Happy Valentine's Day Tomorrow! February 13, 2016

Love doesn't make the world go round.

Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.

~Franklin Jones

Gloria Harrell Watson. Today is the birthday of my cousin Gloria Harrell Watson of Knoxville, Tennessee. She is the second daughter of my aunt Vicki Gower Johnston of Chandler, Arizona and is the sister of Paula Tuzzolino and Michael and David Harrell. Gloria was born and raised in San Diego, but has lived most of her life now in Tennessee. Happy Birthday on this Valentine's Weekend to Gloria!

This picture, taken last year in Oak Harbor, Washington, shows Gloria on the left with her mom Vicki and her sister Paula.

Happy Valentines Day! Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, an opportunity to celebrate love, especially within our family. The following slide show includes images of various members of our family, all of whom are kissing, one of the most common expressions of love. You will see wedding day kisses, pecks on the cheek, baby smooches and some other crazy kisses that reflect well this diverse, oddball family to which we all belong. The pictures are of kids and adults, young parents and older lovers, wedding moments, birthday celebrations and everything in between. Each picture includes at least one member of our extended family. How many of these folks can you identify?

"Kiss Me." Enjoy this homage to love within our family, to the music of the 90s band Sixpence None the Richer. 

Show-Me-The-Love Award. Each Valentine's Day I give a "Show-Me-The-Love Award" to a person in our family tree who exhibited extraordinary love in their life. This year the award goes to my 5X Great Grandmother Elizabeth Van Hook Warford (1746-1805).

Elizabeth Warford was a genuine American pioneer, whose life was intertwined with the history of our country and whose loving sacrifice was remarkable as she gave herself for her family and her expanding nation.

She was born in 1746 to Benjamin and Lydia Van Hook, of Monmouth County, New Jersey just 50 miles south of New York City. By the time Elizabeth was 18 she had made her way half way across Pennsylvania to Fulton County where she married Henry Warford, who had served in the Revolutionary War, as did Henry's brother Joseph Warford. Wikipedia says that as a result of their military service, George Washington deeded to Joseph 100 acres of land in southern Pennsylvania that the Warfords turned into a village which later was named Warfordsburg, an historic town that exists to this day.

Much of Elizabeth and Henry's married life was occupied with the Revolutionary war, but Henry spent enough time at home so that he and Elizabeth brought into the world 9 children in the 20 years they were together. Just about the time the Revolutionary War ended husband Henry died, perhaps from war wounds. In any case it created a real problem for Elizabeth who now had 8 mouths to feed and no husband to help.

Elizabeth was a genuine frontier woman. We don't know the details of how she did it, we just know that sometime after her husband Henry died in 1784, she packed up the kids -- who ranged in age from 2 and 18 -- and with help from family and friends, made her way westward across some 500 miles of rugged American landscape. She journeyed through Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio and into Kentucky where she and her family settled. They may have traveled by steamboat down the Ohio River which was something of a "superhighway" for pioneers making their way across the western frontier.

They traveled as far as Louisville, Kentucky, possibly because Louisville was the site of the Ohio River Falls, making it impossible for river boats to travel any farther. Elizabeth and her family then settled just east of Louisville in the town of Shelbyville. It was there that Elizabeth lived the last 10 or so years of her life until she died just short of her 60th birthday in 1805. She did live long enough to see her daughter Lydia Warford, in 1803, marry Kentuckian John Williams. Lydia and John are the two from whom we Shepards are descended.

It is hard to imagine the love, courage, and strength of character that it took for Elizabeth to move her family across America and begin a new life. She clearly had a strong love of the frontier, a longing to settle this new land and discover the opportunities available to those who traveled westward. Hers is a remarkable American story with great adversity as well as great accomplishment. She receives the "Show-Me-The-Love Award" for this year.

Here is Elizabeth's lineage for the last 275 years:

• Elizabeth Van Hook Warford (1742-1805) and Henry Warford (1741-1784)
• Lydia Warford Williams (1782-1829) and John Williams (1782-1813)
• John Pouty Williams (1802-1898) and Sally Richardson Williams (1801-1877)
• Margaret Williams Spear (1845-1904) and James Spear
• Caroline Spear Davis (1865-1951) and James Brooks Davis (1870-1928)
• Bura Davis Shepard (1896-1986) and William Shepard (1888-1976)
• Eugene Shepard (1921-2003) and Maida Gower Shepard (b. 1924)
• Steve Shepard (b. 1948) and Cindy Harris Shepard (b. 1948)

- - -
Steve Shepard

From Warfordsburg to Weatherford, March 3, 2011

The family endures because it makes us feel unique

and yet joined to all humanity,

accepted as is and yet challenged to grow.

~Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Hello Family and Friends,

Kerri Shepard Aquiningoc and
sister Kelly Shepard Sauvage

Today is the birthday of my niece Kerri Shepard Aqui- ningoc, who lives with her daughters Lyndsey and Mandi in Weather- ford, Texas. Kerri is the oldest daughter of Gary Shepard of Oak Harbor, Washington and Jackie Perry of Weatherford. She is also the first granddaughter of Maida (Gower) Shepard of Anacortes, Washington. Happy Birthday to Kerri!

Our Warford Connection. In a recent post I shared with you about Lydia Warford, Kerri's GGGGG grandmother. Lydia and husband John Williams, were an American frontier couple who met in Kentucky where they married and bore their 4 children, before the family moved on to Spencer, Indiana.

Lydia Warford was originally from Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania. Intrigued that her maiden name was also the name of her home town, I discovered recently that her kinfolk were indeed the ones who gave that small town its name.

Kerri, Kelly, Jason with Mandi and Lyndsey
in 1994 at Ggrandma Gower's home, San Diego

Warfordsburg, where she was born in 1782, is 200 miles west of Philadelphia, near the Maryland border. Lydia was the youngest child of Henry and Elizabeth (Vanhook) Warford, who were among the earliest settlers of Fulton County in Southern Pennsylvania. Another early Pennsylvania settler was Lydia's uncle Joseph Warford.

Wikipedia states that in December, 1776 (just months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia), Joseph Warford was deeded 100 acres of land on which he laid out a village that became known as Warfordsburg (a fact also attested to by an 1884 History of Fulton County by Waterman Watkins).

The years right after the establishment of Warfordsburg was an unsettling time of revolution and the westward expansion of America. So it is not at all surprising that very few of the original Warfords remained in the town. Warfordsburg exists to this day, but evidently without any descendants of the original family. Many of the Warfords (including our Lydia and her family) left Pennsylvania before the end of the 18th century.

Lydia's father Henry Warford died in 1784 at just 43 years old, a mere 2 years after Lydia was born. The Revolutionary war lasted until 1783, so it is possible his death is attributable to that conflict. What we know for sure is that his wife Elizabeth was left with as many as 10 children between the ages of 2 and 16. Records indicate that the family packed up and left Warfordsburg for good after papa died, and moved to northern Kentucky, where they settled east of Louisville. It was there that Lydia met John Williams, and the continuing saga of our family moved on.

Here is the 340 year westward migration pattern for this particular 13 generation lineage from Warford to Weatherford:

John Warford (1650-99)
...born in Baltimore, Maryland.
Son John Warford (1683-1769)
...born in Westchester, New York.
Son Joseph Warford (1711-74)
...born in Middletown, New Jersey.
Son Henry Warford (1741-84)
...born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Daughter Lydia Warford (1782-1829)
...born in Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania.
Son John Pouty Williams (1806-98)
...born in Spencer County, Kentucky.
Daughter Margaret Williams (1845-1904)
...born in Spencer, Indiana.
Daughter Caroline Spear (1865-1951)
...born in Spencer, Indiana.
Daughter Bura Davis (1896-1986)
...born in Spencer, Indiana.
Son Eugene Shepard (1921-2003)
...born in Beaver County, Oklahoma.
Son Gary Shepard
...born in 1946 in San Diego, California.
Daughter Kerri Shepard
...born in 1968 in Walled Lake, Michigan.
Daughters Lyndsey and Mandi Aquiningoc
...born 1990 and 1992 in San Diego, California, and live today in Weatherford, Texas.
- - -
Steve