In the 1840s and 1850s, Elias Sheads was one of Gettysburg’s more prominent businessmen and merchandisers. He would later also be called a wagon maker, though it appears that he and his family vended material for wagons as well as large-scale appliances and energy products for the house. In the early 1850s, the tax assessment lists give a sense of the size of the Sheads’s operations compared with similar businesses in town.

The Sheads store was on West Middle Street just around the corner from the Fahnestock & Sons store. Note the different selection of items when compared with the Fahnestock inventory.

The large home that would later become famous in the Battle of Gettysburg was on Chambersburg Street and was a joint purchase with daughter Carrie as the chapter depicts.

A portion of the Sheads property on West Middle Street and extending to Baltimore Street became part of the lot on which the Adams County Courthouse would (and now does) sit.