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. 
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Steve Shepard

More Sheppard Ancestors, October 18, 2017

Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values,

so we reach ahead to our children and their children.

And we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching.

~Paul Tsongas

Vicki Johnston, Paula Tuzzolino

Today is the 84th birthday of my aunt Vicki Gower Johnston of Chandler, Arizona. Vicki and her sister Maida Gower Shepard are the two senior members of our family. Cindy and I were in Arizona a few weeks ago and had the opportunity to visit with Vicki and her primary care giver, daughter Paula, and Paula's husband Frank Tuzzolino. Vicki has lived in a care facility not far from Paula and Frank for two years now. She continues to have various health concerns but enjoyed our time together. Best wishes to Vicki for a very happy birthday!

The first picture I am including shows Vicki Johnston and her daughter Paula Tuzzolino.

Today is the 109th anniversary of the birth of my uncle Willie Davis (Bill) Russell who was born in 1908. He was married for 62 years to my aunt Pauline Shepard Russell. Among the descendants of Bill and Pauline Shepard Russell today are Shannon Wilk and her daughter Emma of Atchison, Kansas.

Emma and Shannon Wilk

This second picture I am including today was taken earlier this month and shows Shannon and Emma Wilk.

New Ancestors For Our Family Tree. The last few months have been surprisingly productive in my continuing search for our Shepard ancestors prior to the Civil War. The soldier William Shepard (1835-1862) has been a keystone ancestor in our family history for many years. But discovering his parents and ancestry has been difficult until the last few months. I have shared recently in this blog about the discovery of the soldier William Shepard's parents Hannah and James Cross Sheppard Jr.,  and then the discovery of William's grandparents Hannah and James Cross Sheppard Sr.

When James Cross Sheppard Sr. (1775-1843) and his wife Hannah Gatchell Shepard (1781-1839) migrated from Maryland and settled in Kirkwood, Belmont County, Ohio in 1809, they brought with them their first four children (they eventually had 13). What I did not know until recent weeks is that James' elderly parents, Mary Ann Hudson Sheppard and John Sheppard III, also migrated to Ohio from Maryland just a few years later. John and Mary Ann therefore have become the newest additions to our Shepard family tree.

Our Shepard ancestors before the Civil War generally spelled their last name "Sheppard" with two "P's." That is how it usually appears on their headstones which is why I am spelling their name that way. I say that even though it was not unusual for their last names to be spelled either Shepard or Shepherd.

5X Great Grandmother Mary Ann Hudson Sheppard was an Irish immigrant. She was born in 1755 in County Wexford, on the Southeastern Coast of Ireland. She came to America as a child from Ireland with her parents Joseph Hudson (1717-1807) and Elizabeth Dunn Hudson (1720-1789). The Hudsons raised Mary Ann and her siblings in South Eastern Pennsylvania which was just north of where the Sheppards lived in Cecil County, Maryland.

Mary Ann's husband John Sheppard III -- our 5X Great Grandfather -- was born in 1737 in the port city of Georgetown, in the North Eastern part of what was then the Maryland Colony. John married Mary Ann Hudson on October 8, 1777 in Cecil County, Maryland -- 240 years ago this month! They were probably married earlier than that, but Maryland did not require marriage licenses until 1777. In addition to their son James Cross Sheppard Sr., they also raised a number of other children (perhaps as many as 12), among whom were two daughters Elizabeth Sheppard Midkiff (1782-1873) and Lydia Sheppard Waddell (1795-1872). A rich resource for these ancestors of ours comes from the cemetery listing for John Sheppard III and his wife Mary Ann on FindaGrave.com. You can select this link for that listing.

Sewellsville Cemetery, Kirkwood, Ohio

So John Sheppard III and Mary Ann Hudson married and bore their children in Maryland but migrated to Belmont County, Ohio a few years after their son James and his family did. The community of Kirkwood in Belmont County is where John and Mary Ann spent the last years of their lives. Mary Ann died at 69 years old in 1824, while husband John died 3 years later at the ripe old age of 90, which was exceptional for the nineteenth century. Mary Ann and husband John are both buried in Sewellsville Cemetery in Kirkwood Township, Belmont County, Ohio.

Our ancestors John and Mary Ann were frontier Americans, hearty Christian folk. Look at the given names in this post: Mary and Joseph, James and John, Lydia, Elizabeth -- all significant characters from the New Testament. We know that 4X Great Grandmother Hannah Gatchell Sheppard (John and Mary's daughter-in-law) was from devout Quaker roots. John and Mary Ann may have been Quakers as well, but if not Quakers they were certainly fine Christian people.

You may be asking, What about John Sheppard II and John Sheppard I? Since there was a John Sheppard III, there must have been a II and a I, right? The details on the lives of those two are scant, but we do have some important information about them. I look forward to sharing about that in my next post.
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Steve Shepard

Happy Sibling's Day! April 10, 2017

Siblings are the people we practice on,

the people who teach us about fairness

and cooperation and kindness and caring, 

quite often the hard way.

~Pamela Dugdale

Today is Sibling's Day. Sibling relationships are usually the longest relationships a person will have in their entire life, often longer than the relationship a person will share with either of their parents. My relationship with my older brother Gary has lasted the entire 68 years of my life. And when it is all said and done that relationship will probably be the longest lasting relationship of my life.

I am grateful for the siblings with whom I have shared life for all these many years. This first picture shows me and my 4 sibings in a photo from 1983. From left to right are Barbara, Russell, Darrell, me and Gary. This picture was taken in front of our parents' home on Wildwood Lane in Anacortes. 

With my mother's advancing age and growing health concerns, the past year has been more difficult that any other in the life of my siblings and me. The challenges have been many as we have made our way through the struggles that have resulted from our mother's advanced years and the need to care for her in the best way possible. It has drawn us together, but it has also tested our mettle as siblings. Through it all I remain humbly grateful for the brothers and sisters I have been blessed with.

Jerry Clark. I am also grateful today for Jerry Clark of Lubbock, Texas. For one short year long ago, he was married to my late sister Linda (1950-1971). But for 46 years now he has remained a brother in heart within our family. Last Saturday was the 11th anniversary of Jerry and his wife Cathrina Clark. Best wishes and "Happy Anniversary!" to both of them.

Rachel Shepard. Happy 30th Birthday this Friday to my niece Rachel Shepard of Bothell, Washington! Rachel is the daughter of my sibling #3, Darrell Shepard and his wife Mary. This second picture taken a few months ago, shows Rachel with her son Kellan.

A Fascinating Pair of Siblings. One of the most interesting pairs of siblings in our family was William Elmer Shepard (1862-1915) and his brother Frank J. Shepherd (1860-1950). They were the only children of our Great Great Grandparents William and Mary (Sprague) Shepherd. 

The father of these siblings, William Shepherd, died in the Civil War in 1862 when Frank was just 1 1/2 years old and the younger William was just 5 months old. Mary Shepherd, after just 3 years of widowhood, married a fellow by the name of William Ragsdale, in Montgomery County, Indiana where she had been raised. 

The only problem was the widower Ragsdale already had 9 children, which meant that suddenly brothers Frank and William had to share their mother with their 9 new step brothers and sisters. Their mother Mary then gave Mr. Ragsdale 3 more children, increasing the new blended family to a whopping 14 kids.

The following graphic is a snippet from the 1880 U.S. Census which lists siblings Frank and William Shepherd as step-sons in the household of William and Mary Ragsdale. It also lists 6 of the 12 step-siblings of Frank and William. 

Frank seemed to do pretty well growing up in this new living arrangement, but young William didn't. About 1880, when he was an older teen, he had had enough of his family -- his mother, his one biological brother, his 12 step siblings, his step-father, all of them -- and he left home in anger, never to see them again. We don't know what exactly caused him to leave. One family story has it that young William and his step father simply could not get along. So before they even reached adulthood, the brothers Frank and William were separated, at William's initiative, and were never reunited. 

Frank ended up settling in Marshall County in Northeast Indiana, where he became a long time US Mail Carrier, and died in 1950. William Elmer went to Illinois, where he married Elvira Owen and with her had two children, William (my Grandfather) and Sadie. In 1905, with his new family, William Elmer moved on to Beaver County, Oklahoma where he lived the rest of his life. He died in 1915 and is buried in Beaver County's Sophia Cemetery.

For some reason, as the years went by, Frank used the spelling "Shepherd" for his last name, while his brother William used the spelling "Shepard." Why would these two brothers -- children of the same parents, who grew up together -- choose different spellings for their last name?

It's a very curious question that may never be answered. The fact of the matter is that Shepard and Shepherd were commonly used variations of their last name. In the mid 19th century attention to correct spelling was simply not as common as it is today. The Civil War record of the father of Frank and William shows his last name as Shepard, but on the same form it lists Shepherd as a possible alternate. And remember this: from the time they were babies Frank and William were the only ones in their entire family who had the last name Shepard or Shepherd. Even their mother Mary used her second husband's last name Ragsdale for the rest of her life. 

The time came in each of the boys' life when they had to choose for themselves how they wanted to spell their last name. It is possible that young William Elmer, when he angrily left his family, deliberately chose the spelling "Shepard" as a way of distinguishing himself from his Indiana kinfolk, and in particular his brother Frank. What we know for sure is that Frank consistently used the spelling "Shepherd" for the rest of his life, while his brother William consistently used the spelling "Shepard". The latter is, of course, the way the last 6 generations have consistently spelled our last name, ever since 1880 when young William separated from his family in Indiana.

Frank and William's curious story is filled with adversity and sadness but also hope. They were a unique pair of siblings in our family and are worth remembering on this "Siblings Day 2017."
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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).
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Steve Shepard

Whatever Happened To Uncle Frank? March 30, 2015

Her voice, those silver sounds, so soft, so dear,

The listener held his breath to hear.

~Sir Walter Scott

Happy Birthday Joan! Tomorrow my cousin Joan Shepard celebrates yet another birthday. She lives with her wife Dee Shannon in Dixon, California, near Sacramento. They are the parents of grown children Ryan, Tim and Havilah. Joan's parents are the late Elmer and Beryl Swinney Shepard. What's more, she is the 8th of the 12 grandchildren of Will and Bura Davis Shepard. Joan was born and raised in the San Diego area but has lived now for many years in Northern California. Best wishes to Joan for a wonderful birthday!

Joan: "Dee and I celebrated my birthday at the UC Davis Arboretum. We enjoyed a perfect spring day in the Sacramento Valley. It was delightful to be back in the gardens where we married just last summer. Dee loves to visit the Equestrian Center, where she took a class a few years ago and made lasting friendships with the resident horses. They and the birds seemed to celebrate the day with us. All our children and Dee's mother are enjoying life, so we feel especially blessed as time goes by."

The first picture show Joan in a recent photo taken at the abovementioned Equestrian Center of UC Davis. 

The second image is from a photo taken in 1961 in San Diego and shows Joan (bottom left) with her brother Dane (behind her) and 4 of her Shepard cousins: me, Linda, Gary and Darrell (next to Joan). 

Whatever Happened To Uncle Frank? Recently I mentioned in this blog that my Great Grandfather William Elmer Shepard (1862-1915) was NOT an only child, as I had thought for many years. By the way, it is not unusual for information of this sort to turn up. New information is being made available all the time. It makes family research that much more exciting. 

William Elmer Shepard had a previously unknown older brother by the name of Frank J. Shepherd. Younger brother William Elmer was born February 5, 1862, 5 months after their father left home for military service. Frank was probably born around January, 1861, since their parents were married March 11, 1860. 

After I mentioned this information in a previous post, I heard from our friend Diane in Tucson who asked, "So what happened to the "other" brother Frank J. Shepard? Inquiring minds want to know." I took her response as a challenge to find out whatever I could about this newly discovered ancestor Frank J. Shepherd.

After a few hours of searching online I turned up some fascinating data. I already knew that our Great Grandfather William Elmer Shepard left Montgomery County, Indiana in a huff in the early 1880s and went south as a young man, married Elvira Owens in Madison County, Illinois, had two children, and then lived the rest of his life with his family in Beaver County, Oklahoma.

But what of his brother, my Great Grand Uncle Frank? Indiana marriage records show that older brother Frank married a woman almost 10 years his junior, named Lida Moore, in 1889 in Montgomery County, Indiana where he had been raised. The next record I found shows that in 1900 they were living 130 miles north in Plymouth, Marshall County, Indiana. 

Flossie Shepherd

For the rest of his life Frank took the spelling "Shepherd" for his last name, while his brother William Elmer took the spelling "Shepard".  Remember, Mary Shepard, the mother of these boys, remarried when they were just 3 and 4 years old and had the last name Ragsdale for the rest of her life. Confusion about exactly how to spell their dead soldier/father's last name is understandable.

So, whereas William Elmer went south to Illinois and then Oklahoma, his older brother Frank with wife Lida went north and settled in Plymouth, Indiana. They appear in the Census Records for 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 in Plymouth. In most of those Census Records Frank is listed as a "mail carrier". In 1957 Lida appears in a city record for South Bend, Indiana (30 miles north of Plymouth) as the 85 year old widow of Frank Shepherd.

Frank J. Shepherd and Lida Moore Shepherd had but one child, a daughter named Frances (Flossie) Shepherd, who graduated from Plymouth (Indiana) High School in 1911. Her picture appears online in the 1911 Plymouth Senior Annual, and is included in this post. I do not know much about Flossie (yet), although the search continues. The 1920 Census (when she was 26) lists her as unmarried, living at home, and a cashier in a dry goods store. Something of the kind of person Flossie was can be gained from the quote attached to her in her High School Annual: "Her voice, those silver sounds, so soft, so dear, The listener held his breath to hear." From the looks of her picture, she could pass for the first cousin of my Grandfather William Shepard. Unfortunately Granddad probably never knew her; probably never even knew she existed. 

So there you have it: two brothers, Frank J. Shepherd and William Elmer Shepard, whose father died in the Civil War when they were just infants. They were raised in their stepfather's household, but separated as young men -- perhaps under unpleasant circumstances -- probably never to meet again. But such was the fate of many Americans whose lives were torn asunder by the effects of the Civil War. We are fortunate to know as much as we do about them, and are honored to share their legacy.
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Steve Shepard