A GGGrand, A GGrand, and A Grand, May 15, 2012

To have a child is to decide forever
to have your heart go walking around
outside your body.
~Elizabeth Stone

Hello Family and Friends,

Greetings to all of you from Alameda, California, the home of our grandson Logan Alexander Shepard, whose first birthday is today! Logan is the son of Nathan and Chenda Shepard, the sister of Preslea, and the first grandson of Cindy and me. But he will not be the last. Logan's little brother is due to arrive this summer in July or August. And if you ask his mom Chenda, he can't come soon enough!

A GGGrand. Logan is the 11th of the 12 GGgrandchildren of Leroy and Nola Gower, and the 11th of the 13 GGgrandchildren of William and Bura Shepard. He also has the unique distinction of being the first GGgrandson of Will and Bura Shepard with the last name Shepard. But there will be others -- perhaps many others -- who will arrive in their time and will be able to pass on the Shepard name to future generations.

The following is a photo presentation to celebrate Logan's Birthday. (If the following does not play correctly, select this link.)

Another Alexander. Logan's middle name is the same as that of his 5th Great Grandfather Alexander Davis. I have not mentioned the name of Alexander Davis in this blog for a few months now. He is buried in Spencer, Indiana next to his daughter Elizabeth Davis Carter. Our larger family of Davises and Shepards collected funds last fall to get a new headstone for them. Their headstones were old and broken and badly in need of replacing. I just received a picture from cousin Jerry Davis showing that the new headstone is now in place.

If you happen to be anywhere near Spencer, Indiana this summer be sure and visit the New Union Cemetery which is home to the graves of many Davis ancestors, in particular the graves of Alexander and his daughter Elizabeth Davis Carter. The New Union Cemetery is easy to locate. It is 5 miles northwest of Spencer at the corner of Rattlesnake Rd and McKay Rd. (also marked as Shepard Patrick Rd.)

Two other descendants of Will and Bura Davis Shepard will celebrate birthdays in the next couple of days: Jason Shepard and Darren Boyd. Jason is also a Ggrandson of Leroy and Nola Shannon Gower.

A GGrand. This Friday, May 18 is the birthday of my nephew Jason Shepard.  He was born and raised in San Diego but lives these days in Fort Worth, Texas where he works for Pepsico. Jason is the son of my brother Gary Shepard of Washington and Jackie Perry of Texas. The second picture shows Jason with his nephews Kyle and Nate Sauvage, children of Kelly and James Sauvage of Weatherford, Texas.

A Grand. Happy Birthday tomorrow, May 16, to Darren Boyd of Santee, California. Darren is the son of Terry and Thelma Boyd and a grandchild of Will and Bura Davis Shepard. The 12 grandchildren of Will and Bura were born over a period of almost 30 years, between 1936 and 1964, with Darren being the final one. Darren is the father of Courtney, Brandyn and Kori.

Darren: "Hi Steve. Things are good. Very busy. Courtney moved out; just Brando and Kori left. Just being a dad and working. Hope everyone is awesome." See a picture of Darren with his 3 kids in a blog post from last week.
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Steve

Davis Descendants Now and Then, October 25, 2011

It is a desirable thing

to be well-descended,

but the glory belongs

to our ancestors.
-Plutarch

Hello Family and Friends,

Greetings to all of you from San Diego where fall has finally decided to arrive with cool nights and overcast skies.

Update on New Headstone Project. Second cousin Jerry Davis contacted me this past week and was excited to tell me that we are getting close to the total we need to purchase a new headstone for our ancestors Alexander and Elizabeth Davis. 12 different descendants of theirs have so far contributed toward the effort, leaving us only $164 short. Please let Jerry (jerthebear@sbcglobal.net) or me know if you can help us complete this project. We are hoping to raise the necessary amount soon.

As I have mentioned before, the new headstone is to replace the broken and unreadable stones that now exist for Alexander Davis (1819-1866) and his daughter Elizabeth Davis Carter (1844-1867) in Spencer, Indiana. Elizabeth died the year after her father, at just 24 years old, and is buried next to him.

Alexander and his wife Jane Buskirk Davis (who is buried in Helena, Oklahoma) were important pioneer ancestors of ours who migrated westward from Ohio to Indiana in the early 19th century and began a period of several generations when our family lived in the area around Spencer, Indiana. They are also the very first ones among our ancestors to belong to the Campbell/Stone religious movement (The Church of Christ, Christian Church, Disciples of Christ).

Very few of our relatives still live in Spencer today, but it remains a special place in the history of our family. Especially important is the New Union Cemetery northwest of town, where Alexander and Elizabeth, and a number of other ancestors, are buried. Next to the cemetery is a grassy area where the old New Union Church of Christ stood for nearly 100 years until 1957. We are indebted to these folks for their pioneering spirit, their enduring faith and their love of family. Their legacy continues through us and is present in many ways in their descendants who remember them even today.

Happy Birthday Mandi! One of their many descendants is Mandi Aquiningoc of Granbury, Texas. Tomorrow is Mandi's 19th birthday. She is also a descendant of Leroy and Nola (Shannon) Gower. For the first half of Mandi's life she lived in San Diego, where she was born in 1992. The last 10 years or so she has lived in Texas. The first picture shows Mandi (on the right) with her older sister Lyndsey and her cousin Kyle Sauvage. The picture below shows Mandy with her dog Bubbers.

Mandi: "Hi uncle Steve, it's so good to hear from you:) I'm doing great! I finally got a job at panda express here in Granbury and its amazing. I love the job I love the people and I think I'm gonna fit right in:) My sister and I moved in with our grandparents in Granbury which was the best thing for us to do. Life's great uncle Steve, and I'm proud to say that! Hopefully me and my sister can make it out there sometime and visit with the rest of our family."

Here is Mandi's lineage from Alexander and Jane Davis:

• Alexander Davis (1819-66) who married Jane Buskirk (1823-95), the parents of...
• Charles Davis (1849-1926) who married Melinda Wright (1846-1920), the parents of...
• James Brooks Davis (1870-1928) who married Caroline Spear (1865-1951), the parents of...
• Bura Davis (1896-1986) who married William Shepard (1888-1976), the parents of...
• Eugene Shepard (1921-2003) who married Maida Gower (1924), the parents of...
• Gary Shepard (1946) who married Jackie Enderle (1947), the parents of...
• Kerri Shepard (1968) who married Manuel Aquiningoc (1961-1992), the parents of...
• Mandi Aquiningoc (1992)

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Steve

New Headstone for Old Davises, September 3, 2011

Family...
All other pacts of love or fear
derive from it and are modeled upon it. 

~Haniel Long

Hello Family and Friends,

Greetings today from Alameda, California on this weekend of Labor Day.

In my last post I mentioned Alexander and Jane Davis, Ohio immigrants who were among our earliest Davis ancestors to settle in Indiana. I do not have a picture of Alexander and Jane, but I am including a picture that shows their son Charles Edward Davis (with the cane, second from right). Taken in the 1920s this picture also shows Alexander and Jane's Davis grandsons Zaley, Benjamin, Morton, James Brooks and, on the far right, John.

Alexander and Jane were among the very first members of the New Union Church of Christ, outside Spencer, Indiana. Alexander and their daughter Elizabeth Davis Carter are buried in the New Union Cemetery, next to where the old New Union Church once stood.

Old and Broken Headstones. If you visit the New Union Cemetery today, you can see the graves of Alexander and Elizabeth Davis -- if you know where to look. Theirs are among the oldest, most weathered headstones in the entire grave yard. When Cindy and I visited the cemetery in July we needed the help of local family member Ruth Fortner to locate them. The two broken headstones are flat, not upright like most of the others around them, and are so old that they are very difficult to read.

Jerry Davis of Grand Prairie, Texas, is a direct descendant of Alexander Davis -- as am I, and many of you. (At least 35 of you who are reading this are also direct descendants.) Jerry wrote me recently with an idea about Alexander Davis and his daughter Elizabeth. He is suggesting we replace both of their broken, nearly unreadable headstones, with a new one.

He has found out that it will cost $958 to obtain a new quality headstone that will honor the memory of these two and be a fitting tribute to them in this cemetery that holds so much history of our family. Jerry has said that he will make a substantial contribution himself toward the cost of this headstone. Cindy and I have agreed to do the same. Are there others among you who can contribute to this cause?

The Rest of the Story. By way of explanation I should mention that Jane Buskirk Davis, Alexander's wife and Elizabeth's mother, is not buried in Indiana. She was among our Davis kinfolk who left Indiana in the 1880s and migrated to Oklahoma. Jane, at 70 years old, with their youngest son William Alexander Davis, "ran for land" in the Cherokee Strip in 1893, staking a claim and settling in what eventually became Helena, in Alfalfa County, Oklahoma.

Jane died just two years later in 1895. Land had been donated for a cemetery but it had not yet been plotted. Even so, they allowed Jane's burial, and she became the first person buried in Good Hope Cemetery just south of Helena. Today she lays to rest there beside her son William Alexander and his wife Mary. (See the second picture of Jane's headstone.)

Jane's headstone in Oklahoma is in very good shape, as you can see from the picture. Back in Indiana, however, her husband's headstone and that of her daughter, are in very poor condition (see my last post for a picture of their headstones).

Can You Help? If you are able to contribute to the effort to buy a new headstone for Alexander Davis and his daughter Elizabeth Davis Carter in Spencer, Indiana, please contact me by email or contact Jerry Davis. We are hoping to get contributions from several of our family for $50 or $100 or whatever you can give. Please let us know if you can help, or if you have any questions. It's the least we can do for these wonderful ancestors to whom we owe so much.

---

Steve

Some Remarkable Ancestors, August 29, 2011

So much of what is best in us

is bound up in our love of family.

~Haniel Long

Hello Family and Friends,

Greetings to all of you from San Diego as these dog days of summer creep along.

Happy 21st Birthday TODAY to Lyndsey Aquiningoc of Weatherford, Texas. She is the daughter of Kerri Shepard Aquiningoc, also of Weatherford, the granddaughter of Gary Shepard of Oak Harbor, Washington, and the oldest Ggrandchild of Maida Shepard. (See picture of Lyndsey with sister Mandi on the left, and the baby of a friend on the right.)

Lyndsey started a new job a few weeks ago as a dental assistant at a pediatric dental office in Weatherford. She loves to spend time with her sister Mandi, and her friends, and enjoys being a working girl and being single. I hear that she has big plans for her 21st Birthday party and that it should be a fun time.

Alexander and Jane Davis: A Remarkable Family Story. Lyndsey is also one of the GGGGG Grandchildren of Alexander and Jane Davis. Here is the family line from Lyndsey to them:

Lyndsey Aquiningoc / Kerri Shepard Aquiningoc / Gary Shepard / Eugene Shepard / Bura Davis Shepard / James Brooks Davis / Charles Davis / Alexander and Jane Buskirk Davis.

Alexander and Jane were among the very first of our Davis relatives to settle in Indiana, nearly 2 centuries ago. They were both born in Ohio -- Alexander in 1819 in Belmont County, and Jane in 1823 in Monroe County (just to the south), which is where they were married sometime in the 1840s. Census Records show them still living in Ohio in 1850, but shortly thereafter they trekked almost 400 miles west and settled outside Spencer, Indiana.

A Proud Church Heritage. According to the church records of the New Union Church of Christ outside Spencer, Indiana, Alexander and Jane were among the earliest members of that congregation, which began in the 1850s, as part of the "Stone-Campbell tradition" (aka the Restoration Movement). The New Union Church existed until 1957 when the last remaining members disbanded and joined other churches. Many of them became members of the Spencer Church of Christ, the congregation that today holds the church records for the old New Union Church. I have copies of those church records which show Alexander and Jane Davis on the first official roll of the Church, dated April 3, 1866. Those of us with their church affiliation today can proudly trace our church heritage back 5, 6, even 7 generations!

One of the children of Alexander and Jane Buskirk Davis was Charles Edward Davis (the father of James Brooks Davis). The second child of Alexander and Jane was Elizabeth Davis, who was born back in Ohio in 1844 and made the family trek to Indiana as a 6 year old girl. In 1863 the teenager Elizabeth married a local Spencer boy by the name of Calvin Carter. She and Calvin had two children, but when they were still babies, Elizabeth died at just 23 years old.

Father and Daughter, Side By Side. Her untimely death in 1867 came just one year after the death of her father Alexander. This explains why mother Jane chose to lay daughter Elizabeth to rest next to Alexander. One can only imagine the grief and hardship of the wife and mother Jane burying her 47 year old husband one year and then her 23 year old daughter the next year. At the time, Jane was herself the mother of 8 other children, one of whom was an infant (William Alexander) born earlier that same year!

Alexander and Elizabeth -- father and daughter -- still reside in the New Union Cemetery today, side by side. Theirs are among the oldest headstones in the entire grave yard at the corner of Rattlesnake Rd and Shepard Patrick Rd, right next to where the old church once stood. (See above picture) A visit to their burial site is an occasion to feel the weight of our family history and the inspiration of our ancestral memories.

More To Come. I will share more about Alexander and Jane Davis and their daughter Elizabeth in my next blog entry. I will also share an interesting proposal regarding the possible replacement of their broken, weathered headstones. For now, as we extend our birthday wishes to Lyndsey, we honor the lives of these hearty ancestors, whose difficulties seem almost unimaginable, but whose strength and resilience we have to admire.

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Steve