thanks for posting this obit. Shelton Lessley was a second cousin to my gg grandfather George W. Lessly (this branch of the family spelled the surname differently - don't ask me why I haven't figured it out yet). It seems the two cousins were in business together at some point. From George W. Lessly's obit I have the following: "Mr. Lessly was one of Higbee's very best citizens, and was the town's first business man, having opened a store near where the West Side Hotel now stands in 1874, later selling a half interest to the late S. Lessly and erecting the brick now occupied by Mark Murphy's hardware store. Selling his interest in the store in 1886 to the Higbee Coal & Mining Co., he moved to his farm a year or two later, returning to town in 1904, where he had since lived, and was engaged in the grocery business for several years with his son, Oren, retiring some three or four years ago." I believe the W.H. Burton mentioned in the obit is William Henry Burton (1848-1913) son of May Medley Burton and Minerva Brooks. William Henry would have been kin to Shelton's second wife. I wonder if anyone has the obits for Andrew Lessley and May William Lessley, the two sons who predeceased Shelton? I know that May William left behind two young children. Their names were Shelton and Etna Mae. Their mother (Nannie Pattrick) had died in 1891 and the orphans were raised by their Pattrick relations. I wondered why Shelton himself did not step forward to raise the children but perhaps he felt himself too old or was too grief-stricken over the deaths of his sons. Anyone with questions/information on the Lessley and Lessly families of Randolph County contact me and let's talk! Carole