Guide to the Shane Collection

John Dabney Shane, ordained Presbyterian minister and collector of material on Presbyterian history and pioneer life in Kentucky and the Mississippi Valley, was born in 1812 in Cincinnati, Ohio and died there on February 7, 1864. He attended Hampden-Sydney College in Hampden-Sydney, Virginia where he graduated in 1834. He also studied theology in the Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. Following licensure in 1842, by the Presbytery of Cincinnati in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., he went to Kentucky where he served as stated supply of several churches in the Presbytery of West Lexington. He was ordained on August 30, 1844 by the West Lexington Presbytery and in May of the following year was installed as pastor of the North Middletown Church in the same presbytery. He served North Middletown Church until April 5, 1854. Shane was twice elected Moderator of the Presbytery. As retiring Moderator in 1858, he preached the opening sermon when the Presbytery met that year on September 1. The title of the sermon was "The Bush in the Flame: A Discourse on the Immigrant Church".

The Rev. Shane, while continuing his work in the Presbytery of West Lexington, avidly pursued his second interest, which was the procurement of original documents relating to Presbyterianism in the West. He sought out materials documenting the establishment of Presbyterian churches, and the pioneer life in the Mississippi Valley and Kentucky.