Letter from F. C. Shepard to Mrs. Joan Drobny, 3916 Marshall Avenue, San Mateo, California 94403. Dated August 25, 1966. Joan Shepard Drobny is the daughter of Claude Shepard and grand daughter of Walter Raleigh Shepard, brother of Alexander Hurlbutt Shepard, who is the father of F. C. Shepard. Dear Joan: I was pleasantly surprised to receive your very nice and interesting letter enclosing the record of the Shepards on the Pacific Coast. One thing of which I am sure is that you have one of the Shepard characteristics (one that I have often wondered might not be a handicap though it is a very fine characteristic) and that is the one of absolute thoroughness in anything they do. I had no idea that you would take so much time and do such a fine job in making clear of the Pacific Coast Shepards. Your graph made it so much easier to trace the line. I did not get down to the reunion of the Matrons of the Shepard Family that I told you Mary, Grace and Annie were holding at Wrightsville Beach for the children and grandchildren. I was sorry that I missed it but I could not get away then. I got a first hand report on it from Annie s older daughter, Mary Alice, when she came by to see us near Asheville where we were on a two week s vacation at the home of a friend who let us have the use of her summer home and that brings us up to the copy of the Chapel Hill Weekly that I mailed to you some time ago. I had intended to write you on the same day that I mailed the paper but we had been out of town most of the time and have just got around to it. The folks in the picture in the Chapel Hill Weekly are Annie s older daughter, Mary Alice, her husband, their two sons and two daughters, and two friends of the children who were making a cross country camping trip from Whittier, Calif. and return. They are nice folks and a fine family. I think they are your first cousins, twice removed, as you all have the same great-grandfather, George Edward Shepard. I sent you the picture so that you would not feel alone as a Shepard on the Pacific Coast, as they are not so very far removed from you in space. They are very much interested in Boy and Girl Scout work and were voted the Scout Family oh the Year for 1965 which I think is a high honor. I don t know exactly what it means but it must be something nice. I told you that I would tell you something about our great-grandfather, George Edward Shepard, whom I knew personally, but I think I will postpone this until later, as I think it best to tell you as much as I know about his forbears. Of course, I can t be too specific and detailed about them, except as I know by family tradition, a few published accounts in contemporary papers, and legal documents. The old family records were kept by Grandpa in an old cow-hide trunk, with the hair outside, which I have seen, but it was destroyed by the fire that burned down the old family home at Topsail Sound about 1908 as I remember. I shall make these remarks with reference to a genealogy of the Shepards that I have got up, a copy of which I am enclosing. I have done this piecemeal as I have traveled around,
and have not tried to get any professional help, but I shall probably do this in the near future as I am sure that records already exist in Virginia, Massachusetts, and North Carolina genealogical records, or with the Colonial Dames, Sons of Cincinnati, Daughters of the American Revolution, etc. All of the remarks about these folks will be true, and of record in some publication, but I cannot take the time now to look them al up, so I shall have to give you the approximate dates and names, which can be verified. The evidence is clear that Abraham Shepard and his brother, name not recalled came to North Carolina from Virginia with their families and settled in the northeastern part of the state (colony), probably in the late 1600 s or the early 1700 s. There were other Shepards a little later, located from the Virginia line down to the New River near Beaufort, N. C. I have no record of these families, but will try to get one in the near future. Grandma Shepard states that the first Shepards came to North Carolina in their own ship (probably from Virginia or Massachusetts), were seafaring folks and settled near Beaufort, N. C. They came as a family. Abraham Shepard was a colonel in the Continental Army (as opposed to the Colonial Militia) and the only record I have of him is that he was ordered to bring his regiment from Edenton, N. C. up to the vicinity of Norfolk, Va., and that he was a month late in arriving. For this delay he was ordered before a Courts Martial to defend his action, and that upon the completion of the Courts Martial he was commended for the excellent manner in which he overcame extreme difficulties and arrived as quickly as he did. After the war he migrated to the western part of Virginia to take up land grants given to him as a result of his military actions and settled in a town that was called Shepherdstown, W. Va. Do not be too bothered by the misspelling of the name as I have one will (George Shepard dated Apr. 16, 1774) in which the Shepard is spelled seven different ways in the document! Shepard, Shephard, Sheperd, Shepperd, Sheppard, Shepherd and Shaperd! However, I have found that any person who now spells his name Shepard is almost invariably related in some manner, through marriage or otherwise, or comes from an area in which it is quite possible that he is related. I believe that Alan B. Shepard is related through the Shepards in Massachusetts, especially if his middle name is Biddle (of which I am not sure) as the Biddles came from Edenton, N. C., intermarried with the Shepards, and moved to Pennsylvania. Next is George Shepard, I, who I have marked as no. 1 on the list. He and his three sons all served in the Royal Colonial Militia at one time or another, and later in the Revolutionary War with the Colonial Army. This family lived at Richlands Plantation, on the southwest bank of the New River. Their holds were very extensive, but I have never checked on them, but presume most of them were either royal grants (prior to the Revolution) or colonial grants for military service (after the Revolution). I was told that it took three days to walk the boundary between the Shepard and Nixon property. In those days boundaries were walked every year or so, so that there would be no misunderstanding between the parties. George Shepard, I s sons were George, William and Smith. There are three true stories about them. One was in the N. C. State Legislature in 1810, but resigned and migrated to
the Ohio Territory, to take up land grants I presume. This was William and his migration resulted in a resolution by the State Legislature requesting him to remain in the state and also proposed ways and means of inducing citizens to stay in the state and not migrate. (Interestingly enough, the situation has not changed much since 1810, as among all my nieces and nephews only one, Bo s daughter Caroline, who married Donald Chisholm and teaches in the public schools of Asheboro, N. C., is now living in the state. The others range from Texas, to California, to Wisconsin, to South Carolina, to Washington, D. C.) Another story about George, I, is that one of his friends, a sea captain named Dill, took of in his schooner on one of those long trading voyages to the Bermudas and Europe. He was gone a long time and after five years he was declared legally dead and George Shepard married his widow. After they had been married several years, Capt. Dill came sailing back into Beaufort one morning, alive and well. The situation was solved amicably when Shepard and Dill agreed that she should be allowed to select one of them as her husband, and she chose George! She outlived George and upon his death she remarried Capt. Dill. Another item of interest about this family (George and his sons, William, Smith and George) is that they lived on the coast, near the Royal capital of New Bern, N. C. and were evidently loyal subjects of King George, III. About 1764, the colonists in the western part of the state were disgruntled about the execution of the laws by the judges sent out from New Bern and planned an organized revolt against the courts under the name of the Regulators. This is shown in our history books as the war of the Regulators, and is taken as the first armed resistance to Royal authority in the colonies. They disrupted the courts, refused to allow the judges to sit, refused to pay taxes and were in general revolt. This could not be tolerated so the Royal governor Tryon raised a body of militia and went up to subdue this revolt. Smith, William and George were in this militia supporting the Royal governor. The result was the battle of Alamance, fought about 10 miles north of Chapel Hill, in which the Regulators were crushed and six of their leaders hanged as guilty of treason. Later, after the arguments leading up to the Revolution began, their allegiance was with the Colonial Government, and Governor Tryon had to leave the state and became governor of New York. I mention this as some evidence that the family seemed to participate in contemporary affairs and was conservative in that they supported the legally constituted authorities. Next we come to George II, the son of George I. I have a copy of his will and have seen his grave near Verona, N. C. which is near the mouth of the New River. A number of Shepards took out land grants there in the early 1700 s and late 1700 s. He lived on a plantation called Richlands and the small town of Richlands, N. C. is still on the map. Two things are of interest in his will, a copy of which I will have made and sent to you in the future. First, he starts off with I, George Shepard, Sr., plantar,.this designation of Plantar does not simply mean that he was a landowner or farmer, but was used in those days somewhat as the term Esquire was used in England. It means that he was active and influential in the political affairs of his county, and to put it bluntly was not of the lower or mean class. Second, he was a slave owner, and left three slaves named Ned,
Milley and Violet to his wife, Mary. The grave stones of George and his wife are of granite, and the graves are bricked over in an oval shape about two feet above the ground which indicates wealth above the ordinary. He, and his three sons, all served in the Royal Colonial militia at one time or another, and later in the Revolutionary War with the Colonial Army. George, II, had six sons, Alfred (your great-great-great grandfather), and Hosea, Thomas, Henry, Hardy and George, and three daughters, Sarah James Shepard (Axeth), Amy Shepard (Parker), and Elizabeth Shepard (Farr). His wife s name on the gravestone is Mary, but Grandma Shepard said that he married a French woman named Elizabeth Etteaux. Knowing Grandma Shepard as I did, I am sure that she would not make any statement she was not sure of, but I cannot throw any light on this. I do not know anything about the collateral descendents of the brothers although I do know they must have done all right as there a number of Shepards who must have been their descendents, only one of whom I know intimately. Norman Cornelius Shepard, the present General Counsel of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad is a direct descendent of Hosea Shepard, and has the family line of Hosea. He is an interesting person, raised in Wilmington where I knew him as a boy, never finished high school, became a court reporter, studied law at night, and is now the highest legal counsel of the A. C. L. R. R. Co., a very responsible position. It was one of this generation who left his mark on the University. I will not take the time to look up the date, but I think it was about 1845, and the time was at the graduation ceremonies at the University, in which there were about 15 graduates. one of them was James Biddle Shepard (who his father was I do not know). It was customary for each graduate to deliver an oration at graduation before the faculty, the Board of Trustees and visitors. The subjects of the orations had to be submitted to the faculty for approval and they were. Even then, certain subjects were too controversial to be allowed. I cannot recall what forbidden subject James Biddle Shepard selected, but he submitted a suitable subject and then wrote his oration on a forbidden subject. The senior class promised to support him if he delivered the forbidden oration, and so he proceeded. This is all in the faculty minutes of that time. The story is that he started on his oration, there was a commotion on the platform, the chairman of the faculty motioned to the monitors to come up and remove him, and the senior class rose up as a group and marched out the aisle with James marching along in their midst still delivering his speech! The result was a statewide scandal, with The Board of Trustees withholding the diplomas of the entire senior class! Later they relented and the degrees were awarded, and James Biddle Shepard was later a Justice of the Supreme Court of the state! Now we come to Alfred Shepard (son of George, II and grandson of George, I). He was born in 1786. He first married Eliza Foy (or Foye) and had four children by her, (1) Henrietta Rhodes Shepard (Coffield), Frances Foy Shepard (MacAllister), Eliza Gibbs Shepard (Wright), and James Shepard who died in infancy. Then he married Margaret Mason and had eight children by her: George Edward (your great-grand father), Joseph Christopher, Thomas A., John Alfred, Mary Catherine Shepard (Nixon), Margaret Anna Shepard (your great-grandfather s twin) who married first Dr. Archibald McKinnon and
second a Mr. McKay, Caroline Christopher Shepard (Dewar) and Charlotte Mason Shepard (Robert Nixon). I might add that Thomas A. Shepard married Danie Grant, as I saw that name in the Pacific Coast Shepards, and you might have not known where it came from. I do not know much about Alfred Shepard other than he appeared to be relatively wealthy and influential in the state. In his father s will he, alone of all the children, was left only $5.00, but I have a deed from his father in which he had given a tract of land to Alfred. But in his (Alfred s) will of June 10, 1852, he left a considerable amount of property, including a number of slaves to his wife and children. I do know that Alfred left the family property near the mouth of the New River (about 30 miles south of New Bern, N. C.) and moved to the plantation on which he lived and raised his family and on which your greatgrandfather (George Edward Shepard) lived until his death in 1906. It appears that from the 1700 s when the family first came to the state they seemed to be constantly moving south along the coast until the last ones lived about 20 miles north of Wilmington, N. C. which is only a few miles from the South Carolina line. It was at his new home near Wilmington that Alfred Shepard started the old family graveyard some 400 yards from his home. His is the grave of the oldest person buried there (born 1786) and the graveyard now contains about 75 to 100 graves. It is back in the woods, is quickly overgrown with brush, and is not kept up properly. It has been used by members of the family within the past few years, but there is no room left. My father and mother are buried in Oakdale Cemetery, Wilmington, N. C., for this reason. Many of the stones are now so worn that they can hardly be read. Now I have come down to your great-grandfather and great-grandmother, George Edward Shepard and Mary Elizabeth (Alexander) Shepard, both of whom I knew and remember quite well. However, I shall have to postpone talking about them until later, as I know more about them and it would take a great deal of time to tell you about them. Just one other story about Alfred Shepard that might be of significance. In the Greensboro Patriot (a newspaper established in Greensboro, N. C.) about 1835 there is an article that Annie (my sister) has that shows a number of prominent citizens of North Carolina, some twenty in number, had each contributed a sum of $500.00 for the purpose of establishing a Congregational Church in the state of North Carolina. He was one of the contributors. Evidently there had been some sort of resistance on the part of other denominations to this move and this group was trying to get them established. This, at least, shows that he had some interest more than normal in religion, and that this interest was broad in scope. He evidently led a happy and successful life. With love from all of us to all of you, I am Your affectionate cousin, F. Carlyle Shepard