3:33
Samuel Shaw was born in 1842 near the village of Kirkpatrick just outside of Dumfries in the lowlands of Scotland. Samuel’s mother, Mary Bennet, immigrated to the United States when he was an infant, so Samuel’s earliest years were spent with his grandparents in Scotland. In 1852, before he turned ten, Samuel’s aunt, Janet Shaw, brought the boy to the United States. They moved in with Samuel’s mother, who was living in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Samuel Shaw attended school in Oshkosh. However, by the age of sixteen he had proven himself to be such an exceptional scholar that he was asked to take charge of teaching an overflow group of younger boys and girls. Shaw completed his own studies while teaching high school students in Oshkosh. When he turned twenty, he journeyed briefly to Great Britain, but returned in 1863 and began teaching at the town of Omro, where he met Louise Webb, whom he soon married. In 1867 he won election as Superintendent of Schools for Wi