth (Mercer) Grubb
d. 19 February 1901, Grove Township, Taylor County, Iowa

m/3. 22 September 1901
Sarah Ellen Coe
b. 3 September 1873, North Carolina
d. 21 July 1969, Taylor County, Iowa

Children with Martha Ellen Whittaker:
• Samuel Jefferson (1865-1924) married Rose L. Gaudard
• James Lewis (ca. 1867-1961) married Blanche Davis

Children with Mary Grubb:
• Eliza Ellen (1870-1918) married John Wattie Campbell
• Cora Lee (b. 1872) married Elmer McLaughlin
• John Orman (1874-1957) married Goldie Cook
• Charles Lee William (1879-ca. 1950) married Ida Bell Crowe
• William (b. aft. 1880)
• Oscar Henry (1883-1967) married Ethel Mae Strum
• Rosa Edith (1885-1934) married Jerry Wilson

Children with Sarah Ellen Coe:
• Roxa Viola (1902-1961)
• Lloyd Amond (b. 1903) married Edna Weese
• Eunice May (b. 1905) married James A. Eller
• Lydia DeBose (b. 1907) married Russell Reynolds
• Bessie Maciel (1908-1944) married Elwin Brown
• Hollis Cecil (1910-1910)
• Hattie Dell (b. 1911) married Asa Tackett
• Royal Jackson (1914-1917)
• Lula Tessie (1917-1917)
• Dora Jessie (1917-1918)
• Mary Lessie (b. 1917) married William Terry

A. S. Key was a Confederate soldier in Company H, 11th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry (volunteers) from June 1861 for twelve months. He was wounded as part of Jackson’s campaign of the Shenandoah Valley on 25 May 1862. In June 1862, he was reported as being “absent without leave.”

Six months later her married his first wife. The couple most likely moved to Indiana between the births of their two sons, probably because of the harsh conditions in North Carolina after the war. Martha died, leaving him with two young children. While it is not known exactly when they came to Indiana, they left Jasper County in 1869.

He married Mary in Jasper County and their first child was born in Peoria, Illinois, where Mary also had family. By 1880, the family was in Grove Township, Taylor County, Iowa.

By the end of his life, A. S. had married three times and had twenty children, the last three being triplets. His name has also been spelled Achillus Sherdrick Key.

Submitted by:
Sandra L. Carter-Duff
Denver CO
E-mail: sandy@carduff.com