Sheldon Sperry	Martha Alexander
1835-1909	1860-1941

Sheldon Sperry was a sixth generation American who came to California in the mid 1850'5. He probably came looking for gold, but he is known to have been a shoemaker in Shasta.

Later he went the Dog Creek area as a miner, and fathered two daughters before his first wife, Lucy Buttons died in 1878.

Emma	b. 1869
Lilly	b. 1871	d. 1967	m. George Grafton

Sperry, then bought property half wat up Slate Creek Canyon, where he and his second wife Martha Alexander, a Wintu Indian of the area cared for his two daughters and eight more children of theirs.

Della	b. 1878	d. 1915	m.Gilbert Whitlow
Homer	b. 1880	d. 1954	m. Goldie
Ruby	b. 1885		m. Edward Walters
Myrtle	b. 1887	d. 1915	m. Charlie Morgan
Clarence	b. 1889	d. 1967	m. Lucylle Engle
Leland	b. 1892
Albert	b.1895		m. Augusta Elder
Ada	b. 1898

The first schoolhouse at Slate Creek (La Moine) was a small cabin made of big timbers and shakes on the Sperry ranch, just west of the present high power lines. The second schoolhouse was just east of the first on land donated by Sperry.

Sheldon and Martha both remained in La Moine until their deaths; he died in 1909 and martha survived until 1941.

Many descendants of the Sperrys still live in the La Moine area. Della's husband, Gilbert was the son of Francis Whitlow who owned the Whitlow stage stop at La Moine on the west side of the Sacramento River between Slate Creek and Little Slate Creek. Della and Gilbert raised six children: Earl, Ben, Bernice, Gilbert Junior, Shelda, and Thelma.

Albert Sperry and Lilly Sperry Grafton both remained on or near the Sperry ranch until their deaths.

Source: Shasta Historical Society