This is an interesting mystery, but you neglected to give the "Where," so we know where to start looking for a solution. The only place I can find in the 1860 census where Sheeler, Sheeley, Creekmore, and Creason names intersect is in northwest Missouri particularly in Daviess and Gentry Counties.

There is indeed in Jefferson Township of west-central Daviess County an H. N. Creekmore household with North Carolina and Tennessee roots and adults in their fifties and nearby a younger Jesse Creekmore household. However, the nearest Sheeler is the household a few miles away of a 38-year-old John Sheeler born in Kentucky in Benton Township of the NW part of Daviess County, but that household does not contain little boys George or Jacob or John or Henry. There is not far from the Creekmore families a 70-year-old, Kentucky-born Elizabeth Creason living with a Reynolds household, but no younger Creasons in that area in the 1860 census.

To the west of Daviess County in central Gentry County there is a Henry Sheeler (age 23, born in Maine) household and in the same vicinity a Noah Sheeley (age 46, born Ohio) family, but neither contains a John nor Henry nore George nor Jacob. Gentry County adjoins Daviess County to the west.

This area did contain a mix of southern and northern people and a number of men of both sides joined the Union and Confederate service during the war, but there was, in my opinion, a minimum of wartime violence of neighbor versus neighbor in Daviess and Gentry Counties. There are not many stories of locals killing each other here--although there are a few--and certainly none that indicate the murder of a woman with her husband. The killing of women in Missouri was rare in such violence, and in the few known instances it does stand out. If indeed, your mystery Sheeler family lived in Daviess or Gentry Counties I would guess that if this couple died at the same time it was in an accident such as a house fire or perhaps disease that left the two boys to be taken in by neighoring families.

Does your family story contains more details, especially where the Sheeler family lived when this tragedy took place?

Bruce Nichols