Remembering Sadie Shepard, January 27, 2019

I've learned that regardless

of your relationship with your parents,

you'll miss them when
they're gone from your life.

~Maya Angelou

As January draws near its close the time is right to remember my great aunt Sadie Shepard Pruett (1892-1980). The younger sister (and only sibling) of my Grandfather William Shepard (1888-1976), Sadie was born January 27 (127 years ago today), and died January 29 (39 years ago). 

Sadie and William Shepard, 1892

Remembering Sadie Shepard Pruett. Sadie's father William Elmer Shepard (1862-1915) had a terrible falling out with his parents as an older teen in Indiana about 1880. We don't know the details of the conflict, just that it had something to do with his relationship to his step-father William Ragsdale who was his mother's second husband. Theirs was a blended family of his 9 kids from his first marriage, her 2 sons from her first marriage, and their 3 children together. Even though they lived on a farm outside Ladoga, Indiana, it was a stressful living arrangement, especially for William Elmer, one of the only two in the entire family who had the last name Shepard.

So with great anger in his heart, this hot headed young man left home, and ran away 350 miles to Madison County, Illinois. From all indications he never reconnected with his Indiana family. It was a bitter family conflict that had long term ramifications. First of all William Elmer's wife Elvira Owens, who he met and married in Illinois, never got to know her husband's Indiana family. It also meant that their children William (my Grandfather) and Sadie, who were born in Illinois, never got a chance to meet their paternal grandparents in Indiana or any of their relatives on that side of their family. 

Frances (Flossie) Shepherd, about 1920

The Family They Never Knew. That Indiana family dispute also meant that Sadie and William Shepard probably never knew their father's only biological brother, their uncle Frank Shepherd or his wife, their aunt Leona. Nor did Sadie and William realize that uncle Frank had taken a different spelling for his last name, one of those anomalies not uncommon in post Civil War America. Furthermore Sadie and William probably never knew that they had just one first cousin on the Shepard side of their family, a young woman named Frances (Flossie) Shepherd who was nearly the same age as Sadie. One can only imagine the wonderful relationship cousins Flossie and Sadie might have shared.

And perhaps most regrettable, Sadie and William never knew their grandmother Mary Sprague Shepard Ragsdale (1840-1919) and her remarkable life story. She became a Civil War Widow with two babies at 22 years old. She remarried at 25 years old and went on to be mother/step mother to 14 children. She was widowed a second time at 47 years old but persevered nonetheless. At 61 years old -- 39 years after the war ended! -- she finally received a modest Civil War Widow's pension. And she lived her final 15 years comfortably in Indianapolis where she died at 79 years old in 1919.

Sadie Shepard Pruett (left) in 1942, with brother 

William Shepard and William's daughter Thelma

Sadie Shepard and her brother William Shepard migrated as teens with their parents from Illinois to Beaver County, Oklahoma in 1905. And they both went on to have families of their own and make good lives for themselves. But somewhere inside each of them there must have been a sense of loss, a longing to know their father's family of origin. But because of their father's conflict with his own family, it was not to be, to the great misfortune of his descendants.

The Miracle of the Digital Age. I continue to be amazed that in the early 20th century, my grandfather and his sister Sadie Shepard Pruett could live their lives and never know their father's family. Yet here we are 100 years later and we have a wealth of information about those people who were unknown to them. The Internet has made possible research that helps us know ancestors like never before. For that I am very grateful. Unfortunately the Internet cannot change our susceptibility to conflicts and disputes within families. We will always have to deal with that, and the fall out that comes as a result. 
- - -
Steve Shepard

An Inheritance Dispute, March 11, 2017

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

~Albert Einstein

Birthday Wishes to Steve and Russ! Happy Birthday this coming Monday to my brother Russell Shepard and his son Steven Paul Shepard who were born on the same day of the year, March 13. Russ turns 55 and Steven turns 27 on Monday. Russ is originally from San Diego, while Steven Paul was born in Anacortes, Washington, which is where they both live today.


This first picture takes us back a few years. It was taken in the year 2000 and shows my brother Russ on the left next to his son Steven Paul at just 10 years old. On the right is Russ' father Eugene Shepard.

Happy Birthday Jerry! This coming Tuesday, March 14 is the birthday of Jerry Clark. Jerry and his wife Cathrina live in Lubbock, Texas. Jerry has been a part of our Shepard family ever since he and my sister Linda Shepard were married in 1970 when they were students at Lubbock Christian University. 

This second picture shows Jerry Clark with Linda on the left in August, 1970 when they were married. On the right is my wife Cindy and me. This picture was taken in San Diego in front of the Shepard family home on Armstrong Street.

An Inheritance Dispute. In my last post I made reference to a family dispute that occurred among our Shepard kinfolk some 140 years ago. Central to that particular crisis was my Great Grandfather William Elmer Shepard. It was that same William Elmer Shepard who is tied to another conflicted time in our family several decades later, a squabble that has some surprisingly similarities to the problems we are encountering today. 

When William Elmer died in Oklahoma in 1915 after almost 30 years of marriage, his wife Elvira Owens Shepard (1865-1931) was just 49 years old and still had a lot of living to do. After just 3 years of widowhood, she married Calvin Williams, a handsome young neighbor in their farming community of Logan, Oklahoma. Cal was 17 years younger than Elvira, and just 6 years older than Elvira's SON William Shepard. 

Cal's family had come from Missouri around the turn of the 20th century and settled in Beaver County, Oklahoma and the county immediately to the south, Lipscomb County, Texas. Cal was a bit unusual. As a single man he farmed a parcel of land in Logan Township within Beaver County and made a good living for himself. He was a member of the South Flat Church of Christ in nearby Elmwood which was where he met the Shepard family, including Elvira. It was Cal's first marriage, when in 1918 at 37 years old he tied the knot with the widow Elvira, who was a 54 year old grandmother of 4 at the time.

Elvira spent the last 13 years of her life with Cal Williams. She died in 1931 at 66 years old when Cal was just 49. I have always found it a little odd that when Cal buried his wife Elvira he gave her a beautiful headstone, but he misspelled her first name, spelling it Alvira rather than Elvira. Click here to see a picture of her headstone. Interestingly, less than two years after Elvira's death, he married yet another older widow, Francis Pearl Huffman Phinney, and spent the rest of his life with her.

When it came time to settle Elvira's estate there was a question over who should inherit her property, her children William Shepard and Sadie Shepard Pruett who had lived on and worked the farm with their parents for many years, or Cal Williams, who had met and married her later in life. 

With this post is a picture, taken in Oklahoma in 1930, that shows what appears to be a happy Shepard and Davis family gathering, with the dapper Cal Williams on the far right, and his smiling wife Elvira Owens Shepard Williams the second from the left. Others pictured here include Elvira's son William Shepard, his wife Bura Davis Shepard, and other members of the Davis family.

Within a year or so of this picture being taken, Elvira died and the family splintered over the inheritance issue. It became a contentious and drawn out conflict, which was not settled until 1937, 6 years after Elvira's death, by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. They ended up ruling in favor of her second husband, the dapper Cal Williams. Clearly this did not settle well with her children William Shepard and Sadie Shepard Pruett who had initiated the lawsuit in the first place. (Click here for a website that details that historic case.) To them it must have appeared that Cal Williams took advantage of their older mother Elvira by marrying her simply to get her property.  

Some 50 years later, when my dad told me this story, it was still a matter than bothered him and caused him some consternation. It was yet one more family squabble that has been remembered for generations. It reminds us that conflict is nothing new in our family, even if the pain and disappointment seem to be novel and unique. Will we learn from our family's history or keep allowing family squabbles to take their toll? 
- - -
Steve Shepard

Looking Toward Ground Hog Day, February 1, 2017

You are who you are - not your parents.

~Leslie Burke

William Elmer Shepard (1862-1915). Tomorrow, February 2, will mark the anniversary of the birth of my Great Grandfather William Elmer Shepard. William Elmer is one of the most compelling and fascinating persons in our Shepard family tree. He was born in 1862, the same year his father died in the Civil War. When a teenager he became estranged from his mother and step-father, and set out on his own. He is also the person whose only brother chose to spell his last name "Shepherd". 

As a young vagabond in the early 1880s, William Elmer settled in Madison County, Illinois, where he met and married Elvira Owens. With her he made his own family, happier than any family he ever had. They and their 2 children William and Sadie ended up moving to Oklahoma where they lived the rest of their lives. On this 155th anniversary of his birth we celebrate his life and honor his memory.

Sadie Shepard Pruett (1892-1980). Last Friday marked the 125th anniversary of the birth of Sadie Shepard Pruett, daughter of the aforementioned William Elmer Shepard. Sadie was the sister of my grandfather William Shepard.

Sadie and William were the only two children of William Elmer Shepard and Elvira Owens Shepard of Madison County, Illinois. William was born in 1888 in the Mississippi River town of Alton, Illinois, while Sadie was born January 27, 1892 when the family lived a few miles south of Alton in the town of Venice, also in Madison County.

When Sadie was barely a teenager, this small Shepard family of four moved from Illinois to Beaver County in the panhandle of Oklahoma. A few years later young Sadie, who lived in the small farming community of Sophia, met a neighbor who lived in nearby Elmwood, a fellow named Levy Pruett who was 10 years her senior. Sadie and Levy were married in the town of Beaver, Oklahoma on June 22, 1910 and spent 58 years together. 

The first image shows a copy of Levy and Sadie's wedding license from 1910. You can click on the image to get a larger view of it.

Sadie and Levy had three daughters, Alberta, Gayle and Twila, who gave them four grandchildren, Norman, Steven, Shawna and Lisa, and then an assortment of Great Grandchildren. Lisa Allred Parks is the granddaughter who contacted me online a few months ago and began a conversation that has connected me to Sadie's descendants like never before. Today Levy and Sadie's descendants live primarily in Oklahoma and North Texas.

Sadie and Levy lived and farmed in Beaver County for many years, although the 1910 US Census indicates that she was a public school teacher at the time she and Levy were married. They made their life in the Oklahoma panhandle, in contrast to Sadie's brother William Shepard who settled in California in 1940. Sadie and Levy did travel to California a number of times to visit brother William and his family.


The second image is one I have shared before in this blog. It shows Sadie and Levy Pruett while on a visit to California in 1946. This picture was taken when the family took a day trip across the border to Tijuana, Mexico. In the very middle of this image, in the black dress, is Sadie Shepard Pruett. In back row in the middle is her husband Levy Pruett. On either side of Levy and directly in front of him are 3 other members of the Pruett family visiting from Oklahoma: Glen Barker, Gayle Pruett Barker, and Alberta Pruett Getz. The others pictured here are members of the Russell and Shepard families who were living in San Diego.

Sadie died 2 days after her 88th birthday, in Oklahoma where she had lived for 75 years, ever since she had moved from Illinois as a school girl in about 1905. She and Levy rest alongside other family and friends in Sophia Cemetery, the longtime burial ground in Beaver County located in the community where they spent most of their lives.

Happy Birthday Cindy Shepard. Tomorrow (Ground Hog Day!) is the birthday of Cindy Ann Shepard, the wife of my brother Gary Shepard. Cindy and Gary live in Oak Harbor, Washington and are among the caregivers for our 92 year old mother Maida Shepard of nearby Anacortes, Washington. 

Last week I visited with the family in Washington and took this picture which shows my brother Gary and his wife Cindy on the right, and me and my wife Cindy on the left. Best wishes to Cindy for a very happy birthday!
- - -
Steve Shepard

A Picture Is Worth, January 7, 2017

Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains

as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge

hidden in every cell of our bodies.

~Shirley Abbott

A Fascinating Picture. A few months ago I mentioned that I had recently begun an online conversation with a second cousin on the Shepard side of our family, Lisa Allred Parks. She lives in the Fort Worth area and is the Granddaughter of Sadie Shepard Pruett (1892-1980), the sister of my Grandfather William Shepard (1888-1976).

A few days ago Lisa was thoughtful enough to email me a copy of a picture that she found among her mother's photos. It is obviously an old picture, only 1 1/2 inch square, and shows two children, who Lisa thinks are her grandmother Sadie Shepard Pruett and Sadie's brother William Shepard.

The first picture I am including is a composite image which shows, in the middle, the picture of the children Lisa sent to me. On either side I have added an adult picture of Sadie (at 23 years old) and William (at about 30 years old). Comparing these images might help us decide whether the children shown here could indeed be the adults pictured on either side. What do you think?

As you might imagine I was fascinated by this picture, and excited about the possibility of it being a childhood picture of my Grandfather and his sister. As far as I know the oldest existing picture of my Grandfather is the wedding picture of him alongside his wife Bura Davis Shepard, taken in Oklahoma in June, 1915 when he was 26 years old. If this new image does indeed show Sadie and William as children, it would be something extraordinary.

Here's what we do know, or can deduce, about this small picture: It was found among the photos of Sadie Shepard Pruett, who was born in January, 1892 (125 years ago this month). William was born 3 years and 1 month earlier, in December, 1888. In this picture, the young girl looks to be just a few months old, while the little boy looks to be a few years older, so their ages would be about right. If it is Sadie and William, it would have been taken in 1892 in Madison County, Illinois, where both of them were born.

I'd like to ask the readers of this blog: Do you have thoughts on whether or not this might be a picture of Sadie and William? Especially those of you who knew William and/or Sadie when they were alive. Do you have any thoughts or ideas about whether this might be them? I would appreciate hearing from you.

Happy Birthday Cindy! Today is the birthday of my wife Cindy Harris Shepard. Born in the San Joaquin Valley, as a baby she and her family moved to San Diego where she grew up, and where she and I met while in High School. Cindy is the mother of our son Nathan, and grandmother of his three children, Preslea, Logan and William Shepard. 

The second picture shows Cindy with our youngest grandchild William Shepard (the Great Great Grandchild of the William Shepard mentioned above).

Happy Birthday, Mary! This coming Tuesday, January 10 is the birthday of Mary Shepard, wife of my brother Darrell Shepard, of Bothell, Washington. Originally from Chicago, Mary and husband Darrell live today in the Seattle, Washington area. The biggest joy of their lives right now is their 4 young grandchildren, Logan, Mason, Kellan and Finley, the children of their kids Patrick, Rachel and Christopher. 

This third picture, taken last month, shows Mary with husband Darrell and their youngest grandchild Finley Shepard, daughter of Chris and Jessica.

Best wishes to Cindy and Mary for very happy birthdays! And thanks to cousin Lisa for that amazing picture of those children!
- - -
Steve Shepard

Our Roots Remain as One, October 26, 2016

Family is like branches on a tree.

We all grow in different directions

yet our roots remain as one.

The Shepard-Davis-Pruett Clan. In my last post I mentioned that I had recently connected online with a second cousin of mine, Lisa Allred Parks who lives in Haltom City, Texas. She emailed me a picture of my Shepard grandparents (and a host of other kinfolk), one than I had never seen before and am very grateful to have. Here's the picture (you can enlarge it by clicking on it):

Shepard-Davis-Pruett Clan, 1945, Oklahoma

I have a similar picture that has been in my archives for many years, that was taken at the same location, probably at the same time, but includes only a few of the people pictured here (you can see that picture below). 

On the back of Lisa's copy of this first picture it says it was taken in the summer of 1945 in Beaver County, Oklahoma, at the home of Perry Jenkins (the husband of Esther Davis Jenkins, sister of my grandmother Bura Davis Shepard).

This particular image illustrates better than any other picture I have ever seen, the relationship that existed between the extended family of my Grandfather William Shepard (pictured here on the far left in the back, only his head is visible), and the family of my Grandmother Bura Davis Shepard (pictured on the far left side in the white dress). 

William Shepard's family was fairly small in number. His immediate family consisted of his wife and 4 children, a son-in-law and 2 grandchildren, all of whom were living in San Diego in 1945. He had just one sibling Sadie Shepard Pruett (possibly the one pictured next to William in the back, with only her head visible). Sadie, with husband Levy Pruett (pictured far right in the back), had 3 daughters. All 3 daughters - Alberta, Gayle and Twila - are pictured here with the husbands of Alberta and Gayle. Twila is the mother of Lisa Allred Parks, who graciously sent me this picture.

My Grandmother Bura Davis Shepard had 6 siblings, all of whom were married with kids at this time, which meant a much larger extended family. Among Bura's siblings in the first picture are Marjorie Davis Millikan (in the very center, white dress with brooch) and Esther Davis Jenkins to the left of Marjorie. William and Bura's daughter Thelma is in front, the third in the line of 4 young girls. The elderly lady on the right is Thelma's grandmother, Callie Spear Davis, mother of the Davis children in the first picture.

I am not able to identify all the folks in the first picture above (if you can, please let me know), yet they are all happy participants in this Shepard-Davis-Pruett clan gathering 71 years ago, on the dusty plains of the Oklahoma panhandle. It's a reminder of a different era when our families were expanding, some moving westward to the coast, all developing their own identity and growing their own family circles. Despite the many years that have passed, we are still united by that bond of connection to common ancestors, most of whom are gone now, but all of whom are respectfully remembered.

Happy Birthday Mandi! Today is the 24th birthday of Mandi Aquiningoc of Granbury, Texas. Mandi is the Granddaughter of my brother Gary Shepard and Jackie Perry, and is the daughter of Kerri Aquiningoc. Mandi was born and lived in San Diego but has been in Texas now for over 15 years.

This third picture shows Mandi on the right with her daughter, 3 year old Kambree. Also pictured is Mandi's cousin Kyle Sauvage.

Mandi: Hi uncle Steve! It's always good to hear from you. Kambree and I are doing great. She has definitely grown a lot since the last time we saw you and Great Grammie a few years ago. She turned 3 back in June and is growing way too fast. She is also learning so much in school already. Right now we're learning how to write her name and I have been working my tail off. At one point I was working 2 jobs. I became a bartender at a place called Fuzzys Taco, also working at UPS. But I did manage to save a lot of money working 2 jobs. My sister and I still live together, but my goal is to eventually find a place for myself and Kambree. I believe I'm almost to that point. I love hearing from you guys and I sure wish we can all see y'all again sometime soon. We love and miss y'all!

Birthday Wishes to Pam! This coming Sunday, October 30 is the birthday of Pam Engan Shepard, wife of my brother Russ Shepard and part of our family who lives in Anacortes, Washington. Pam is the mother of Linda and Steven Shepard. Happy birthday and best wishes to Pam as she celebrates yet another birthday!

This last picture was taken last month and shows Pam slicing apples in the kitchen of her mother-in-law Maida Shepard of Anacortes, Washington. Partially pictured with Pam is their son Steven Shepard.
- - -
Steve Shepard

Remembering Sadie Shepard Pruett, January 29, 2016

Tradition means giving votes 

to the most obscure of all classes

-- our ancestors.

It is the democracy of the dead.

~Gilbert Keith Chesterton

This week celebrates the birthday of my Great Aunt, Sadie Shepard Pruett, the only sister of my Grandfather William Shepard. She lived from January 27, 1892 until January 29, 1980.

My Granddad William Shepard was 3 years older than his sister Sadie, both of whom were born in Madison County, Illinois, just across the river from Saint Louis, Missouri. They were teenagers when their parents William Elmer Shepard and Elvira Owens Shepard, moved the family in 1905 to Beaver County, Oklahoma.

The United States Census of 1910 shows that, in the small farming community of Logan, Beaver County, Oklahoma, the William Elmer Shepard family was a close neighbor of the Charles Edward Davis family. One of the Davis granddaughters was Bura Davis, who in 1915 became the bride of Sadie's brother William Shepard. That union created a bond between the Davis and Shepard families that continues to this day.

(Side Note: on this day 167 years ago -- January 29, 1849 -- the aforementioned neighbor of the Shepards', Charles Edward Davis, was born. He was the grandfather of my grandmother Bura Davis Shepard.) 

I never knew my great aunt Sadie Shepard Pruett despite the fact that our lives overlapped by several decades. She visited her brother William Shepard and his family in San Diego in the 1940s, this second remarkable family picture having been taken on one such visit. It shows Sadie (in the dark dress in the middle) and husband Levy (middle of the top row) with other Shepard and Russell family members while visiting the border town of Tijuana in 1946. 

Though she visited family in California, Sadie never lived any farther west than rural Beaver County. In 1910, at just 18 years old, she gave up her teaching job in the local public school to marry Levy Pruett who was 12 years older than her. They had 3 daughters: Alberta, Gayle and Twila. The first picture (above) shows the beautiful young mother and wife Sadie at 23 years old with her first two daughters Alberta and Gayle. This lovely picture may actually have been taken on the occasion of the marriage of her brother William Shepard to Bura Davis.

Sadie is buried alongside her husband Levy Pruett in the Sophia Cemetery near Elmwood, Oklahoma. That cemetery is just around the corner from the South Flat Church of Christ, a congregation which was dear to the hearts of many of our Shepard and Davis family members in the early years of the 20th century.


Unfortunately there has been very little communication over the years between the descendants of Sadie Shepard Pruett and her brother William Shepard. Today, many of the Shepards live on the West Coast, while many of Sadie's descendants live in and around Oklahoma. Perhaps that lack of interaction will change as generations go by and as the internet makes possible greater communication between distant relatives.

Seeking Valentine's Day Pictures. As I mentioned last week, I am putting together a family photo presentation for Valentine's Day. If you have a "kissing picture" including family members, you are welcome to send it to me for inclusion in this fun photo slide show.
- - -
Steve Shepard

"The Past is Part of the Present", April 3, 2015

We are in time and space

But we are from beyond time and space

The past is part of the present

The future is part of the present

Life and being are interwoven

~John Trudell

Happy Birthday on this Good Friday to our son Nathan Shepard. Nathan was born here in San Diego early on a Palm Sunday in 1977. Today Nathan works for Wells Fargo Bank and lives in the San Carlos Community of San Diego with wife Chenda and children Preslea, Logan and William. An avid Hockey fan and player, Nathan also enjoys hiking in the Sierra and quality time with the family. The following photo presentation is offered in celebration of his 38th Birthday.



          

Happy Birthday tomorrow to Ciara Ortiz of San Diego. Ciara is the oldest child of Jeremy and Desiree Ortiz and the granddaughter of Kim Boyd Clark of Blue Springs, Missouri. She is also a Great Great Grandchild of Bura Davis Shepard and William Shepard, mentioned in the comments below. This picture shows Ciara (top) with her brother Damian, sister Ashlyn and a friend. This was posted to Facebook just a couple of weeks ago.

Desiree: Just wanted to give you a shout out for Ciara. Her birthday is this coming weekend. April 4 she will be the big 13. Can't believe Jeremy and I will have a teenager. It's a little scary, lol! Ciara is adjusting well to being back in San Diego. She is active in school, and a part of the basketball and swim team, as well as the photography team, putting the year book together! She is looking forward to summer so she can spend July in Missouri with Grammy and Grandpa Jeff and attend 3 weeks of Bible camp. 

Three Shepard Cousins. I mentioned in my last post that newly discovered ancestors Frank and Lida Shepherd had a daughter named Flossie Shepherd. From everything we know, and from family stories I have heard, Grandad William Shepard (1888-1976) never knew he had an uncle Frank and aunt Lida, and therefore probably never knew about his cousin Flossie Shepherd (1894-1960abt.). Our best knowledge suggests that when Great Grandfather William Elmer Shepard left Indiana as a young man, he disconnected from his family and was never reunited with them. This was not only due to the fact that they had parted under unpleasant circumstances, but also because travel and long distance communication was difficult in the 19th century, nothing like it is today.

The following picture is an attempt to do something that was never done when these three were alive, and that is bring them together. This tryptic shows my Grandfather William Shepard (1888-1976), his sister Sadie Shepard Pruett (1892-1980), and their first cousin Frances (Flossie) Shepherd (1894-1960abt). The first two, William and Sadie were very close throughout most of their lives, first in Alton, Illinois and then in Beaver County, Oklahoma. But not so their cousin Flossie who lived most of her life in Plymouth, Indiana, some 1,000 miles away.

The pictures of William and his sister Sadie were taken in June 1915 in Beaver County, Oklahoma on the occasion of the wedding of William Shepard to Bura Davis. Flossie's picture was taken in June 1911 when she graduated from Plymouth (Indiana) High School. These three are the only grandchildren of Civil War soldier William Shepard (1835-1862) and his wife Mary Sprague Shepard (1840-1919).
- - -
Steve Shepard

Happy Ground Hog Day! Feb 2, 2015

The farther backward you can look,

the farther forward you can see.

~Winston Churchill

Happy Ground Hog Day! Today also happens to be the birthday of Cindy Dillon Shepard, the wife of my brother Gary Shepard of Oak Harbor, Washington. Cindy has been in our family now for over 35 years, ever since she and Gary were married in Southern California in 1979. They have lived in western Washington ever since Gary retired in San Diego in 2003. Best wishes to Cindy for a very special birthday!

The first picture shows Cindy with husband Gary on the left, and me and Cindy on the right. This picture was taken last summer in Anacortes, Washington. Thanks to nephew Steven Paul Shepard for taking this picture.

William Elmer Shepard (1862-1915). Today is also the birthday of my Great Grandfather William Elmer Shepard. William Elmer lived a very interesting life. Born during the Civil War, his father William Shepard (1835-1862) died from a war wound when young William Elmer was but a few months old. His mother remarried into a family where William Elmer felt unwelcome. He ran away from his mother and his step family as a teen and never looked back.

William Elmer was a man of great adventures, having struck out on his own as a teenager and ventured as a free spirit westward across 19th Century mid-America. After a few vagabond years, he found a wife in Illinois, and some years later made a home with Elvira Owens and their two children in Oklahoma where he lived out the rest of his life. 

100 years ago today, when living in Beaver County, Oklahoma, William Elmer celebrated his 53rd and last birthday, although it could not have been much of a celebration. He was deathly ill and would not live but another two weeks. He had been diagnosed with untreatable stomach cancer the previous fall.

He probably gifted his son, my grandfather William Shepard, with a spirit of adventure and wanderlust, as well as the complementary gift of story telling.

The second picture shows William Elmer's headstone in the Sophia Cemetery in Beaver County, Oklahoma. Shown below is the entrance to this small country cemetery where a number of our Shepard and Davis ancestors are buried.

I never knew William Elmer Shepard, obviously. But I did know his son quite well, and I knew his Shepard grandsons very well, my father being one of them. And I often wonder how much of William Elmer's personality was inherited by his offspring, in particular how much of his understanding of fatherhood and manhood took root in them. It is difficult to determine with any precision of course, but it is worth pondering to what extent, beyond his DNA, this fatherless vagabond had an effect on future generations of men, especially the 7 of us who are his great grandsons (Rex Russell, me, Gary, Darrell and Russell Shepard, Dane Shepard, and Darren Boyd).

William Elmer's death 100 years ago in February, 1915 occurred during a time of incredible change for his family. His wife Elvira was just 49 years old with a lot of life ahead of her. Their daughter Sadie Shepard Pruett and her husband Levi Pruett had 3 small children and another one yet to be born.

Their son William Shepard had recently fallen in love with the teenager Bura Davis and they were waiting for the best opportunity to marry. When William Elmer died in February, the time was not right for a family celebration. Just a few months later, however, on June 2, William and Bura did marry and the grieving son set out on the greatest adventure of his life, his marriage to Bura Davis. After the death of his father, it was a well deserved turning point for him and the rest of his family.
- - -
Steve Shepard

A 1920 Picture Revisited, February 7, 2013

History cannot give us a program for the future,
but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves
and of our common humanity
so that we can better face the future.

~Robert Penn Warren

Hello Family and Friends,

Greetings to all of you from the mountains of Northern California where Cindy and I are spending a few days enjoying the brisk mountain air in this beautiful Sierra setting.

Happy Birthday Paula. Today is the birthday of my cousin Paula Tuzzolino, daughter of Vicki Gower Johnston. She is one of the 12 grandchildren of Leroy and Nola Shannon Gower. Paula is originally from San Diego, but lives today with husband Frank in Sun Lakes, Arizona. 

I talked to Paula yesterday and she tells me that she is doing well, enjoying retirement and keeping busy with various church and community activities. Most of the time she and Frank are in Arizona but they return to Washington for part of each summer, where they have family. 

Paula is the mother of Heather Robson Cotten, and the proud grandmother of Tori and Lexi Cotten, who live in San Antonio, Texas. The first picture shows Paula when she visited the hospital for the birth of her granddaughter Lexi, sporting sterile hospital garb.

A 1920 Picture Revisited. Last week I posted a 1920 picture of my Shepard grandparents in front of some farm machinery. I tried my best to describe the picture and the people in it. Since then, however, while searching the internet, I found some more specific information about that picture and the people. Interestingly it was information from a blog post I wrote 5 years ago! (Is that scary or what?)

I mentioned in The Shepard's Crook in September, 2008 that I had received this picture from my cousin Dane Shepard of Newcastle, Oklahoma. Back in 2008 Dane had talked to his dad Elmer (who passed away just last year) who had related to him the following details of this picture (I am including the picture again here; click on it for a larger view):

"It was taken in July of 1920 and features a threshing rig hooked up to a steam tractor/engine owned by Grandad (William Shepard). He (Grandad) is standing above the rest. The two men to his right are Lawrence Davis (left) and Jess Davis (right). On the ground (right to left) are Mrs. Erickson (a Swede from Illinois), Gram (Bura) holding Elmer, Gayle Pruett (girl's head), Pauline next to her, Elvira, an unknown woman, Tillie Erickson in back, and an unknown man."

What I did not realize back in 2008 was that the farm machinery in the picture had been bequeathed to our grandfather William Shepard by his father William Elmer Shepard. It was part of William Elmer's will that I only became aware of in recent weeks.

Also of interest to me is the woman on the left in the picture above. When Dane's father Elmer described the picture above he was unable to identify her. I have another picture in which she appears that was taken at the same time and shows her sitting next to grandad with his arm around her.

Who was she? Grandad's mother Elvira had a few sisters but none of them were either alive in 1920, or would have been the age of the woman in the picture. It is evident from the picture that grandad and she were quite familiar with each other.  Grandad was one who enjoyed a good laugh, and probably relished the humor of this picture. Whether Gram did is another question altogether.
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Steve

Happy Ground Hog Day! February 2, 2013

Home is people. Not a place.

If you go back there after the people are gone,

then all you can see is what is not there any more.

~Robin Hobb

Hello Family and Friends,

Happy Ground Hog Day! Today is the midpoint between Dec 21 and March 21, the day when winter is half over. We are now closer to the beginning of spring than the beginning of winter.

Happy Birthday Cindy! Today is the birthday of one of the Cindy Shepard's in our family -- this one being Cindy Ann Dillon Shepard, wife of my brother Gary Shepard of Oak Harbor, Washington.

Cindy: I am not sure what to say about my upcoming birthday. No big plans except I get my yearly steak and lobster dinner --  yay! I thank the good Lord every day I wake up now. We are doing well, except Gary has been down with the ikkies for close to 3 weeks now but he’s getting better. All is well here and we love and miss everyone very much and hope to see lots of faces at the family reunion this summer.

The first picture, taken last spring in Oak Harbor, Washington, shows Cindy on the right with her sister-in-law Barbara and her brother-in-law Russell.

William Elmer Shepard. On this day, 151 years ago my Ggrandfather William Elmer Shepard was born in Wabash, Indiana. He was born in 1862, the same year his father William Shepard died in the Civil War. William Elmer died in 1915 in Beaver County, Oklahoma just 4 months before his son William married a young 18 year old in his church named Bura Davis.

I mentioned William Elmer in my post last week because of a 1937 Court Case in which his will was in question. For the record, here is the last will and testament of my Ggrandfather William Elmer Shepard, as it appears in the summary of the 1937 Court Case.

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1. I direct that all my just debts and funeral expenses be paid out of my personal property as soon as convenient after my decease.

2. I hereby give and bequeath to my wife Elvira Shepard all the following property, to wit: All my real and personal property except as hereinafter otherwise willed by this instrument and $1.000 in a certain insurance policy as per the conditions thereof. All of said personal property to be sold by her and the proceeds invested for her benefit until her death, and she shall have the right to sell the real property if she so desires and apply said proceeds as in the case of the personal property, and all other property, if any, not given and bequeathed to my son and daughter hereinafter named.

3. I also give and bequeath to my son William Shepard all farm machinery now on my place and $500 of a certain insurance policy as per the conditions thereof.

4. I also give and bequeath to my daughter Sadie J. Pruett all the following property, to wit: two steer calves now on my place and $500 of a certain insurance policy as per the conditions thereof.

I hereby nominate, constitute and appoint Elvira Shepard of Logan, Okla., my wife, sole executor of this my last will and testament, without bond.
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It is a very simple document, reminding us that these were simple, hard working farm folk. In this will William Elmer left to his son William (26 when his father died), his farm machinery and $500 of an insurance policy. To his daughter Sadie (23 when her father died), he left two steer calves and $500 of an insurance policy. Everything else he left to his wife Elvira Owens Shepard, who outlived her husband by almost 17 years.

In an audio recording made about 1975, my grandfather William Shepard says that his father William Elmer died of some kind of stomach ailment ("cancer" he called it). Son William believed that it was brought on either by chewing tobacco, or as the result of being kicked in the pit of his stomach by a mule. In any case granddad said his father William Elmer died a painful death. This was in a time when access to medicines or even medical care was very limited on the Oklahoma plains.

The following picture was taken in 1920, just 5 years after William Elmer Shepard died. It shows some massive farm machinery, perhaps similar to what William Elmer left to his son William in the will above. Perhaps this was the machinery that was bequeathed to William.

The picture (click on it for a larger view) shows my grand mother Bura Davis Shepard in the middle holding a child -- probably her son Elmer (born in 1918). Just to the left of Bura is her mother-in-law Elvira Owens Shepard. I cannot identify the woman on the left or the woman on the right. They may have been family friends or neighbors.

Comparing this picture with others taken at the same time, it's clear that the elevated fellow in the middle is granddad William Shepard. He is standing in the pose of a conquering hero, victorious over a massive beast. With the amount of work these machines did to harvest their crop, they could be thought of as tamed beasts. These farm machines were also extremely valuable tools, hence the posture of the man on the ground at the left who appears to be guarding a great treasure.

We've come a long way as a family in the century and a half since William Elmer Shepard was born, but some of the same values remain. And for that we can be grateful.
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Steve Shepard

Sadie Shepard Pruett (1892-1980), January 27, 2013

Blood cannot be denied,

and perhaps that’s why we fight tooth and claw,

because we cannot -- being only human --

put asunder what God has joined together.”

~Whitney Otto

Hello Family and Friends,

Sadie Shepard Pruett (1892 - 1980). On this date in 1892 Sadie Shepard was born, the sister and only sibling of my grand father William Shepard. Like her brother, she was born in Alton, Illinois, a small Mississippi river town near Saint Louis, Missouri. When just a child, her family moved from Illinois to Beaver County, in the panhandle of Oklahoma. There Sadie married Levy Pruett, raised their family of three girls, and lived the rest of her life. She and husband Levy are buried in Sophia Cemetery in Beaver County.

The first picture shows Sadie with the first two of their three daughters, Gayle and Alberta. This picture looks to have been taken in Beaver County, Oklahoma at the wedding of her brother William Shepard to Bura Davis in 1915, when Sadie was 23 and her daughters were just 2 and 4 years old.

The second picture shows daughters Gayle and Alberta Pruett around 1930 when they made a stop somewhere in the American Southwest to have their picture taken with some native Americans. Posing with tourists to make a dollar or two didn't do much for the image of native Americans, but it was a very common activity in early 20th century America. (Thanks to my cousin Dane Shepard for sending me this amusing picture.)

Sadie's brother William Shepard moved his family to California in 1940. Sadie would sometimes visit her brother and family in San Diego, just as William and his family were fond of returning to Oklahoma for visits in the 1940s and 1950s. I have a couple of old pictures that were taken during those visits and have included them in previous blog posts here and here.

The third picture, taken in June, 1942, shows my grand parents Bura and William Shepard on the right when they returned from San Diego to Oklahoma to visit Sadie and her husband Levy. In the lower right is Thelma Shepard Boyd, William and Bura's youngest child, who was 6 years old at the time.

An Historic Court Case. While searching the internet recently I found a fascinating reference to Sadie and her brother William Shepard in an historic Oklahoma court case. After Sadie and William's father died in 1915, their mother Elvira Owens Shepard married a man named Cal Williams. After Elvira died in 1931 a question arose over who should inherit Elvira's estate, her children or her 2nd husband.

My father, Elvira's grandson, was an impressionable 15 year old when this case was settled. I remember him telling me years later about some disagreement over his grandmother's property that led to some hard feelings that lingered for many decades. But I never knew until this week that it was an actual court case that was heard by the Oklahoma Supreme Court and was settled in 1937. 

The summary of this case is interesting to me because it includes the will of my great grandfather William Elmer Shepard (Sadie and William's father) who died in 1915. Among the stipulations in his will, he leaves his farm machinery to his son William, and two steer calves to his daughter Sadie. 

What was really in question, however, was the property that Elvira had owned, and who should inherit it. It was eventually decided that her 2nd husband should get it, and not her children Sadie and William. You can read details of this interesting and historic court case here. 
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Steve

Other Shepard Kin, January 27, 2012

I don't know who my grandfather was;
I am much more concerned to know
what his grandson will be.
~Abraham Lincoln

Hello Family and Friends,

Today is the 120th anniversary of the birthday of my great aunt Sadie Shepard Pruett who was born January 27, 1892. She was born in Alton, Illinois just like her older brother and only sibling (my grandfather) William Shepard, who was 4 years her senior. She and William were just teens when their parents left Illinois and settled in Beaver County, Oklahoma in the first decade of the 20th century. Interestingly, also like her brother William, she died within days of her 88th birthday. Sadie died in 1980, William in 1976.

The late 19th century was a time when large families were common. A family from that time period with just two children is an interesting anomaly. My grandmother Bura Davis, for example, (born 1896) was one of 7 children. My grandmother Nola Shannon (born 1902) was one of 9 children. And my grandfather Leroy Gower (born 1899) was one of 7 children. It was unusual then for Sadie Shepard to be one of only 2 children, she and her brother William.

Like most of our ancestors, William's parents William Elmer Shepard and Elvira Owens were country folk for whom one more child meant one more worker on the family farm. But every couple is different, with unique physical and emotional needs and limitations.

To be fair, there seems to have been two other siblings of William and Sadie Shepard who died in infancy: a boy they named Elmer and a girl they named Eva. Losing a child can be a devastating experience, but losing two children can make a couple hesitant to have any more.

Sadie later married Levy Pruett and had 3 daughters, Alberta, Gayle and Twila. The first picture I am including shows Sadie at 23 years old with her first two daughters Gayle and Alberta. This lovely picture was taken in June, 1915 when her brother William Shepard and his fiance Bura Davis were married.

The second picture shows my grandfather William Shepard (bottom right) with his wife Bura Davis next to him. At the bottom left is his sister Sadie whose husband Levy Pruett is in the middle of the top row. Also in the picture are two Pruett daughters, Gayle (bottom row) and Twila (upper right), and Gayle's husband Glenn Barker (upper left). As you can see on the far right, this picture was taken in 1946 in Tijuana when the Pruett family came to San Diego to visit the Shepards.

Sad to say, I have not had much contact with the descendants of Sadie Shepard Pruett. 20 years ago when my dad and I visited Oklahoma we visited his aunt Sadie's daughter Alberta Pruett Getz and her husband Pat, but I have not maintained contact with them over the years.

I did have a phone conversation earlier this week with Alberta's son Norman Getz, who still lives near Elmwood in Beaver County, Ok. He mentioned that his parents Alberta and Pat are now gone, and that few members of the Pruett family remain.

Sadie and William Shepard's mother Elvira Owens was from the Owens family of Madison County, Illlinois. I recently connected online with a 3rd cousin, Richard Olen Young II, who is also descended from that same Owens family and lives today in Maine. I look forward to that connection and learning more about family members of today and of long ago.

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Steve