Ebenezer Shaw was born on January 3, 1749 in Hampton, New Hampshire to Ebenezer and Anna (Philbrick) Shaw. His father moved the family from Hampton to Standish, Maine in 1760, where his father had been granted 200 acres of land and a mill right. Ebenezer married his first wife, Sarah Wood of Gorham, Maine in 1771. Together they had 10 known children starting when Sarah was 19 and dying at age 39 giving birth to her last daughter on 8 July 1792. Sarah oldest daughter had been married for two years had given birth to the first grandchild of Ebenezer and Sarah by 1792.
During this marriage, Ebenezer also served in the Revolutionary War in 1779. His wife wife had given birth to their fifth child in January 1779 and Ebenezer left to serve in regiment in Cape Elizabeth, Maine from July 1779 to September 1779. His wife left behind with 5 children who ages ranged from a 6 year old to an infant.
In 1792, Ebenezer was 43 years old and now saddled with children ages 20 to an infant. With his oldest daughter married and raising her own family, he probably relied on his other oldest daughters to raise the younger children and maintain the chores that their mother performed. Ebenezer like many men of the time needed a wife to raise his children and maintain the household chores. Although, Ebenezer could have married a widow closer to his own age with her own children or none at all at home, he instead married an unmarried 22 year old, Salome Green in March of 1793. Of course, at 22 and not married, Salome might even had been considered a spinster at that time. So a marriage proposal with a prosperous widower in need of someone to help raise his youngest children may have appealed to Salome and maybe most of all, to her family. From all accounts, Salome was able step up to the task of running the household and becoming a step-mother to Ebenezer's youngest children with little trouble. So their marriage was a benefit both of them.
Ebenezer then began his second family with Salome. They had 14 known children, with Salome's last child born at age 42 in 1813. Ebenezer was a mere 64 years old at that time. He is credited to fathering 26 children, but only 24 are recorded, so he may had more children with either his first or second wife, that were stillborn or born premature and not recorded in town records. If he had two more with his second wife, Salome would have been the mother of 16 children.
Maybe fathering so many children kept Ebenezer young as he lived another 23 years after the birth of his last child at the age, dying at age 87 on August 11, 1836. His death was carried by several newspapers due to number of his children and his 200 descendants and the longevity of his himself and his siblings. The following is from the Portland Weekly Advertiser, issue of August 23, 1836. Other papers published the same or part of this article.
His widow Salome died in August 1847 in Standish. Only a gravestone for Ebenezer Shaw in the Standish Village Cemetery can be found, none for either of his wives.
