Shellman House

The Shellman House on East Main Street in Westminster is one of the many marvelous old buildings in town. And more than a few of them house spirits of one type or another. The Shellman House, one of several owned by the Carroll County Historical Society, was built in 1807 for Jacob Sherman. He only lived there very briefly, as he gave it his daughter Eve and her husband, David Shriver, a few years latter, though they didn’t stay there long either.

Shortly after the Shrivers started living in the house, a young woman named Polly Day was living there. She was seriously ill and was not expected to survive. The following year, while David was away from home, his wife Eve fell ill, taking a bad fall against the hot stove. and her face was disfigured permanently for the rest of her life.. The next year, Shriver sold the house back to his father-in-law. which caused a major family rift. Jacob Sherman, apparently, was so angry at Shriver that he excluded David and Eve from his will before he died in 1722, though he did provide for their children. David and Eve and their three children pulled up stakes and moved to western Maryland, settling in Allegany county.

Jacob Sherman and his wife Elizabeth lived in the house until his death in 1822, at which point, Elizabeth inherited the property. At her death in the house in 1842, the property went to David Shriver’s children in equal parts. The properrty passed to John Fisher, who lived there until his death in 1863. The house was then purchased by George B. Jones, brother of Catherine Jones Shellman, widow of Col. James Meriwehter Shellman. Catherine was a schoolteacher.