Tuesday, June 29, 2021

A New Family Member: June 29, 2021

May God save the country,
for it is evident that the people will not.
 ~Millard Fillmore

Welcome Gunnar Kameron Bass! A new member has recently been added to our family tree. Earlier this month, on June 15, 2021, Gunnar Kameron Bass was born to Lyndsey Aqua and David Bass of Weatherford, Texas. Congratulations to the family of little Gunnar, especially David, Lyndsey, little brother Karver, aunt Mandi, and Grandmother Kerri! Gunnar is one of the Great Grandchildren of my brother Gary Shepard, and the 3rd Great Great Grandchild of my mother Maida Gower Shepard of Anacortes, Washington.

Mother Lyndsey with Gunnar Kameron Bass 
Starlene Bass Gower
. Gunnar is not the first person in our family to have the last name Bass. My aunt Starlene Gower, wife of my uncle Hendrix Gower (1922-2004), was born Starlene A. Bass in Okemah, Oklahoma in 1922. With husband Hendrix and father-in-law Leroy, Starlene was among the first of our family members to move to San Diego when the three of them migrated to Southern California in early 1942. Starlene lived in the San Diego area for the rest of her life, raising sons Hershell and Jimmie. She passed away in Escondido in 2000.

A couple of years ago I wrote a series of posts on famously named people in our family tree, including relatives named after President Henry Harrison, Emperor Julius Caesar, George Washington, the outlaw Jesse James, and others. While researching Starlene's family recently I encountered some other famously named ancestors who I'd like to bring to your attention. 

My aunt Starlene's roots were in rural Bassville, Greene County, Missouri, northeast of Springfield. Her Great Grandfather was Martin Van Buren Bass (1837-1917), who was born during the presidency of his famous namesake Martin Van Buren, who served from 1837-1841. This was clearly a family very supportive of their political candidates! Martin Van Buren Bass' brother AND father were named Andrew Jackson Bass, after President Andrew Jackson who was in office from 1829-1837. 

Starlene Bass Gower (left) about 1942
with sister-in-law Maida Gower Shepard
In the 19th century Americans were fond of naming their children after famous people, in particular American Presidents. On the Shepard side of our family, there is the famously named Millard Fillmore Sheppard (1855-1931). Though originally from Kirkwood, Ohio, as a teenager his family moved to Grundy County, Missouri where he lived the rest of his life. He was named after our 13th President, Millard Fillmore, who served from 1850-1853.

Thinking of famously named people, I must mention aunt Starlene's younger son who is named Jimmy Hendrix Gower. Originally from San Diego he lives today with wife Cheryl in Ft. Mohave, Arizona. Jimmy was given the name of one of the most famous guitarists of all time, Jimi Hendrix. My cousin Jimmy, however, was born in 1944, years before the legendary Jimi Hendrix became famous in the 1960s. So he was given a famous name unintentionally. Even so, he takes his place and will remain forever among the famously named people of our family tree.
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Steve Shepard
(he/him/his)

Wednesday, June 02, 2021

On This Day


Gary and Cindy in about 1990
with Eugene Shepard
On this day in 1979 my brother Gary and his wife Cindy of Oak Harbor, Washington were married at our home in Los Alamitos, California. The first 24 years of their life together were spent in the San Diego area. The last 18 years have been spent in Western Washington to be near our mother and other family in the Anacortes, Washington area. Gary and Cindy are an important part of the care-giving team for our mother Maida Shepard. Happy 42nd Wedding Anniversary and best wishes to Gary and Cindy for many more happy years together!

On this day in 1915 my Grandparents William Shepard (1888-1976) and Bura Davis (1896-1986) were married in Beaver County, Oklahoma. It was 106 years ago that Will and Bura were united in marriage at the home of the local minister of the South Flat Church of Christ in their community. In San Diego in 1975, just a year before William Shepard died, and after 60 years of marriage, he reminisced about his wedding day, and his bride, by saying this: 


She was quite a Sunday School girl. I had just come into the church myself [the South Flat Church of Christ] in December [1914]. My dad had come in a little earlier than that. He was on his death bed with cancer and wanted to see me become a Christian before he died. So I did.

I had my first model T car. To get married we had to go to another sod house where the preacher lived. It was a real wet spring and water was standing everywhere. We didn't have highways. Just old roads. I didn't think we could make it by the regular road so we went on the higher country and ran into a lake and got stuck. We sat there in that car in the mud nearly all day. Finally an old gentleman who lived there pulled us out with his team of horses. It was about 3 or 4 o'clock. The preacher then tied the knot and we went home the way we should have when we went out to see him. He must have done a good job tying the knot because it is still tight.

On this day in 1870 my Great Grandfather James Brooks Davis was born near Spencer, Indiana. He was the much admired father of my Grandmother Bura Davis Shepard, who chose her father's birthday as the day to marry William Shepard in 1915. James died at 58 years old in Beaver County, Oklahoma of a stomach ailment.

James Brooks Davis (in middle, without coat)
with father Charles Davis and brothers
In 1913 Jim Davis, after living in Indiana his entire 43 years, packed up and moved west to Beaver County, Oklahoma, a move of some 900 miles. He migrated with his wife Callie, also a native Indianan, their 7 children (ages 5 to 16), AND his wife's special needs brother Clayton Spear. To pack up and move a family that size and configuration required an ambitious pioneering spirit.

But Jim Davis was from pioneering stock. It was in his blood. His grandparents Alexander and Jane Davis had braved the American wilderness some 60 years earlier when they migrated from Monroe County, Ohio to Owen County, Indiana. And they did so with several young children, including my Great Great Grandfather Charles Davis. The stories of their adventures must have been the stuff of many a conversation around Davis dinner tables during James' early years. We remember him, on this his birthday, with admiration for his love of family and his willingness to work for a better future. He is buried today alongside his wife Callie in Sophia Cemetery in Beaver County.
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Steve Shepard