Finger Lakes history · regional story
Daniel Shays’s later life near Conesus
The man whose name became attached to a Massachusetts rebellion later lived near Conesus. A biography follows his marriage and pension request; local records leave a disputed death date.
After Massachusetts, Daniel Shays’s life continued in New York. The Springfield Technical Community College history project places him eventually in Sparta—identified in its account as now Conesus—with a daughter and son-in-law. It records his 1815 marriage to Rhoda Havens, an innkeeper and widow. Daniel Shays.
The biography also follows an 1818 pension request. Shays asked for officers’ pay he said remained unpaid, or a place on the pension list. That request gives the later life a different focus: military service and support, rather than the rebellion alone. Daniel Shays.
Even the death date needs checking. The college account gives September 23, 1825. A 2011 regional planning inventory says September 29, citing Livingston County Historian files. We have not resolved the difference. Daniel Shays; Genesee-Finger Lakes Regional Inventory of Culturally Significant Areas.
Sources & research notes
Review status: Developing history. Human editorial review is pending.
Written and source-checked with AI assistance under an owner-authorized editorial process. This is not a personal review by Riley or an independent historian. Sources and unresolved questions are listed below; corrections are welcome.
- What the records establish
- Both accounts connect Shays’s later life to the Conesus–Sparta area. The college biography describes a marriage and pension application there.
- What remains uncertain
- The exact death day remains disputed. The biography also contains an age that does not fit its own birth year; we have not adopted that age.
- What we are researching next
- Inspect the complete pension file, county subject files and an original death or burial record before fixing a day in the timeline.
Sources
- Daniel Shays — Shays’ Rebellion and the Making of a Nation project; undated web narrative; © institutional site. Locator: Epilogue: New York moves; marriage to Rhoda Havens; pension request and September 23, 1825 death statement. Artifact link identifies Forbes Library.. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Genesee-Finger Lakes Regional Inventory of Culturally Significant Areas — Genesee/Finger Lakes Regional Planning Council; March 2011. Locator: Printed page 16 / PDF page 24, Union Cemetery section and footnote 22: Livingston County Historian subject files, July 20–21, 2010.. Accessed October 22, 2026.