100 Years of Fathers, June 19, 2020

A father carries pictures 

where his money used to be. 

~Steve Martin

Happy Father's Day! This weekend is an occasion to honor all fathers in our midst, and to celebrate our own fathers. We also remember men who have had a fatherly impact on our lives. I hope all of you can celebrate with your father this weekend in person. If not I hope you can remember your father with great fondness. Few relationships are more important to our well being than the relationship we have (had) with our father. Theirs is an influence that will impact us for our entire lives.

The following is a music video that celebrates 100 years of Fathers in our family. This collection ranges from some Davis ancestors in Indiana in 1908 through some Shepard and Gower kinfolk in the 1920s and on through the decades with images of Russell, Boyd, Harris, Ortiz and Clark fathers, including some images from recent months.

Memorable Fathers. My own father Eugene Shepard (1921-2003) was a man I remember with great respect and honor. All my siblings would echo the same thing. I also remember my two grandfathers, Leroy Gower and William Shepard. Both of them I had the great privilege of knowing and relating to for many of my early years. The first 23 years of my life were spent in San Diego when my father and both grandfathers lived there. I consider myself fortunate to have had such a wonderful father, and to have been close to both of my grandfathers. 

On this father's day weekend I am also remembering my father-in-law Joe Harris (1922-1999), a man of faith and integrity, who had a positive impact on my life for many years. As the father of my wife Cindy, Joe Harris was very much like my own father Gene Shepard. They were very different from each other in many ways, but it is uncanny how the span of their lives was remarkably similar. Both men were born in small towns in Oklahoma in the early 1920s, both were from families who migrated to California and settled in San Diego around the time of World War II. Both served in the United States Navy during the war. Both had wives who were raised in Oklahoma, while both had children who were raised in San Diego. And both were devoted church leaders as were their wives.  For many years both men were Elders of Church of Christ congregations in San Diego; my father at the Linda Vista Church of Christ, and Joe at the Allied Gardens Church of Christ. Both men died within just a few years of each other, Cindy's dad in 1999 and my dad in 2003. 

Paula Harris and daughter Cindy Shepard

Like all of you, Cindy and I are proud of our fathers and honor them both as we remember their lives, their influence and their legacy on this weekend of Father's Day 2020.

Remembering Paula Hicks Harris (1923-2018). This post celebrates fathers, but what would we fathers be without the spouses in our lives? So I must mention a particular woman who is being remembered this month. Cindy's mother Paula Hicks Harris (1923-2018) was the wife of Joe Harris, one of the fathers mentioned above. She died at 94 years old on June 2, just two years ago. She was a lovely lady who lived a full life and is remembered for her faith, her fortitude, and her love of family.

Poor People's Campaign. As a way of standing with all those who support racial justice, I invite you to consider the Poor People's Campaign by selecting this link. It is led by nationally known minister William Barber, who serves Greenleaf Christian Church in North Carolina, a congregation of the Campbell Stone tradition with which many of us are familiar.

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Steve Shepard
(he, him, his)  

June 2, 2020

To remember the past is to see 

that we are here today by grace.

~Frederick Buechner

Gary and Cindy Shepard
Anacortes, Washington

Happy Anniversary Gary and Cindy! Congratulations today to my brother Gary Shepard and his wife Cindy Dillon Shepard on 41 years of marriage. Gary and Cindy live in Oak Harbor, Washington and are an important part of the team caring for our mother Maida Shepard in nearby Anacortes, Washington. Best wishes to Gary and Cindy as they celebrate 41 years together!

Celebrating a Sesquicentennial. Today is the 150th Birthday (the Sesquicentennial) of my Great Grandfather James Brooks Davis (1870-1928), the father of my grandmother Bura Davis Shepard (1896-1986). He was a leading member of our Davis family in Owen County, Indiana in the late 19th Century. Jim Davis' Grandparents, Alexander Davis and Jane Buskirk Davis migrated to Indiana from Ohio around 1850. Jim Davis was the first Davis child to be born in Indiana. He was raised northwest of Spencer, Indiana in a community where numerous members of three closely related families lived: the Davis family, the Williams family, and the Spear family. 

On New Year's Day, 1896, Jim Davis married Callie Spear, a young woman whose family was closely connected to the Davises. The families had known each other in Southeastern Ohio in the early part of the 19th century and may have come together to Indiana when they migrated westward just before the Civil War. Jim and Callie Davis had 7 children, all born in Indiana, the first being my Grandmother Bura Davis.

Young James Brooks Davis
About 1890

Closely Interrelated Families. The marriage of Jim Davis and Callie Spear was just one of the many ways these families were connected. Seven years after Jim and Callie were married, Jim's younger brother Zaley Davis (1882-1966) married Callie's sister Pearl Spear (1876-1945). This was another instance in our family of brothers marrying sisters. Select this link for other instances.

A few years earlier Jim Davis' father-in-law William Spear (1830-1883) had married into the Williams family not once, but twice. The first time was in 1861 when he married Caroline Williams, who died at just 23 years old, after two years of marriage and the birth of a baby girl. The widower William Spear then married his own sister-in-law Margaret (Maggie) Frances Williams. Select this link to read more about them.

The Davis, Williams and Spear families were not just neighbors within the same rural community of Morgan Township in Owen County, Indiana. They were all founding members of the New Union Church of Christ near where they lived. Select this link for more about the New Union Church.

Family man James Brooks and Callie Davis
with their 7 children, in Indiana,1908 

A Recent Discovery. One other interesting link between these families I recently discovered while researching my Shepard ancestors. I have known for some time that the Spears, Davises, and Shepards were all rooted in Eastern Ohio in the early 19th century, before any of them ever moved westward into Indiana. But what I discovered recently was that Callie Spear Davis' great uncle William Spear (1791-1873) lived in the same farming neighborhood as my Shepard ancestors in 1850 in Kirkwood Township of Belmont County, Ohio. As far as I knew, my Shepard and Spear ancestors never knew each other until my Great Grandparents William Elmer Shepard and Callie Spear Davis became neighbors in Oklahoma in 1913. But my recent discovery shows that some of our Spear ancestors and some of our Shepard ancestors were neighbors in Ohio in 1850 and probably knew each other. And so it is that the historical connections between these families grows.

A Man of Character. In many ways James Brooks Davis showed us his character through his life and his actions. He was a devoted family man, a beloved father, a welcoming individual, a faithful Christian, a hard worker, and he was ambitious. The best example of his ambition occurred in the early spring of 1913. In March of that year James Brooks Davis gathered his family of 7 children (ages 4-16) and migrated to Oklahoma. 

James Brooks Davis in 1923 with one of
his 31 Grandchildren, Eugene Shepard

The opportunities of that new state had already drawn several members of his Indiana family, including his parents Charles and Malinda Davis. So following in the footsteps of others, Jim and Callie heeded the call of the wild west. As a young couple in their 40s, they made their way by wagon, 850 miles from their home outside Spencer, Indiana to the panhandle of Oklahoma. 

They took along with them Callie's special needs adult brother Clayton Spear (1870-1944) who lived with them for many years in Indiana and then Oklahoma. Eventually he had to be institutionalized in Oklahoma where he lived the last years of his life. Even that act of receiving his brother-in-law into his family shows the kind of people Jim and Callie Davis were. They lived the last years of their lives in Oklahoma and are buried in the Sophia Cemetery in Beaver County. Select here to visit their grave online.

James Brooks Davis is a very important individual in our family tree. I celebrate his life and honor his memory today on the 150th Anniversary of his birth.

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Steve Shepard

he/him/his