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Tale of truth
n.d
University of Kentucky Special CollectionsLexington, Kentucky 40506
No discernible arrangement.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Tale of truth, 1VF55W56, Special Collections, University of Kentucky.
77 pages
Susan Shelby Shannon was the daughter of Isaac Shelby, first governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and wife of James Shannon of Lexington, Kentucky. In 1832 she accompanied her husband and their niece, Susan Hart Shelby, to Guatemala where Mr. Shannon had been appointed Charge D'Affaires by President Andrew Jackson. Shannon and his niece died from yellow fever shortly after their arrival. Susan Shelby Shannon later married Dr. James McDowell, John McKenny and the Reverend James Fishback. She outlived all four husbands.
See also the James Shannon papers (1VF55W22). This is a typescript of Susan Shelby Shannon's THE TALE OF TRUTH, an excerpt from the journal she kept as she accompanied her husband, James Shannon, to Guatemala where he was to serve as Charge D'Affaires. Written in manuscript form and without dates, the journal gives an account of the trip from Kentucky to Mobile, Alabama, New Orleans, Pensacola, Florida and Belize. She relates the deaths of her husband and niece, Susan Hart Shelby, from yellow fever soon after their arrival in Central America.