Matt Melville has a story to tell.

It’s about his great- great grandfather, Henry Shields, a unique and influential Park City resident who is relatively unknown.

“I don’t think there are many Parkites, or Utahns, who can say they prosecuted murders suspects, defended murder suspects, were charged with murder and escaped being murdered,” Melville said. 

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Those tales and more will be part of Melville’s upcoming lecture “Henry Shields: Early Pioneer of Park City,” scheduled for Wednesday, April 17, at the Park City Museum’s Education and Collections Center, 2079 Sidewinder Drive.

I don’t think there are many Parkites, or Utahns, who can say they prosecuted murders suspects, defended murder suspects, were charged with murder and escaped being murdered.” Matt Melville, Park City Museum volunteer

The free presentation will begin at 5 p.m., and information is available at parkcityhistory.org/history-speaks-lectures.

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During the lecture, Melville, the Christian Center of Park City‘s director of programs and a Park City Museum volunteer, will recount his great- great-grandfather’s life as a young Irish immigrant to his life as a Parkite.

“Henry was born in 1842 and came over from Belfast during the potato famine when he was 9,” he said. “When he arrived in the United States, the Irish were one of the lowest populations on the totem pole.”

As Shields grew older, he worked his way West, Melville said.

“He did some labor on the boats on the Mississippi River, and after hearing about mining opportunities, he made his way to Helena and Butte, Montana,” he said.

After spending a few years in Montana, Shields ventured to Utah to explore other mining junctures.

“He arrived in Alta in 1871 and worked there for eight or nine years,” Melville said.

While there, Shields met Aramintha Bates, who would eventually become his wife.

Bates was raised in a polygamous Mormon family and had escaped the lifestyle after being married to her uncle, Melville said.

“The only places she could go that didn’t have a lot of Mormon ties were mining towns,” he said. “She went to Alta and got a job at some of the hotels and boarding houses.”

Bates became a Catholic, married Shields, and the two started a new life together, Melville said.

“Henry found that mining wasn’t for him,” he said. “So he started doing some law-enforcement type of stuff and some legal work.”

The legal work included his tenure as a judge, and Melville uncovered some wild stories during his research. And one happened when he was overseeing a court case that involved a donkey and root cellar. 

“The donkey walked on top of the root cellar, which collapsed, and the donkey’s owner and root cellar owner sued each other,” Melville said. “The trial ended up taking place at Oddfellows Hall in Salt Lake City.”

Chaos filled the courtroom.

“People were in the room playing music, and there was a dog there that was howling,” Melville said. “It almost sounds like a sketch from ‘Park City Follies.'”

When Shields entered the court, the howling dog was sitting on his bench.

“Henry got mad because the court was so out of order, and he pulled out his pistol and shot at the dog,” Melville said. “He missed the dog, but the gun had somehow backfired and injured some of the people in the court.”

This wasn’t the only incident involving Shields and a gun. One of the more serious stories ended up with Shields being charged with murder after moving to Park City, according to a story in The Park Record.

Henry, who was one of the night watchmen, was called to investigate a theft in Chinatown, where China Bridge parking lot now stands, Melville said.

“He went with his partner to talk with this Chinese lady who was accused of the crime,” he said. “During the questioning, a man with a gun entered, and Henry’s partner shouted, ‘Henry! Watch out he has a gun!'”

Shields turned and hit the man’s gun, but the gun went off, and the bullet struck the man, Melville said.

“Henry was charged with murder, and the case went to court,” he said. “Henry was eventually acquitted.”

After leaving law enforcement, Shields kept his foot in law-based careers when he was elected to be a Park City attorney and a Summit County attorney, Melville said.

“His office was located on Main Street, right across from The Park Record, and it burned down in the Great Fire of 1898,” he said.

Still, the fire gave Aramintha the chance to help the town, Melville said.

“When the fire had gone down Main Street and was coming back up Park Avenue towards their home, authorities told my great- great-grandmother that she needed to evacuate,” he said. “She ran inside the house and couldn’t think of what to grab. She saw the coffee pot and picked it up and ran outside.”

Aramintha thought if the town was going to rebuild, everyone would need a lot of coffee, according to another Park Record article.

“Then it turned out when Aramintha was asked to assist the firefighters and those who lost their homes in the fire, she was one of the people who provided coffee and sandwiches,” Melville said.

Melville looks forward to telling these and other stories about his great- great-grandparents during Wednesday’s lecture, but he also hopes to inspire people to look up their own family histories.

“I want people to know that everybody has unique stories,” he said. “I want to create interest in those stories and let people know that I think it will be worth your time to investigate and make connections with their ancestors, their sacrifices and accomplishments.”

Melville forged a new bond between him and Henry Shields through his research.

“My middle name is Shields, named after my great- great-grandpa, and while we knew some general things, we didn’t know the details about how involved he was in Park City,” he said.