Nancy Elliott Linn Shaver, wife of the Rev David Shaver, was the only child born to the union of the Rev John Linn and Agnes Elliott Linn. She was born in Perry County prior to it's erection, in 1820, from Cumberland county.

Her ancestry, both paternal and distaff, extends back into the early part of the eighteenth century. Her grandfather came to America and settled in Philadelphia in 1753, and according to tradition, he was the first Presbyterian minister to cross the west branch of the Susquehanna River to preach the gospel to the settlers in that vicinity. In 1753 her maternal ancestor came from England and settled in Philadelphia also. They were married in Philadelphia and settled in Perry County where Nancy was born.

On June 23, 1842 she was married to the Rev David Shaver, a Methodist Episcopal minister, son of Peter and C. (Piper) Shaver and grandson of Peter Shaver, the original immigrant of the Shaver clan to America. In Perry county they started life on a grant of land the husband had secured the year previous, and to the union seven children were born, a sketch of each follows [elsewhere on this site].

As a minister's wife she assisted in her husband’s ministerial duties, officiating at weddings and baptisms in the absence of her husband who was serving the State as a Legislator and Associate Judge of Perry
County. By reason of his absence much of the management of the farm fell upon her shoulders, while the two older boys, John and Joseph, helped with working the land.

When the North and South met in the Civil War both John and Joseph entered the service on the side of the North and served throughout the conflict. The part of working the farm then fell upon the shoulders of the third son, Samuel, then only 14 years of age.

In 1870 the family abandoned the farm and the mother made her home with the second son, the Rev Joseph Shaver, then a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Each year she spent a short vacation with each of the sons, all residing in Altoona, Pa. It was at the home of the son, Samuel that she contracted pneumonia, and after an illness of ten days, she passed away on September 26, 1897, at the age of 79 years.

Funeral services were conducted by the Rev. M. I. Gance, then pastor of the First Methodist Church, Altoona, assisted by The Revs D. S. Monroe, G. T. Gray, M. M. Reilly, J. Ellis Bell, and C. L. Benscoter. Burial was made in the Emory Chapel Cemetery, Perry County, alongside the remains of her husband and two children.

Also, see Pop's memory of his grandmother's funeral.

There are also sketches of Nancy Elliott Linn's mother, Agnes Elliott, her father, the Rev John Linn, and John Linn's second wife, Mary McClure.