Our Notable Ohio Roots

James Cross Sheppard (1775-1843) and Hannah Gatchell Sheppard (1784-1839) were my 4X Great Grandparents who, in their time, may have been the most influential people in our entire Shepard Family Tree. I think of them as our primary Shepard ancestors in America even though they were Great Grandchildren of immigrants. But we know much more about them than any of their predecessors in this country.

Photo of Civil War soldier
William H.H. Sheppard.
Only existing photo of
one of the 99 grandchildren
of James and Hannah

I have written about James and Hannah numerous times in this family blog, but the more I learn about them, the more I am impressed with how deeply they impacted their community and our nation. They were the first of our Sheppard family members to move westward from the East Coast. In the first decade of the 19th century they left their home in Maryland and ventured into the American wilderness of Ohio. 

As a reminder: before the Civil War our Sheppard ancestors spelled their last name with two p's. My Great Grandfather William Elmer Shepard (1862-1915) in the early 1880s began spelling the Shepard name with just one p, and it has been spelled that way consistently ever since by all his descendants.

An Expanding Family. In 1809 James and Hannah Sheppard braved the American frontier and helped to settle the community of Kirkwood, Ohio along the famous Cumberland Trail which eventually became the National Highway. The Sheppard's had 13 children, who provided them with 99 grandchildren who eventually scattered throughout Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and beyond. In the 200+ years since the family of James and Hannah began moving westward, the size of their extended family has increased tremendously. 

Kim Boyd Clark (right) with mother
Thelma Shepard Boyd,
senior most descendant 
of James and Hannah

I wonder how many descendants James and Hannah have throughout the U.S. today. My particular family line includes 9 generations from James and Hannah Sheppard. In my last post I celebrated the birth of Gunnar Bass, the most recent member of the 9th generation of descendants of James and Hannah. 

Estimated Family Growth. As I mentioned, the original 13 Sheppard children produced 99 grandchildren. One of those 99 grandchildren was my GG Grandfather, Civil War soldier William Sheppard (1835-1862), not to be confused with his cousin, the soldier William H.H. Sheppard (1840-1862) pictured above. 

Now let us suppose that James and Hannah's 99 grandchildren produced families that averaged 3 children per household, a low estimate for their time but average for today. That would mean 297 children were born in the 3rd generation after James and Hannah. If we continue with that average family size of just 3 children, the number of new births in the 7th generation (our son Nathan's generation), would total nearly 20,000 descendants of James and Hannah. That would be a heck of a family reunion if we could pull it off! 

Sadie Shepard Pruett (1893-1980)
GG Granddaughter
of James and Hannah Sheppard
with daughters Gayle and Alberta 

One of the 99. Does the 20,000 number I am suggesting sound impossible? Think of it this way: my GG Grandfather, Civil War soldier William Shepard (1835-1862) was one of the 99 Grandchildren of James and Hannah Sheppard. I have documented almost all the descendants of that Civil War soldier, and can say with some certainty that his descendants today number about 150. If the other 98 grandchildren also produced 150 descendants each, that would bring the total number of James and Hannah's descendants today to roughly 15,000 people. The pictures included in this post are just a sampling of the many descendants of James and Hannah Sheppard.

This is an exercise in estimates, of course. It would be nearly impossible to verify the numbers I am estimating. But there is little doubt that our forebearers James and Hannah Sheppard of Kirkwood, Ohio have a huge number of descendants in the United States and around the world today. The impact that those thousands of people are making is impossible to quantify but it exists nonetheless. Ours is definitely an All American family which continues to make its mark in countless ways. 

In my next post I would like to consider some of the other grandchildren of James and Hannah Sheppard. In particular I want to share about one couple who takes the cake when it comes to having famously named children.
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Steve Shepard
he/him/his