A native of Maine, was born in Stenben, Washington Co., on the 22d of September, 1822; his parents were William Nicholas Shaw and Nancy D. (Stevens) Shaw; his paternal grandfather was a distinguished officer in the Revolutionary army; was aid-de-camp to Gen. Knox; was promoted to the rank of Captain of artillery in 1780, and served until the close of the war. Young Shaw was educated in the common schools of his native town and the Wesleyan Seminary at Readfield, attending the latter institution two or three years; at 19, he started for the West, spending one year in teaching a private school in Greencastle, Ind.; he then went to Harrodsburg, Ky., and continued teaching until the Mexican war broke out; in 1848, Mr. Shaw strayed into Arkansas and the Indian Territory, among the Cherokees, Choctaws and other tribes, and, the next year, found his way into California; he remained there, digging in the mines, until 1851, when he returned as far eastward as Anamosa, then little more than a four-corners, on the banks of the Wapsipinicon River; in 1855, he returned to the Golden State again, by the overland route; two years later, he returned to Anamosa and speculated in real estate, being fortunate in many of his investments; he built the Dubuque & Southwestern Railroad from Farley to Anamosa, and was at work on this road when the rebellion broke out; he has been engaged in banking, real estate and the building of brick blocks in Anamosa, and railroads to help the town; the Iowa Midland road, running from Clinton to Anamosa, is the work of his hands; he is of the banking firm of Shaw, Schoonover & Co. He was the first mayor in 1856, was on the school board for many years, a member of the legislature in 1875-6, built the old Congregational and Methodist churches, Shaw's block, where are located the county offices and court room, several of the blocks east of the hotel, nearly all the blocks between Niles & Watters' Savings Bank and Huber Street. Colonel Shaw was married May 4, 1854, to Helen A. Crane, daughter of Pauline and Roswell Crane, descendants of old Connecticut families. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw had two children.