Table of Contents -Volume II
CHAPTER 7
Ewing Family Lineage: John-James
Had it not been for Andrew and his brother John Smith EWING, the Indian John line would have indeed been "daughtered out" and the Ewing name forgotten. Of John and Ann's four sons, William died without issue and Samuel's two sons, the same. Only Andrew and John Smith's families produced Ewings. Sadly though, in Andrew's case at least, most of the descendant-producers were daughters. Only one son, John Smith EWING II, had sons to carry on the Ewing name, and only two of those, John G. and Eugene, have male descendants. There are only four EWINGS - John, David, Alexander and Channing - alive in the 1980's who can perpetuate the Ewing name in the entire Indian John family.
And incidentally Andrew is the only one of Indian John's 10 children of whom a picture exists.
Andrew was born 18 October 1787 when the Stony Creek cabin of John and Ann was still in Augusta County, Virginia. The date of his baptism, 15 February 1788 is noted in Indian John's records. He was 13 when the family left Stony Creek (in present-day Pocahontas County) for Ohio, and as the eldest of John and Ann's sons to make the journey he was probably his father's right-hand man in making a home in the new-found land.
He lived for awhile in the cabin on George's Creek in Addison Township, Ohio with his parents, but left it at an early age, approximately 20 years old, to join those carving out farms inland at what was to become Vinton, Ohio. Though he is not on the list of Huntington Township electors of 1810/11, he surely must have been there in 1809, for on 22 August 1809 he took a bride, Jannet GLENN and Vinton was definitely Glenn territory from the moment of their first arrival in Gallia County, Ohio.
Jannet's parent were William and Ann (CURRY) GLENN, who were married in Augusta County, Virginia, where Jannet was born 23/29 August 1793. They had left Augusta and gone to Ohio early enough to be regarded as among the first settlers. William was among the 1810/11 electors.
William and Ann established a large family, and had a great deal of acreage just south of Vinton, Ohio. The two were instrumental in organizing the First Presbyterian Church of Huntington and Raccoon Townships, Ohio on 4 January 1829 and their names appear at the very head of a list of original members.
Though a husband and father, Andrew, like other young men of the community, answered the call when General Edward TUPPER was raising an army to go against the Maumee Indians in Northeast Ohio in 1813. Andrew enlisted as a private in Captain Daniel WOMELDORF'S Mounted Company on 1 August 1813 and served in that expedition which lasted 17 days.
From that point on - until his death, Andrew plowed his fields and hoed his corn on his Huntington Township, Ohio farm and never ventured very far from it, if at all. Andrew and Jannet had 13 children, four of whom died young. The other 10 were raised on Andy's 50-acre plot at the south end of the east half of the southwest quarter of Section 22, 1 1/2 miles west of Vinton, Ohio. At one point - around 1820, Andrew was a Justice of the Peace for Huntington Township.
In addition to the above land, Andrew and Jannet also owned land in Section 23. Land records show that on 8 October 1819, Andrew sold seven acres and 88 square rods in Section 23 to Alfred WILCOX for $25.98 and that on 6 October 1823, he and Jannet or Janet - it is spelled both ways in one land record, sold 40 acres in Section 23 to Samuel R. HOLCOMB for $200. In the 1874 atlas, these 40 acres show up as the long, skinny, east-west tab on top of E.T. HOLCOMB'S 160 acres in the southwest quarter. On the 1820 Huntington Township proprietors list, Andrew had one house, 3 horses and 3 veal and cattle and realty worth $120. In the 1823 and 1827 taxpayers lists, Andrew was down as a taxpayer in Section 23.
In trying to locate burial records for Andrew's family, the conclusion was reached that is most probable that somewhere on the 50 acres Andrew and Jannet called home, there is a long-forgotten cemetery. This is suspected because none of Andrew Ewing's family who died in Gallia County has been recorded as being buried anywhere else. The logical place would be the Glann Cemetery at Vinton, Ohio, but there is no sign of any of the Andrew Ewings there, nor are they listed at any of the other cemeteries in the vicinity. No Andrew, No Jannet, No Taphena (Andrew's second wife), none of the four Ewing youngsters, who died at early ages and no Jabez, who drowned at the age of 21. The same holds true of the eldest daughter's family. There is no record of Ann EWING's first husband, Jared A. VARNEY who died between 1840 and 1850, nor of their son who also died between the years 1840 and 1850.
It is too much to even consider that it might be just a case of missing or destroyed tombstones at Glenn Cemetery, or in one of the other area cemeteries as there are ten of Andrew Ewing's family members unaccounted for.
Jannet Glenn EWING is one of the missing - Andrew's wife of 40 years, she died 1 November 1849 at the age of 56 years. Sad that there is no stone to mark her final resting place.
Andrew was then 62, but within four months he had married again. He and Taphena (HOLCOMB) WILCOX were married 26 February 1850. Taphena, born in 1792 in New York, was the daughter of John and Chloe (MUDGE) HOLCOMB, and the widow of the Alfred WILCOX to whom Andrew had earlier sold property and who had died 11 March 1847.
At the time of the marriage, Taphena had a daughter, Susannah WILCOX. Susannah was living with Andrew and Taphena in the 1850 census. She is mentioned earlier in this work as the wife of her cousin, Joel Bowen HOLCOMB (5-5-8), and appears again later as the mother-in-law of a PEDEN-EWING (Chapter 12).
Apparently Andrew and Taphena's marriage was not a happy one. In the 1860 census Taphena and Susannah were living in a separate household and the only persons with Andrew were his daughter, Anna (EWING) VARNEY LESLIE and family. Taphena is not mentioned in Andrew's will drawn 17 June 1867. In 1870 Taphena was living with the Jonas MACOMBERS (5-5-3).
In his will, to which Anselm T. HOLCOMB (5-1) and George H. RUPP were witnesses, Andrew said, in effect, that he gave his two daughters, Rebecca Susannah EWING and Julia Maria APROUSE, wife of James, the lands and tenements described as above mentioned (50 acres, south end of east half of southwest quarter, Section 22) as tenants in common "on condition they maintain and support me during my natural life". Apparently Rebecca and Julia sold their inheritance even before they left Gallia County, for the above 50 acres show up as owned by M. GUY in the atlas of 1874, and the two daughters did not head westward until after 1880.
Andrew died 26 July 1868 in his 80th year. Testimony of the witnesses to his will was entered in Gallia County Probate Court 12 August 1868. Like Jannet there is no stone to mark his burial place.
Taphena was 75 at the time of Andrew's death, so it is unlikely she married again, but she does not appear as a Ewing in the 1880 census. One concludes then, that she died between 1870 and 1880, but again no record, no stone in Huntington Township to tell us exactly when or where.
Through the years all of Andrew and Jannet's children eventually departed the Vinton scene. Not a one of the eight who married and had families died in Huntington Township. And of all their grandchildren, only one, Andrew Ewing SHEPPARD, lived and died in Huntington Township.
ISSUE by Jannet:
7-1 1. Anna Curry EWING, b. 24 May 1812, Vinton, Ohio.
2. Jabez A. EWING b. 12 April 1814, Vinton, Ohio, Died: 5 June 1835, fell off raft in the Raccoon River and drowned, 21 years old..
7-3 3. Sarah Ann EWING (Sallie), b. 24 Jan 1816, Vinton, Ohio.
7-4 4. Mary Jane EWING, b. 22 Jan 1818, Vinton, Ohio.
5. William Glenn EWING, b. 2 Jan 1820, Vinton,, Died: 30 June 1830.
7-6 6. Elizabeth EWING, b. 24 Dec 1821, Vinton, Ohio.
7-7 7. Lydia D. EWING, b. 12 Apr 1824, Vinton, Ohio.
7-8 8. John Smith EWING, b. 30 Apr 1826, Vinton, Ohio.
7-9 9. Susannah EWING, b. 13 Jan 1829, Vinton, Ohio, Died: 5 July 1830.
7-10 10. Rebecca Susannah EWING, b. 13 Mar 1831, Vinton, Ohio.
11. Andrew EWING, b. 28 June 1832, Vinton, Ohio, Died: 16 May 1834.
12. George G. EWING, b. 23 Mar 1835, Vinton, Ohio, Died: 9 Mar 1842.
7-13 13. Julia Maria EWING, b. 9 Oct 1838, Vinton, Ohio.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Andrew-John-James
Somewhere there probably is a descendant of Anna Curry EWING who could give us a better picture of her, but as of now her descendants are lost to us, and until they come forward we can only print this little bit about her.
Anna was born 25 May 1812 at Vinton, Ohio the first of 13 children to come into the Andrew Ewing home near Vinton, Ohio. she was married 18 December 1834 at Vinton to Jared A. VARNEY. Jared was born about 1810 (he was listed between 20 and 30 years in the 1840 census) and was probably the son of Jedediah and Hannah (HINES) VARNEY mentioned in HARDESTY'S history. Jedediah was the only Varney taxpayer in 1827 and 1828 in Gallia County, Ohio.
Jared was the head of a Huntington household in the 1840 census. He died between then and 1850 (again buried where?) and in 1850 census, Anna was the head of the household. On
26 November 1856, when she was 44, she and Elijah LESLIE were married by Hiram WILCOX, J.P. Elijah was then 61 and had been born in Pennsylvania. In the 1860 census they were living with Anna's father. Elijah was listed as a farmer.
In the Spring of 1864, John Smith EWING II, Anna's brother, and his family left Ohio for Missouri. It was about that same time that Elijah and Anna went West, and it is very likely they were in the same wagontrain as John. But while John went to Worth County, Missouri, Anna and Elijah found their land across the state line in Ringgold County, Iowa - not many miles away from John.
A short time after their arrival in Ringgold County, Iowa, Elijah died and Anna was a widow again. In the 1870 census she and her son, Jabez, and his family were living together at Caledonia, Lott's Creek Township, Ringgold County, Iowa. It was the same in the 1880 census. Anna died in 1884, but whether in Ringgold County, Iowa or in Livingston County, Missouri where Jabez was by 1900, has not been verified.
ISSUE:
7-1-1 1. Jabez A. VARNEY, b. Dec 1835, Vinton, Ohio.
2. son VARNEY, b. 1835-1840, according to 1840 census. Died: pre-1850 census. Burial unknown.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Anna-Andrew-John-James
Jabe, as he was called, was born in December 1835, at Vinton, Ohio. He was married 12 December 1857 in Gallia County, Ohio by Benjamin MARTIN to Deborah BARD, daughter of Eva BARD, with whom she appeared in the 1850 Huntington Township census. Deborah was born in Ohio in 1838.
In the 1860 census, Jabe was listed as a Huntington Township farmer worth $1,200 and $300. He became a celebrity for having lost a team of horses to MORGAN'S RAIDERS in 1863.
About 1864/65 Jabe and Deborah and their two children joined his mother, stepfather and others of the family and headed west. In the 1879 census they were living with his twice-widowed mother in Ringgold County, Iowa - Caledonia, Lott's Creek Township. At some time between 1880 and 1900, he and his family moved to Cream Ridge Township in Livingston County, Missouri where Jabe was found in the 1900 census with his son Jared. Deborah died prior to 1900. It is believed that Jabez died between 1900 and 1910, as he is not in the 1910 Missouri index. He could have moved on, of course, though he was 65 in 1900.
ISSUE:
1. Jared VARNEY, b. July 1860, Huntington Township, Ohio . 1900 census: Cream Ridge Township, Livingston County, Missouri, his father and two sisters with him. 1910: Living alone, Livingston County, Missouri, single.
2. Robert Gay VARNEY, b. 1861, Huntington Township, Ohio. 1880: witness to his cousin - Andrew Sylvester's pension claim in Ringgold County, Iowa.
3. Eva VARNEY, b. 1867, Iowa. 1900 census: with brother and father in Cream Ridge Township, Livingston Co., Missouri.
4. Jerry Bard VARNEY, b. Feb 1870, Iowa. Married: Lucy P. _____, b. May 1874, Missouri. 1900 census: Mooresville Township, Livingston County, Missouri. 1910 census: J.B. VARNEY, 38 of Iowa, Laredo, Grundy County, Missouri with wife Lucy, 35 of Missouri and mother-in-law Mattie WOODS, 63 of Missouri.
5. J. Newton VARNEY, b. May 1874, Iowa. Married: Ada M. _____, b. Jan 1879, Iowa. 1900 census: Bowman Township, Sullivan Co. MO.
6. Beecher VARNEY, b. Mar 1875, Iowa. Married: Bertha L. _____, b. Jan 1878, MO. 1900 census: Grand River Township, Livingston County, Missouri. 1910: not in Missouri index.
7. Lizzie VARNEY, b. May 1878, Iowa. 1900 census: with brother and father Cream Ridge Township, Livingston County, Missouri.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Andrew-John-James
Sarah Ann, always called Sally, was born at Vinton, Ohio, 24 January 1816, the third child of Andrew and Jannet.
About two miles up the road from the Ewing farm lived a family by the name of SHEPPARD. The head of the household was John Henry SHEPPARD, born in Virginia 30 September 1799. His wife was Sarah Ann, and there were four known children, including William Addison SHEPPARD, born in 1823 in Washington County, Virginia.
Sarah Ann EWING'S younger sister, Elizabeth (7-6) born in 1821, and William Addison SHEPPARD were married in 1846.
On 26 August 1849, John's wife Sarah Ann died. John was then 50 years old. He turned to his 33 year old neighbor, Sarah Ann Ewing, the sister of his daughter-in-law, for his second wife. They were married 11 February 1850.
Sarah moved into the Sheppard home on a farm about 1/4 mile west of Ewington, Ohio. In 1874 this was 120 acres - 40 acres in Section 9 and 80 acres in Section 10 adjoining, on what has come to be called Sheppard Lane. Sarah gave John three more children, all sons.
When the youngest was 9, John died. That was 13 October 1868, when he was 69 years, 13 days. He is buried beside his first wife in Sheppard Cemetery.
With the help of her three sons, Sarah Ann kept the farm going. In the 1870 census Sarah Ann was worth $2,000/$598. In the 1880 census, her youngest, John, was head of the household. By that time he was married and a father, though only 21 years of age.
In 1879, Sarah Ann's eldest, George, and his family had moved to Iowa, and about 1881 or 1882 John decided to follow suit. It was planned that Sarah Ann would go too, even though she was then about 65 and could easily have remained at Ewington with her second son, Andrew. The trip was made and before long they were settled at Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, near George and his family. Also nearby were those of Sarah Ann's brothers and sisters who had gone west 16 or so years before - John Smith EWING, who was in Worth County, Missouri, just a few miles away, Mary Jane SYLVESTER who was in Gentry County, Missouri, next county south of Worth County, and Anna EWING VARNEY LESLIE, who was right there in Ringgold. It must have been a great reunion.
Sarah Ann only had a few years in her new home. She lacked 16 days of being 70 years old when she died 8 January 1886. She is buried at Lott's Grove in Worth County, Missouri, near her brother John.
ISSUE:
7-3-1 1. George SHEPPARD, b. 25 Oct 1850, Ewington, Ohio.
7-3-2 2. Andrew Ewing SHEPPARD, b. 5 Dec 1852, Ewington, Ohio.
7-3-3 3. John Henry SHEPPARD JR. b. 22 July 1859, Ewington.
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7-3-1 GEORGE SHEPPARD
Ewing Family Lineage: Sarah Ann-Andrew-John-James
George's story has an end to it that is a little different than most - the kind of thing genealogists love to run into.
George was born 25 October 1850 near Ewington, Ohio the first of his father's "second family". His half-siblings were grown, and gone from home by that time and he hardly knew them, except of course for William, who had married his mother's sister, Elizabeth.
George was 18 when his father died in 1868. He and his two younger brothers helped their mother keep the 160 acre farm going.
In the 1874 atlas, those acres were still in John's name, even though he had been dead six years.
Within a year and a half there were three marriages among the three Sheppard brothers. The first was George's. He and Lydia Margaret REISENGER were married 21 February 1875, in Waverly, Pike County, Ohio. Lydia was born 3 August 1853, in Wilkesville, Ohio and was the daughter of James and Helena (BARD) REISENGER.
Five months after their marriage, George's brother, Andrew, married Lucy Ellen WOODS, and a year after that their brother, John Jr., married Martha Caroline KINSLER.
George and Lydia lived on at the Sheppard homestead on Sheppard Lane. Three of their youngsters were born there, one, Sarah Helena, dying in her third year.
But in late 1879, George and Lydia decided to join the westward movement and packed up for a move to Iowa. They headed for Mt. Ayr in Ringgold County, Iowa, where George had relatives, the family of his Aunt Anna LESLIE.
Not long after their departure, George's younger brother, John, and their mother, Sarah Ann, left Ewington for Mt. Ayr also, leaving the Sheppard homestead on Sheppard Lane to the "middle" brother, Andrew.
George, Lydia and their nine children did not remain in Iowa long. They traveled to Lincoln County, Kansas and bought the homestead of Ezra and Josephine MC PHEETERS in 1886 - the year George's mother died. (Josephine and George were cousins). The farm they purchased in Ash Grove, Lincoln County, Kansas became their home and George Sheppard's descendants still lived in the area in the 1980's.
George and Lydia farmed their acres for the next 20 or 30 years. On retirement they moved into the county seat of Lincoln, some 10 to 15 miles away. There Lydia died on 28 March 1923. She is buried at the Spillman Cemetery, Ash Grove, Lincoln County, Kansas, which holds so many others of this family.
At the time of her death George was 72. Back in Ohio, in West Millgrove, Wood County, lived a friend of his youth, from something like 50 years before. She was Malissa Alice HARTSOOK, whom he had known back in his days near Vinton. Malissa (who went by Alice) was born in July of 1855, the daughter of Bolser and Sarah HARTSOOK. Even before George married Lydia, Malissa had married her second cousin, George TYLER (5-2-3-4). That was in 1871. She and George TYLER had six children, all born at Vinton, Ohio. They lived on at Vinton long after George Sheppard and family had departed for the west, but, at a date after 1910, left Vinton themselves - to where, later Vintonites seemed unable to recall.
And there I might have lost the Tylers completely had I not received information from George Sheppard's granddaughter relative to a second marriage. "His second wife was Alice TYLER of West Millgrove, Ohio", wrote Ruth Sheppard SELKIRK.
Alice TYLER? My Malissa Alice Tyler? Turns out they were one and the same! So West Millgrove is where the Tylers had gone, and that is where George TYLER died in the early 20s.
How great it was for me to learn of that second marriage and the Tylers' whereabouts. I still do not know if the two couples, the Tylers and Sheppards, had kept in touch across the miles all those years, and then the widow and the widower got together to console each other in their bereavements, or if George just happened to run into Malissa Alice on a visit to Ohio. George's niece, Ellen Lola SHEPPARD KARICK (7-3-2-3) lived in Bloomdale, which is also in Wood County, Ohio, very near West Millgrove.
Either way it is romantic, and gives a lift to a genealogist who is not accustomed to writing surprise endings.
Sadly the new found friends did not have long together. George died 30 January 1933 at West Millgrove, Wood County, Ohio. His body was returned to Lincoln County, Kansas for burial in Spillman Cemetery next to Lydia. The date of Malissa Alice's death is not known.
At some later date one of Alice and George TYLER'S daughters, Lula (TYLER) EVANS, paid a visit to Lincoln, Kansas to meet the family of her step-father, a family she had never known during his lifetime.
ISSUE:
7-3-1-1 1. Bertha SHEPPARD, b. 16 Dec 1875, Ewington, Ohio.
2. Sarah Helena SHEPPARD, b. 13 July 1877, Ewington, Ohio. Died: 23 Sept 1879, in her third year. Buried: Franklin Cemetery, _____.
7-3-1-3 3. Charles SHEPPARD, b. 15 Mar 1879.
7-3-1-4 4. Mayme SHEPPARD, b. 2 June 1881, Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa.
7-3-1-5 5. Frank SHEPPARD, b. 29 Jan 1883, Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa.
6. George Ezra SHEPPARD, b. 16 July 1886, Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa.
7-3-1-7 7. Glenn SHEPPARD, b. 3 Oct 1890, Ash Grove, Lincoln County, Kansas.
8. _____ SHEPPARD, b. 15 Aug 1892, Ash Grove, Lincoln County, Kansas. Died: 27 Dec 1892, Spillman Cemetery, Lincoln County, Kansas.
9. _____ SHEPPARD, b. 29 May 1895, Ash Grove, Lincoln County, Kansas. Died: 23 Feb 1896, Spillman Cemetery, Lincoln County, Kansas.
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Ewing Family Lineage: George-Sarah-Andrew-John-James
Bertha was born 16 December 1875 near Ewington, Ohio. Near the Sheppard home lived a family by the name of SOWERS - John and Mary Elizabeth (ANDERSON) SOWERS. Though they were not aware of it then, Bertha and a son of the Sowers who was born 28 May 1868, near Vinton Ohio - Oratio Seymour SOWERS, were destined to be lifelong mates. In the meantime, however, there was the long trip both families took to, first, Iowa, and then Lincoln County, Kansas, and a lot of growing up to do.
On the 10th of April, 1898 in Lincoln County, Kansas, Bertha and Oratio were wed. Their home together for nearly 50 years was the old farm his folks had homesteaded back in those early days. Their youngest son, George, lived on that old homestead in the 1980's, a place that is close to becoming - or already has that distinction, a Centennial Farm.
Just two months short of celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary, Oratio died, on 2 February 1948 at the age of 79 years. Bertha was almost 75 when she died 2 1/2 years later, on 29 November 1950. Both are buried at Spillman Cemetery, Lincoln County, Kansas.
ISSUE:
1. Lillian Margaret SOWERS, b. 5 May 1899, Alameda, Lincoln County, Kansas. Died: 9 May 1980. Married: 29 Mar 1942, Lewis Arthur WILLIAMS. No issue. Lived near her folks, raised purebred Hereford cattle.
2. Jennie SOWERS, b. 18 Nov 1901, Alameda, Lincoln County, Kansas. Died: 19 Aug 1976. Married: 28 Dec 1947, James Floyd WRIGHT. No issue. Lived near her folks, raised purebred Hereford cattle.
3. George Floyd SOWERS, b. 15 July 1903, Alameda, Lincoln County, Kansas. 1982: single, living on old SOWERS homestead.
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Ewing Family Lineage: George-Sarah-Andrew-John-James
Charles was born in Ewington, Ohio 15 March 1879, just weeks before the move to Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa. He was a farmer near Lincoln, Lincoln County, Kansas for most of his life, but lived for a time in Oklahoma. He was married in Capron, Oklahoma on 14 June 1905, to Myrtle COBB, who was born 22 May 1887 near Rogersville, Tennessee.
Charles was in his 91st year when he died 21 July 1969. Myrtle was 87 when she died 23 December 1974. Both are buried at the Spillman Cemetery, Lincoln County, Kansas.
ISSUE:
7-3-1-3-1 1. Alma Irene SHEPPARD, b. 12 Aug 1906, Ash Grove, Lincoln County, Kansas.
7-3-1-3-2 2. Raymond Charles SHEPPARD, b. 21 June 1908, Alva, Oklahoma.
3. George William SHEPPARD, b. 10 June 1909, Capron, Oklahoma. Married: 17 Oct 1930, Alberta KERR, b. 23 Feb 19 , Lincoln County, Kansas. Daughter of: Joseph and Ethel (TENNY) KERR.
Issue:
1. Billy Dee SHEPPARD, b. 18 June 1932, Jarblo, Leavenworth County, Kansas, d. 17 Sept 1955.
4. James Clair SHEPPARD, b. 13 Nov 1911, Lincoln County, Kansas. Died: 31 Dec 1912.
5. Doris SHEPPARD, b. 17 Nov 1913, Lincoln County, Kansas. Died: 15 June 1917.
7-3-1-3-6 6. Frank Pierce SHEPPARD, b. 17 Dec 1922, Lincoln County, Kansas.
7. Lydia Kathleen SHEPPARD, b. 20 June 1925, Lincoln County, Kansas. Married: 31 Oct 1945, Robert Lee POWERS, b. 30 Oct 1925, Kentucky, d. 27 Mar 1982, Mound City, Kansas. Burial: Fall Creek Cemetery, Leavenworth Co. KS. Robert was in school administration. After Robert's death, Lydia was living in Eastern Kansas. No issue, but adopted: Richard Lee POWERS.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Charles-George-Sarah-Andrew-John-James
Alma was born 12 August 1906 at Ash Grove, Lincoln County, Kansas and was married on 31 July 1926 at Beloit, Mitchell County, Kansas to Claude Andy GEERING. Claude was born 19 July 1905 at Ash Grove and died 24 April 1975 at Lincoln, Lincoln County, Kansas and is buried at Spillman Cemetery.
In 1982 Alma, at the age of 76 was living in Lincoln County, Kansas. Her descendants live in Eastern Kansas, Texas and California.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Alma-George-Sarah-Andrew-John-James
Vernon was born 3 March 1929 at Ash Grove, Lincoln County, Kansas. He was married three times. His first wife was Cleo RATHBURN. On 1 August 1950 he married Laura HOLCROFT, and was most recently married to Helen HILL.
7-3-1-3-2 RAYMOND CHARLES SHEPPARD
Ewing Family Lineage Charles-George-Sarah-Andrew-John-James
Raymond was born 21 June 1908 in Alva, Oklahoma. He and his wife, May Louise GREGORY, whom he married 5 June 1938 have four children, including a pair of twins, and 10 grandchildren, including a pair of twins. May was born 4 May 1911. This family lives near Leavenworth, Kansas.
7-3-1-3-6 FRANK PIERCE SHEPPARD
Ewing Family Lineage: Charles-George-Sarah-Andrew-John-James
Frank was born in Lincoln, Lincoln County, Kansas on
17 December 1922 and was only 21 when his plane was shot down on an air mission during World War II. The date was 24 August 1944. He had married on 10 February 1942 to Pearl (PORTER) KNOTTS, who had previously been married to Haskell KNOTTS.
Ewing Family Lineage George-Sarah-Andrew-John-James
Mayme was born 2 June 1881 after the SHEPPARDS had arrived in Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa and was five when the family moved to Lincoln County, Kansas. There she was married on the 1st of September 1915 to John Wesley KIME, son of Wester and Helena (ELLENBERGE) KIME, who was born 8 January 1882. John and Mayme spent most of their married life in Lincoln County, where John was a drayman, delivering freight for the railroads. John died 4 March 1938 and Mayme on 4 March 1956. Both are buried in the Spillman Cemetery, Lincoln County, Kansas
ISSUE:
1. Lydia Corinne KIME, b. 10 Sept 1917, Lincoln, Kansas. Married: 1955, Charles DORN.
2. Infant KIME, b&d 20 Oct 1921, Lincoln, Kansas.
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Ewing Family Lineage: George-Sarah-Andrew-John-James
Frank was born 29 January 1883 at Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa and was relatively young (36) when he died at Ash Grove, Lincoln County, Kansas on 11 February 1919, a victim of the devastating flu epidemic that year. He and his wife, Lennie Maria (BROWN) COX, had been married only 11 years at the time of his death. They were married at Ash Grove, 27 December 1908. Lennie was born 29 June 1889 in Lincoln County, Kansas, the daughter of Orlo and Jannette BROWN. She had previously been married to Jesse COX.
Lennie spent the next 43 years alone, and died 20 January 1963 in Salina, Saline County, Kansas at the home of her daughter. Both she and Frank are buried at the Spillman Cemetery, Lincoln County, Kansas.
ISSUE:
l. Virginia Mae SHEPPARD, b. 19 Jan 1914, Halstead, Kansas. Died: 23 Oct 1963, Salina, Saline County, Kansas. Married: 10 Aug 1930, Bert O. WILLIAMS, b. 10 Aug 1909, Lincoln County, Kansas.
ISSUE:
(Nancy noted before listing the children of Virginia and and Bert that: "I find this incredible but these are the facts as given to me - Virginia was married at the age of 16, was 19 years childless and then had three children in four years!"
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Ewing Family Lineage: George-Sarah-Andrew-John-James
The illustrious old family name of his great-grandmother, Jannet GLENN, wife of Andrew EWING, was given to George and Lydia's seventh at his birth, 3 October 1890 at Ash Grove, Lincoln County, Kansas.
Glenn was a school teacher by profession and served as the County Clerk of Lincoln County for 10 years. In later years he went into the abstract business in Lincoln (Western Surety) and he was there until his death 16 June 1961 at the age of 71 years.
In the meantime there was his marriage 14 June 1916 at Lincoln to Blanche Estella BOND. She was born 11 February 1892 in Lincoln County, the daughter of Wiley and Laura (GOOD) BOND. Blanche worked with Glenn in the abstract firm, and daughter Ruth, even learned the business to help out.
Blanche died 20 years after Glenn, on 5 July 1981 at the age of 89 years. Both she and Glenn are buried at the Lincoln Cemetery, Lincoln County, Kansas.
ISSUE:
7-3-1-7-1 1. Glenn Ewing SHEPPARD, b. 28 Apr 1917, Lincoln, KS.
7-3-1-7-2 2. Ruth Estella SHEPPARD, b. 19 Dec 1919, Lincoln, KS.
7-3-1-7-1 GLENN EWING SHEPPARD
Ewing Family Lineage: Glenn-George-Sarah-Andrew-John-James
If his father got one old family name, this first child of Glenn and Blanche got TWO of them - Glenn and Ewing. He was born 28 April 1917 at Lincoln, Kansas, but he did not remain there any longer than to grow up. What a traveler he and his wife were! Glenn married Marjorie Winifred PTACEK who was born 11 April 1918 in Topeka, Kansas on 10 June 1941. In 1983 they had been married 42 years and during those years the known places they lived were Newark, New Jersey, Lancaster and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and finally in 1983, Wichita, Kansas where they are now retired. Glenn was an electronics engineer for Boeing Aircraft. At the time of their retirement, their five children were scattered from New Guinea to California, Colorado and North Carolina.....That old Ewing Gypsy blood!
7-3-1-7-2 RUTH ESTELLA SHEPPARD
Ewing Family Lineage: Glenn-George-Sarah-John-James
Ruth, born 19 December 1919 in Lincoln, Kansas, is the keeper of the George SHEPPARD family records, and family archivist, so she is a woman after my own heart. It was she who supplied information on this line for the Ewing record.
I am still not sure how Ruth got all the way from Lincoln, Kansas to Kalamazoo, Michigan, but that is where she was working in 1947 when she met William Marshall SELKIRK JR. William was from a long way, in the exact opposite direction. He was born 8 December 1914 in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, the son of William and Annie (FERGUSON) SELKIRK. Ruth and William were working at the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company in Kalamazoo when they met. They were married 5 July 1947 in Kalamazoo, Michigan where they have lived since. Well, they live in Mattawan, actually, outside of Kalamazoo, at 186 Pretty Lake Drive to be
exact. I am sorry to say that as close as Ruth and I lived before 1978, we never did have the opportunity to meet.
William and Ruth retired in 1978.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Sarah-Andrew-John-James
Andrew was the only one of all Andrew Ewing's progeny (who lived to adulthood) to die in Gallia County, Ohio. He was the middle of the three sons of John and Sarah Ann. He was born
5 December 1852, near Ewington, and spent all of his life (short as it was) at or near the place of his birth.
He was 17 when his mother became a widow with the death of his father John Henry SHEPPARD SR. in October of 1868. With his brothers, he helped out on the farm and they managed well.
On 25 July 1875 when Andrew was 22 years old, he took a bride. She was Lucy Ellen WOODS, born in Ohio in May 1853. Though I know Lucy's mother was "Mandy", I have never been able to find out who her father was. There were at least three separate WOODS families living in Gallia County in the early years, but Lucy does not seem to belong to any of them. The Sheppard land adjoined that of Melton E. WOODS in 1874. That maybe a clue to follow.
In the 1880 census, Andrew was down as a Huntington farmer, afflicted, according to the census, with "billious vintermittent".
Andrew and Lucy had four children but one, a son, died at birth on 4 July 1878. The youngest, Elmer, was only 5 when Andrew died, 19 July 1890 - a victim of the typhoid plague. He was only 37. With Melvin 14, Lola 11, and Elmer 5, Lucy carried on the best she could. Her mother and brother, Thurman, lived with her, at least they were there in the 1900 census. And the three children stayed home until well past the normal age for leaving the nest. In the 1910 census all three were listed at home. (Actually Elmer was in Logan, Ohio by 1907.) Melvin was then 33, a coal miner, and Lola was 30, a seamstress. Eventually they too left home.
Lucy outlived Andrew by 41 years. She died in 1931 and is buried with Andrew at Wood Cemetery, Ohio.
ISSUE:
1. Melvin E. SHEPPARD, b. July 1876, Huntington Township, Ohio. He was a cripple, a hunchback. 1910 census: at home, a coal miner, says married, but no wife was listed. Lived in Nelsonville, near Logan Ohio. Died before 1970, buried with Elmer, Oak Grove Cemetery, Logan, Ohio. Some Sheppards have said "No issue" but Myrtle SHEETS has something about a daughter, maybe a foster daughter with the Sheppard name.
She is:
l. Lucille SHEPPARD. Married: _____ CEOPE (Roy?). He died in 1980; they lived in Logan, Ohio. Lucille moved to Marietta, Ohio after he died.
2. Son SHEPPARD, b&d 4 July 1878. Buried with parents, Wood Cemetery, Ohio.
3. Lola Ellen SHEPPARD, b. Nov 1879, Huntington Township, Ohio. Married: after 1910 census, Charles KARICK. After marriage, lived Bloomdale, Wood County. Used ear trumpet, died pre-1970.
Known issue:
1970: she was Mrs. Ruth KREIDER of Columbus, Ohio. Myrtle SHEETS calls her Ruth KREIDER DUNLAP and gives a Columbus address as of 1981, but there was no listing for her at that address in 1983..
7-3-2-4 4. Elmer Fremont SHEPPARD, b. 28 Feb 1885, Huntington Township, Ohio.
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7-3-2-4 ELMER FREMONT SHEPPARD
Ewing Family Lineage: Andrew-Sarah-Andrew-John-James
Andrew and Lucy's youngest had a long and illustrious career as a railroadman - 51 years. Elmer started with the Hocking Valley Railroad at the age of 21, as a section laborer, and when he finished in 1958 had been an engineer on them all, even the diesels engines.
Elmer was born 28 February 1885 near Ewington, Ohio and was 5 when his father died in the typhoid plague. In 1906 he began work with the Hocking and a year later, in June 1907, went to Logan, Ohio to work in the roundhouse as a hostler's helper. He transferred to locomotive fireman in July, 1907, and was promoted to engineer in December 1915. When Elmer retired in 1958 he looked back on the changes in the form of locomotives. His memories started with the Moguls, followed by two types of Consolidation locomotives, then the Mikados and, finally, the diesels.
Elmer was a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, and a 50 year member of the Loyal Order of Moose, Lancaster, Ohio Lodge 955.
Elmer was three times married, but was childless. the names of his first two wives are not known. On 21 October 1946, when he was 61, he married a childhood sweetheart from his days back near Ewington. She was Martha Jane "Jennie" OILER, who had been married to a MC GHEE, a FREEMAN and a TSCHUDY, and had children from each marriage. Martha was 61 also when they were married. She was born in February 1885, on the next hill over from the Sheppards near Ewington. Her parents were Samuel and Malissa OILER, longtime neighbors of Andrew's parents.
Elmer and Martha Jane had 24 years together. They lived at 281 W. Second Street, Logan, Ohio. After retirement, Elmer went in for hunting in a big way, but also for gardening. Just outside of Logan he had a small farm where he raised vegetables and flowers. He fashioned part of the land into a small park, with a little creek running through. Under the big shade trees he put tables and benches and outdoor grills. Not only the Sheppard family enjoyed all this, but many passersby stopped and took advantage of the cool and lovely picnic park.
Elmer died 14 July 1970 at the age of 85 years. He left his wife, Martha Jane, and seven step-children including Myrtle Sheets of Logan, Ohio who wrote of her step-father in 1981. Since her own father died when she was 2, Elmer always seemed very special to her, she said. "He was a hard-working man, cheerful and kind and it was always a pleasure to be with him".
Regarding his retirement she wrote, "It is a sad thing to see a man give up his life's work when he loves it so much. He took me down to the railroad yards, up on the diesel engine and explained it all to me, with tears rolling down his cheeks".
Elmer is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery, Logan, Ohio, as is Martha Jane, though I do not know the date she died.
Myrtle SHEETS' address in 1983 was 335 N. Culver Street, Logan, Ohio 43138
No issue.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Sarah Ann-Andrew-John-James
John was born 22 July 1859 near Ewington, the youngest of the three Sheppard brothers. His father was 60 years old when he was born and the two did not get to know each other very well. John Sr., died when John Jr., was only 9 years old.
John had a hand in helping his mother and brothers keep the farm going, and it was he with whom his mother finally cast her lot. John was a month and four days past 17 when he married a young lady from Parkersburg, West Virginia, whose family had recently moved into the area. She was Martha Caroline KINSLER, herself only 16 at the time of the wedding, born 24 January 1860. They were married 26 August 1876, at Ewington and went into housekeeping in the Sheppard home.
In 1879 John's elder brother George and his family went west, to Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa. About 1881 or 1882, John decided that Mt. Ayr was for him, too. By then he and Martha had two children (a third died at birth). They packed up for the move and then Mother Sarah Ann decided she was going too.
The family settled at Mt. Ayr, Lott's Creek Township, where John and Martha farmed the rest of their lives. His mother's death in 1886 and George's moving on to Lincoln County, Kansas that year made it lonelier than before, but the house was fast filling up with the little Sheppards, of whom there would eventually be seven. Two of those died in infancy.
John's life spanned 76 years and he knew all seven of his grandchildren, as well as one great-grandchild, Maurice SHEPPARD, born in 1934 right there in Mt. Ayr. John died
13 February 1936 and was buried at Rosehill Cemetery, Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa. Martha was 78 when she died 2 1/2 years later, on 23 August 1938. She is buried beside John at Rosehill Cemetery.
ISSUE:
1. Dora May SHEPPARD, b. 14 Oct 1877, Ewington, Ohio, d. 5 May 1971. Married: 9 Feb 1909, Ottis Mc ANNICH.
Issue:
1. Irma Mc ANNICH, m: Elda LOWREY, no issue.
2. Infant SHEPPARD, b&d 24 May 1879.
7-3-3-3 3. Burl Guy SHEPPARD, b. 9 Nov 1880, Gallia County, .
4. Mary Donna SHEPPARD, b. 2 Nov 1883, Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa, d. 6 Apr 1975. Married: 12 Feb 1904, William STEPHENS.
Issue:
5. Jenane SHEPPARD, b. 17 Apr 1886, Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa , d. 24 Mar 1917, 31 years, single.
6. Infant SHEPPARD, b. 31 Oct 1890, d. 31 Oct 1891.
7-3-3-7 7. Clyde Corwin SHEPPARD, b. 29 Jan 1897, Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa.
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Ewing Family Lineage: John-Sarah Ann-Andrew-John-James
Burl Guy Sheppard was born at Ewington, Ohio on 9 November 1880, but the only youth he remembered was in Ringgold County, Iowa, where his family moved soon after his birth. When he grew up something took him to Harrisonville, Cass County, Missouri and it was there he met a young lady by the name of Lydia Pearl BRINGOLF.
Lydia was the daughter of Shelton and Martha (FOUTZ) BRINGOLF. She was born in Menlo, Iowa on the 30 August 1884. She and Burl were married 16 November 1904.
The newlyweds lived in Harrisonville for awhile, but about 1909 decided to try farming in Princeton, Franklin County, Kansas. That did not work. There were two or three years of drought and Burl was forced to give up the farm in 1914 and move to Eureka, Greenwood County, Kansas, where he made a living by doing odd jobs and taking part-time work in the local power and ice plant. He also harvested a prairie hay crop on a 160 acre farm for which he had traded the equity on his land at Princeton.
Of the next year - 1915, Burl's son writes, "We moved to Colony, Anderson County, Kansas, to a farm which was rent free, providing we would try to deplete the crop of cockleburrs which had about taken over".
But in 1916 it was back to Ringgold County. Burl's father, John, by that time was unable to do the work his farm required and Burl returned to take over. That necessity lasted only until 1921. Then Burl and his family, his wife and sons, worked rented farms in Iowa for a few years.
On 15 January 1931, they were in Iowa City, Iowa, when Lydia died, only 46. Burl, 51, returned to Mt. Ayr where he remained for 35 years, working at the carpenter trade until shortly before his death. He died 4 September 1966 at the age of 82 years. both he and Lydia are buried at Rosehill Cemetery, Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa.
ISSUE:
7-3-3-3-1 1. Guy Vincent SHEPPARD, b. 5 Sept 1905, Harrisonville, Cass County, Missouri.
2. Jean Leslie SHEPPARD (son), b. 10 July 1911, Princeton, Franklin County, Kansas.
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7-3-3-3-1 GUY VINCENT SHEPPARD
Ewing Family Lineage: Burl-John-Sarah Ann-Andrew-John-James
A lot of the people in this book were around at the time of what has come to be known as "The Great American Depression". It affected all of them, of course, this writer included. But Guy Vincent SHEPPARD is one who has written about those years and his paper gives us a picture of another phase of America's life.
Guy's background is that he was born 5 September 1905, in Harrisonville, Cass County, Missouri. His family did a lot of moving around in his early days and times were tough on the prairies of our Middle-Western States.
They were especially bad from 1924 to 1929.
But they really hit bottom in 1930, and that was the year Guy decided to get married.
Guy was back in Ringgold County by then. Near his town of Mt. Ayr. In the town of Diagonal lived Mary Lucille DINKEL. Mary was born in Benton, Ringgold County, on 24 February 1910 to Harry and Nora (SHAFER) DINKEL. She and Guy were married in Diagonal on the 7th of November 1930.
They had a pretty rough time of it for 11 years. Things did not really ease up until World War II. I will let Guy himself tell about it.
"In 1931, Robert DINKEL, my wife's brother and I farmed land that his father had started, just at the outskirts of Diagonal. For this crop we got 10 cents a bushel for corn and 5 cents a pound for hogs. This, of course, didn't pay expenses. That winter we saw hard times. Mary taught school and I did anything that I could find to make a buck. The next two years, 1932 and 1933, were also lean years. Mary was teaching school at $40 a month (eight month term) and drove a Model A over mud and snow, sometimes having to walk the last mile or so.
"In the summer we raised a garden, papered walls for hire, and Raleigh STEPHENS and I dug wells for farmers at $1 per foot, 8 foot diameter. Big money for those times.
"In 1934 we moved to Mt. Ayr where I was employed as an engineer in the office of the County Highway. Salary $25 per week. Boy, we were on Easy Street!
"During those years, 1934 to 1939, the country saw very hard times. Thousands of people were out of work and hungry. At one time, practically every farmer received work through the Public Works Administration which we in the County Engineer's office supervised. During this time farmers killed thousands of little pigs by government order and buried them in long trenches. This was to raise the market price of pork.
"During these years under Roosevelt the alphabet agencies were born, i.e.: PWA, CWA, WPA, CCC, etc. and there were many other relief agencies, most of which remain with us to this day. In spite of all these measures, which were intended to bolster up the economy, hard times persisted until the outbreak of World War II".
Before those "good" times of World War II, however, Guy had left his job with the County Highway Commission and had moved to Osceola, Iowa, where he worked for the Clarke County Engineering Department for awhile. Then the family went to Woodward, Iowa, where both Mary and Guy worked at the Woodward State Hospital and School. They worked the night shift, 12 hours a day, for $45 a month plus two meals a day.
Things were different during the war years and after as Guy recalls.
"In December, 1941, war declared and, shortly afterwards I went to work at the Des Moines Ordinance Plant, as a plant guard, where I continued until the end of the war.
"The next 17 years saw me in a variety of jobs, among them supervisor of a fertilizer plant in Perry, Iowa, and grocery clerk in Woodward, Iowa. I was also ambulance driver and clothing supervisor for the institution at Woodward, and promoted the unionization of institutional employees. As a result I was hired by the National Union to help organize unions in all state institutions. After this job was completed (as far as we were able) I again went to work as a grocery clerk and stayed with it until Mary, who had been teaching in the hospital school, and I decided to try California.
"That was in July of 1962...California here we come!
I worked in a small market in Orange County for awhile and then went with Zody's Discount Stores, a large department store chain, in security. Mary gradually built up a class of piano students, and taught school as a substitute teacher. She also took college classes for awhile.
"We retired in August, 1970, and moved to Ben Lomond in the Santa Cruz County, where we built the home in which we now live. Mary still teaches piano, and I operate a saw sharpening business, just to keep my sanity.
"California has been very good to us. Our home is clear and we have saved a few dollars. We are not rich, but comfortable.
"As we think back over our varied experiences, good and bad, we marvel at the changes that have taken place during the past 70 years or so. More change and improvement has taken place in our lifetime than all the rest of recorded history. The walking plow, horse drawn, has been replaced by tractors with air-conditioning, the horse and buggy by the automobile. Mud roads have given way to wide interstate highways, all this right before our eyes. Mankind has gone from the old sweat shop and hard labor to the complete mechanization of industry, from the grain cradle to expeditions to the moon, and the end is not yet.
"Although we saw many lean years, we believe the overall effect was good. We appreciate what we have much more than we would have without the experience".
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Ewing Family Lineage: Andrew-John-James
A.E. EWING did not leave many clues in this line, and for a long time I was stymied in my effort to find any trace of the family. But then two things happened to make the story practically write itself:
1. Mary Jane's husband, Ghorum SYLVESTER, was the grandson of a Revolutionary War soldier - and families of Revolutionary War soldiers do not stay hidden for long. and
2. Elizabeth CASON wrote a book.
Fortunately for me, and for posterity, Elizabeth had a famous father, and in presenting the story of his life to his radio listeners the world over, she also gave us the Sylvester story, especially that of her great-grandfather, Mary Jane and Ghorum's No. 2 son, Jasper Newton SYLVESTER.
Putting it all together, from Elizabeth's book, records, a county history sketch, census, DAR accounts, etc., this is the SYLVESTER STORY.
Mary Jane was born on the farm of Andrew and Jannet on
22 January 1818, their fourth child. When she was 17, and noticing things like that, there came to Vinton, Ohio a handsome young blacksmith by the name of Ghorum SYLVESTER. Ghorum was the son of a prominent Meigs County, Ohio couple, John and Sarah (ROLLINS) SYLVESTER, who hailed from Belgrade, Kennebec County, Maine.
John was the son of Revolutionary War soldier Joseph SYLVESTER. Joseph brought his family, including John and young Ghorum, to Meigs County where he (Joseph) died in 1818.
Ghorum was born 5 February 1813, in Kennebec County, Maine, the third child in a family of nine. Ghorum spent his growing up years in Meigs County, where he received his education. At the age of 17 he began to learn the blacksmith trade. He served his apprenticeship in Gallipolis, Ohio and then went to Vinton, Ohio to ply his trade.
He was then about 22. It did not take long after he and Mary Jane met before they were married in Vinton on 16 September 1835.
A sketch on Ghorum says he remained at Vinton 15 years, but I do not see how it could have been more than two. His son, Jasper, was born in Meigs County in 1837, and Chorum was in Meigs County at the time of the 1840 census. And in 1838, the sketch tells us, he joined the Ohio Militia of light Infantry, in which he served as captain for five years. He was then appointed brigade inspector, a commission he held until the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1845 when he was put in charge of recruiting all companies for service in that war which went out from Meigs County.
Ghorum appears to have followed the life of a farmer, not blacksmith, after that. In the 1850 census, he and Mary Jane were in Salem Township, Meigs County, Ohio, Ghorum a farmer worth $900. In the 1860 census it was the same except his worth had increased to $2,000/$400.
As the Civil War neared an end, many families in the neighborhood began talking about land that was to be had in Missouri. Mary Jane's brother, John Smith Ewing II, had gone there in the Spring of 1864 and sent back glowing reports. Ghorum, his brother, and other relatives and friends began to draw up their plans to take their families west.
In the Spring of 1865 the dream became a reality. Mary Jane, who had lost her mother 16 years before, said goodbye to her aging father and to her sisters and brothers, adding to them, "Join us when you can".
Worth County, Missouri where Mary Jane's brother, John, was by then, was the Sylversters' destination. Six hundred miles, across half of Ohio, all of Indiana and Illinois and most of Missouri, and they were at their new home.
They settled near John, but they were not to remain for long. In 1867, Ghorum and Mary Jane found land in the next county south, Gentry. They had 80 acres in Section 13 of Athens Township, post office was New Castle, Gentry County, Missouri.
By the time of that move their family numbered six. They had 13 children but at least two were buried back at Vinton, Ohio and five were born and died somewhere between. Their first child was apparently, Roman, but there seems to be some discrepancy about his dates. He is buried at Glenn Cemetery, Vinton, Ohio. The Huntington Township cemetery book says he died 8 January 1834, age 1 year, 2 months, 28 days, but that works out to his having been born 10 November 1832 - three years before Ghorum and Mary Jane were married and when Mary Jane was only 14 years old. The date has to have been read wrong, especially when one considers that the second child, Jasper, was born in 1837 - and five years between children was unheard of back then.
The other youngster buried at Glenn Cemetery was Lucretia, born 1845, died 1846. Five of their infants have no identity, dates or places.
Their six children who lived to adulthood were sons, Jasper Newton and Andrew, and daughters Sarah, Theodosia, Rosaltha and Mary (called Mamie). At the time of the move from Worth County to Gentry County, Missouri in 1867, Jasper had recently joined his parents in Missouri from out West; Andrew had been married two years before and remained in Worth County; Sarah, who had been married when the family was still back in Ohio, had lived first in Highland County, Ohio, but was not listed in Gentry County, Missouri, near the Sylvesters, in the town of Albany where her husband was a hardware merchant. The three youngest children, Theodosia, Rosaltha and Mary were still at home, ages 20, 17 and 14.
Before too many years, even those three were married and gone from home. Ghorum and Mary Jane decided to retire. They gave up the Gentry County farm and moved into the city of St. Joseph, which is in Buchanan County, Missouri some 20 or 25 miles distant from Gentry.
It was in St. Joseph that Ghorum died 21 March 1891 at the age of 78 years. Mary Jane was almost 80 when she died at St. Joseph, 10 January 1898. Her funeral was attended by her 3 1/2 year old great-grandson, Harold Marshall Sylvester RICHARDS, who later told of it for the book about him, as an important incident in his life.
ISSUE:
1. Roman SYLVESTER (dates in doubt), b. 18 Nov 1832, d. 8 Jan 1834, age 1/2/20. Buried: Glen Cemetery, Vinton, Ohio.
7-4-2 2. Jasper Newton SYLVESTER, b. 15 Dec 1837, Meigs County, Ohio.
7-4-3 3. Andrew Ewing SYLVESTER, b. 28 Feb 1839, Meigs County, Ohio.
7-4-4 4. Sarah SYLVESTER, b. 1840/1842.
5. Lucretia SYLVESTER, b. 27 Feb 1845, d. 16 Apr 1846, Buried: Glen Cemetery, Vinton, Ohio.
7-4-6 6. Theodosia SYLVESTER, b. 1846, Meigs County, Ohio.
7-4-7 7. Rosaltha SYLVESTER, b. 1849/1850, Meigs County, Ohio and five unidentified infants
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Ewing Family Lineage Mary Jane-Andrew-John-James
There was something very special about Jasper Newton SYLVESTER. Some of that quality was captured by Elizabeth CASON in her book, but he does not enter into her story until he appears as a grandfather. Here is what went before:
Jasper was born 15 December 1837 in Rutland Township, Meigs County, Ohio. As a teen-ager in the 1850's, he developed the adventurous spirit so many young men did in that day. He heard the call of the West - and set out to answer it. He spent nearly a decade, in the late 1850s and early 1860s, on the frontier in Montana and Nevada, in search of not just gold but thrills and excitement.
At last, though, he heard that his family was moving from Ohio to Missouri, and he turned his footsteps eastward to join them in Gentry County, Missouri. It was there something happened to make him think he would like to settle down - for awhile, anyway. He met Elizabeth ROBINSON.
Elizabeth was born in 1850, in Wayne County, Indiana, and was the daughter of Perry and Elizabeth (BUCK) ROBINSON, the prettiest 18 year old in those parts. She and Jasper were married 21 January 1869.
And settle down Jasper did. A blacksmith, as his father had been, he set up shop in Davis City across the state line from Worth County, in Decatur County, Iowa. The Sylvester home - a large, two-story, frame house - was in New Buda, Burrell Township, near Davis City, Iowa.
For 30 years, Jasper was the blacksmith, husband, father and a deeply religious elder in the local Seventh Day Adventist Church. He and Elizabeth had three children, but one, known only as "Little Brother", died at birth. Another, a daughter, died young, soon after her marriage. It was their third child, Berta Capitola, who gave them the grandchildren they wanted so much.
Berta married a Seventh Day Adventist minister, Herbert Marshall Jenkins RICHARDS, and the two were frequently on the road, touring the country in the Lord's service. At those times, their two sons, Harold and Kenneth, were left in Grandfather and Grandmother Sylvester's care. Between crusades, they made the Sylvester home their headquarters, where they could catch their breath and savor a degree of normalcy.
It was during one of these brief rest periods that the two Sylvesters got their nicknames, "Two-moms" and "Two-Pops", which were to stay with them the rest of their lives. A little neighbor girl who frequently visited at the Sylvester home came to play when Harold's parents as well as grandparents were there. The child looked around and found a different situation than she had at her house. Pointing to the two women she said, "you have one mama and two mamas". Then, with a puzzled look on her face, she pointed to the two men and continued, "And one papa and two papas!". The names became a family joke, and to this day Jasper and Elizabeth Sylvester are still referred to by their loved ones as Two-Moms and Two-Pops.
Jasper had stayed pretty close to home for almost 30 years. But in 1898 the cry of "Gold" was heard again in the land. This time it was Alaska, but that did not stop the old adventurer. Though he was 60, Jasper meant to answer the call again.
He and a close friend, Lon BULLOCK, were grubstaked by a group of men in Davis City and they began a high adventure into the gold fields of Alaska. Jasper took a portable iron forge and all his blacksmithing tools with him as they packed over the terrible White and Chilkoot passes from Skagway, Alaska. They stopped at Lake Bennett with other gold seekers, cut down trees to make a boat, then paddled their way down the Yukon River and over the White Horse Rapids to the Klondike. Traveling north they met many men with hair-raising tales about fellow travelers who had frozen, starved, or been killed. The father north they got the more upset BULLOCK became. Finally he decided to leave Jasper and returned to Davis City. Jasper traveled on into the Klondike alone.
Jasper sent letter after letter back to Davis City, to his wife, daughter and two grandsons. Many of his letters would be water-stained after their rough trip by dog sled and from breaking through the ice of the Yukon on the way. One time he sent two raw gold nuggets to his grandsons. They were sent inside a hollowed-out stick, carefully wrapped and mailed - tangible proof that his exciting stories were true. Small wonder that the two boys turned up chairs on the kitchen floor to make dog sleds and relived Two-Pops great adventure. The name of their game was "Two-Pops Out on the Trail", and it became their favorite activity between letters. Each time another letter arrived they had more fuel for their imaginations - and more status among their playmates. You were really somebody if you had a connection in Alaska in those days.
Jasper eventually staked out a fine claim in the Yukon, but he could make more money sharpening tools and doing blacksmithing for the other miners. However, this was not his only activity while in the far north country. Being a devout Christian, he gave gospel literature to everyone he could persuade to take it, from Cape Nome to Fairbanks. Old-timers in Alaska long remembered stories about the pamphlet-spreading blacksmith from Iowa.
Jasper remained in the Klondike three or four years and loved it enough to want to stay forever. He made plans to return to the States, scoop up Elizabeth, buy some more tools and head north again.
However, in the meantime, Berta's husband had been sent by the church to Denver, Colorado and of course Berta and the two boys went with him. Then two years later they were sent to nearby Loveland, Colorado in Larimer County, and that is where they were living when Jasper returned to the States. He and Elizabeth stopped there to say goodbye to the family before going north to Alaska - and fell in love with the place.
Jasper and Elizabeth decided to stay and call Loveland home for the rest of their days together. They bought a farm at the edge of Lake Loveland, which became the Richards family's headquarters for a time. Young Harold spent most of his growing-up years right there with them.
Later they added to their holdings by taking up a homestead in a beautiful little valley called Dunraven Glade, on the front range of the Rockies about 30 miles west of Loveland. Their rough cabin stood on the side of the glade that extended up to the foothills. The top of the mountain was thick and lush, with an abundant growth of tall trees. To get to the cabin in the early 1900s meant a long ride in the family's spring wagon behind their one little horse, Nell. Sometimes young Harold spent part of the summer with his grandparents in this beautiful setting. From time to time, he and Jasper would leave Elizabeth at the cabin while they went down to care for the farm at Loveland. Sometimes, if his parents were out on the road in gospel meetings, Harold would be at Dunraven when the winter snows came in with full force.
Harold looked to his father and his Two-Pops as his models of ideal manhood. Two-Pops was a rugged frontiersman and a dead shot with a rifle. He was such an expert blacksmith that when he got a bad tooth, he did not go to a dentist. Instead he made himself a pair of pliers and pulled his own teeth with them.
To Harold it seemed that Two-Pops was not afraid of anything or anybody. At the same time he loved poetry and read it to Harold frequently. His favorite was Bobby Burns whose works he could repeat by the hour.
In the early spring of 1912, Two-Pops became seriously ill. He remained in ill health off and on that whole year, and his devoted grandson often took care of him at the farm house.
One windy night, 2 January 1913 Harold was reading when his Two-Pops suddenly got up out of bed and went to the sideboard for his Bible. He was a very strong man, and in spite of everything Harold did, he could not keep Two-Pops in bed.
Opening his Bible, Two-Pops said to his grandson, "Now, Harold, you are planning to be a minister. I want to leave this message with you". He read the whole of the second chapter of First Corinthians, emphasizing the last part which says that spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. "You have got to be a spiritual man", he said. "You can never understand the Bible unless you are spiritual. You can study this book all your life, but you will never understand it if you are not spiritual. No man has a right to be a minister if he is not a spiritual man". When he had finished, he got back in bed.
The next day, 3 January 1913 at sunset, Two-Pops whispered a quotation from Paul found in Romans 11;33. "On the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out!" Then Two-Pops closed his eyes and died in Harold's arms.
After the funeral when Harold looked up at the towering Rockies they did not look quite so splendid anymore, because Two-Pops was gone.
Elizabeth remained on at Loveland for a time after his death, but as her family scattered, she scattered with it. She sold the cabin at Dunraven Glade so that Harold could attend college, and she became his housekeeper during those years in Washington D.C., and immediately following, when he was a struggling preacher in Canada. And for a time she was a "Nanny" to a youngster in a motherless home in the States.
She spent her last years in California near her daughter, Berta, and beloved grandson, Harold, by then the famous radio "Voice of Prophecy". Two-Moms outlived Two-Pops by 33 years. Elizabeth was 94 years old when she died in March 1944, and it was that famous grandson who preached her funeral sermon.
ISSUE:
7-4-2-1 1. Berta Capitola SYLVESTER, b. 25 Apr 1870, New Buda, Iowa.
2. "Little Brother" SYLVESTER, b&d 10 June 1872, New Buda, Iowa.
3. Mamie Dail SYLVESTER, b. 1874 New Buda, Iowa. Died: 10 Mar 1905 (T.B. of the hip). Married: Dr. BOWMAN.
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7-4-2-1 BERTA CAPITOLA SYLVESTER
Ewing Family Lineage: Jasper-Mary Ann-Andrew-John-James
Berta, born 25 April 1870, was destined to have a life a little different than most of the other young belles of the farming community where she lived, New Buda, Iowa.
It so happened that her father, Jasper Newton SYLVESTER, was elder of the local Seventh Day Adventist Church. In 1892, there was to be a series of gospel meetings in nearby Davis City, Iowa, conducted by Elder J. S. WASHBURN. A young preacher, Halbert Marshall Jenkins RICHARDS, was called in to assist. Richards was told to report to the head elder of the local church when he got to town - and that was Jasper.
Halbert went to the Sylvester home and knocked on the door. Berta answered - and it was love at first sight.
Berta, then 22, had been teaching in public schools in the vicinity and had also served as organist in several of the local churches. When the gospel meeting started in Davis City, Elder WASHBURN, with an eye toward matchmaking, asked her to play the organ. One morning when she and Halbert were at the tent going over plans for the evening meeting, Halbert asked her to come up on the platform. She did - and there he proposed to her. Berta accepted on the spot.
Halbert was born 3 May 1869 in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. His father was William Jenkins RICHARDS, a Welshman and a native of Cornwall, England, where many Welsh people lived. Richards became a lay preacher in Cornwall after his conversion through the preaching of General William BOOTH, and, on coming to America, became a Methodist Episcopal circuit preacher. Halbert's mother, Margaret, had gone to a girls finishing school in Cornwall, and it is said she would drink tea at the slightest provocation. Halbert grew up in Exeter, England, and as a young man he had T.B. He just knew that if he could get out of the fog and come to America, he would get well. He did - and he did!
The following spring - on 17 May 1893, Halbert and Berta were married. And they began a life much different from the norm of the time - a life that would take them on travels far and wide and thrust them into a limelight they were not necessarily seeking.
At first Halbert was a struggling itinerant minister. Berta accompanied him whenever possible on his evangelistic crusades, and even after their two sons came along, she continued to go with him when she could, taking one or both of the boys along. Otherwise the boys stayed with their Sylvester grandparents in New Buda.
In 1899 Halbert had a recurrence of his old respiratory ailment, so the church conference sent him to Colorado to work, hoping that his health might improve in that rarified atmosphere and it did. The family packed up for the move from New Buda, Iowa to Denver, Colorado
After two years there, Halbert was moved to Loveland, in Larimer County, Colorado to hold evangelistic meetings. That is where they were living when Berta's parents visited - and decided to stay. When Jasper and Elizabeth bought the farm on Lake Loveland, Halbert and Berta built a small house halfway between the farm and the post office in Loveland. Then Halbert heard of land available near Palisades, Colorado over on the western slopes of the Rockies, and he moved his family there. The land was on a Ute Indian reservation but through a treaty with the Indians the land could be pre-empted by settlers if they would live there six months. Halbert settled his family on 80 acres of land right at the foot of the Grand Mesa. It was about 12 miles from Grand Junction, near the main line of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. Being close to the railroad was a good thing, for by this time Halbert was vice-president of the Colorado Seventh Day Adventist Conference with headquarters in Denver, and he had to travel a lot.
As Halbert watched his sons mature, he became obsessed with the idea that they must have a Christian education. He spoke to other members of the church conference's governing committee, urging them to build an academy in Loveland. He campaigned with such earnestness that the conference president finally told him if he was so concerned over the matter he had better get busy and raise some money for it. So he did. He solicited until he had $8,000. He also had 13 acres of farm land donated as the site of the academy. The academy opened in 1906, and four years later Halbert's eldest, Harold, began his high school career there.
Halbert was said to have been positive and stern, the boss of every situation. "Honesty and integrity were the most important parts of his personality", says his granddaughter, Virginia CASON, "but flowing beneath his authoritarian exterior was a river of love and concern, not only for his family but for everyone else".
He visited among the church people constantly. He went to their homes, prayed with them, ate with them, and when necessary stayed with them all night. He identified with them and they loved him. He was the best preacher and the greatest storyteller his preacher son had ever known, and it was that son's ambition to be like him.
Through the following years Halbert and Berta moved to the east when Halbert became president of the East Pennsylvania Conference, and to the southwest when he was named president of the New Mexico Conference, and to many other places across the nation.
Later Halbert slowed down his pace somewhat and instead of traveling, set down roots by becoming pastor of the Belmont Church in Long Beach, California. Then, to be nearer their now-famous preacher son, Halbert accepted a call to be chaplain of the Glendale Sanitarium and Hospital at Glendale near Los Angeles, California.
One day, Harold, by then on coast-to-coast radio network with his Voice of Prophecy, asked his father to help him answer some letters he had received. "I am so busy writing my radio sermons I hardly have time for letters. They are special letters with Bible questions that require deep study to answer in the right way".
Halbert accepted a folder of the letters to answer and after his day's work as chaplain he worked on them into the night. Another folder followed the first, thicker this time. Folder followed folder until it became apparent that just answering these important letters was a full-time job in itself. At his age, Halbert could not do both jobs, so he decided to spend his time helping his son. His white Van Dyke beard and black-rimmed pince-nez glasses became a familiar sight around the Voice of Prophecy office, and his voice became a familiar sound as he offered the opening prayer on each radio broadcast.
But time took its toll. On 25 May 1956, just after his 87th birthday, Halbert died at Glendale, California. Berta survived him by 10 years. She died at the age of 96 years on the 15th of June 1966 at Thousand Oaks, California. Both are buried at Monticeto Cemetery, Loma Linda, California.
ISSUE:
7-4-2-1-1 1. Harold Marshall Sylvester RICHARDS, b. 28 Aug 1894, New Buda, Iowa.
7-4-2-1-2 2. Kenneth David RICHARDS, b. 14 Aug 1896, New Buda, Iowa.
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7-4-2-1-1 HAROLD MARSHALL SYLVESTER RICHARDS
Ewing Family Lineage: Berta-Jasper-Mary Jane-Andrew-John-James
It was sort of understood from the beginning that Harold would follow in his father's footsteps. At his birth, which took place 28 August 1894, in the New Buda home of his Sylvester grandparents, his father put his hands on the tiny head and prayed and said, "He shall be the Lord's baby boy".
And later, when he was about two years old, Harold got into some green apples. He ate so man that he became deathly ill, and the family doctor was not sure he would live. Harold's mother prayed over her son and told the Lord that if he would cure her baby she would dedicate him to God's work in a special way. Her prayers were answered, and Harold grew up understanding that both of his parents had dedicated him to the Lord's work.
He showed preacher qualities at an early age. He remembers the time in January, 1898, that Two-Pops took him to St. Joseph, Missouri for the funeral of his great-grandmother, Mary Jane (EWING) SYLVESTER. Elizabeth CASON tells the story in her book about her father's life:
"On the table in the family home was a large dish of oranges. Since he was not used to seeing so many oranges at one time, he could hardly take his eyes from them. No one offered him any of the fruit, so he decided to do something about it. In his 3 1/2 year old voice he began a sermon. 'In New J'rus'lem there's gonna be a great big tree. It's got lots and lots and lots of great big oringins hangin' all over it. Gonna be on the tree all the time, 'n the people can pick all they wants to. 'n they can eat all they wants to, too. Great big oringins all the time.....all they wants to.'
His eyes grew wider in anticipation as he spoke. Evidently the family could not stand the sight of the little boy wanting an orange so badly, so they gave him a dishful.
That was Harold's first experience of moving an audience to action.
Although Harold attended kindergarten briefly while his parents were on a crusade in Battle Creek, Michigan, his real schooling began when he was 8 years old. In the meantime there were other teachers. His Grandfather RICHARDS, Two-Pops and his mother taught him reading and "numbers" at home in Loveland, Colorado.
He loved to listen to his father read from the big family Bible during worship each morning and evening. Halbert had a certain knack of explaining Bible verses in a simple and concise way that made them easier to understand. This ability made a big impression on the young boy. The conversational style of his father when explaining the texts to the family became a part of his thinking. When he began his ministry that style became a part of his preaching method. As he grew he began to think about his future, but there was really no great battle over the decision. The knowledge that he had been dedicated to the Lord's work as a baby and then again as a toddler helped to settle his mind. He knew that he was meant to be a preacher. Once the decision was made, while he was still a young boy, he began collecting books and clippings he thought might be needed some day for his sermons.
His schooldays brought him more than book education. He had first-hand lessons in religious intolerance. As he accompanied his parents in their public evangelism he heard people yelling insults at them. At that time the Seventh Day Adventist denomination did not have the acceptance it has today, and many looked upon such people as religious fanatics.
Harold spent most of his growing up years with his Sylvester grandparents on the farm in Loveland by the lake - the same lake where he was later baptized. That big event took place just after his 13th birthday. Two or three months before, Harold had attended a tent meeting on the outskirts of Loveland. His father and Elder L.A. SPRING were conducting the meetings, but this particular Sabbath afternoon at a special meeting for young people, Halbert was at home sick. Harold recalled afterwards:
"Brother Spring was no great pulpit orator. He was a quiet man and spoke diffidently. But the power of the Lord came into that little meeting. He appealed to us to take our stand for the Lord and His work and to give our hearts to Christ." There was a song Harold felt carried a message just for him, "and when Brother Spring called for those who wanted to give their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ to come forward, I stood and walked to the front."
When Harold got home he told his mother what he had done. Without a word, she led him into his father's room where he lay ill. There followed a touching scene as Halbert learned what had happened at the meeting, and with soft weeping and praise to the Lord he prayed with his young son.
After Harold's birthday there was the baptism in Lake Loveland, with the majestic Rockies in the background. Harold saw Long's Peak, his favorite mountain, and he promised the Lord that he would be faithful to Him as long as that mountain stood. As his father put him under the water in baptism, that promise was sealed forever.
Harold traveled back and forth between the Sylvester cabin and farm for two or three years, until he entered Campion Academy, the school his father was instrumental in founding.
During those years at Campion he had his first chance to preach in a tent to an "unbelieving" audience. He was 17 and this was his first on-the-payroll job - as his father's tentmaster. One Sabbath his father made an excuse to be away and told Harold he was to be responsible for the sermon. Harold's subject was "Angels" and the sermon went off without a hitch - even though the fledgling preacher was beset with a bad case of nervousness.
After graduation from Campion in 1914, he and a schoolmate, Kenneth GANT, were taken on by the church conference for summer evangelism in Colorado. In the fall Harold joined a friend, John TURNER, in holding meetings in a little schoolhouse out on the great plains of eastern Colorado. This was followed by a call from the East Pennsylvania conference, of which his father was then president. Harold was sent to Mansfield, Pennsylvania. Then came Millerton, Blossburg and Philadelphia.
It was in Philadelphia that the subject of college came up. It seemed imperative that Harold go, yet how would it be possible? Two-Moms to the rescue!. Elizabeth SYLVESTER, Harold's grandmother, sold the beloved cabin at Dunraven Glade, Colorado for $500 so Harold could enroll in Washington Missionary College - and offered to be his housekeeper. The two moved into a small, third-floor flat in Takoma Park, a suburb of Washington, D.C. There were six apartments in the building and Harold paid the rent by getting up at 4 a.m. and stoking the furnace. He also pastored the Capitol Hill Church. All this he did while attending classes and carrying on correspondence courses so that he could graduate in three years.
That big moment came in 1919 and in September that year, Harold Marshall Sylvester Richards was ordained a Minister of the Gospel.
His first pastorate was in Canada - Ottawa to begin with. Two-Moms came up from Takoma Park to keep house for him again.
But then there came Mabel.
Mabel Annabel EASTMAN who was born 15 August 1899 at Battle Creek, Michigan. Mabel was the new teacher at the church school in Ottawa. The church folk noted, without real surprise, the sudden interest their new minister took in Christian education after Mabel arrived. Mabel's father was treasurer of the Canadian Union Conference, and the family, Fred and Fannie (CROSS) EASTMAN, lived in Oshawa, 240 miles from Ottawa. There was much traveling back and forth between the two cities, and one day, on the observation platform of the train, Harold proposed.
That was 23 March 1920 - and on 14 April, not a month later, the two were wed.
The next few years ahead in Canada were rough ones for the struggling young preacher and his bride, but Harold always proved himself in the face of adversity. And Harold had shown great success in his meetings, with his oratory and his persuasion to conversion. And then came what he had really been waiting for - a call by the Central California Conference, asking him to hold gospel meetings throughout the great central valley of California. Something told him, "this is it - TAKE IT!"
The rest is history. Harold's success as a minister in California was tremendous. And when he finally hit on the idea of putting God's word on that brand new infant, radio, to be sent all over the nation, the world, his future was assured.
The Voice of Prophecy, the Tabernacle of the Air, came into being. They started small (in a chicken coop, actually) and ended up being one of the greatest voices of God's word in radio history. When it came time for Harold to slow down in 1960, he was delighted to be able to call his namesake son, Harold Marshall Sylvester RICHARDS, JR., to join the forces of Voice of Prophecy headquarters in Los Angeles. Young Harold had been a pastor and evangelist in the southwestern United States for eight years. His coming took much of the burden from Harold and the two quickly became a well-coordinated team.
When Harold had given his first-born son the same name he himself had, he never dreamed that it would facilitate such a smooth changeover when the time came for him to step aside. Since then Harold Senior has declared, "we've never had such a rapid growth at the Voice of Prophecy since Harold took over. We are having 1,000 more baptisms each year now than the year before; we've never had such success in soul winning as at the present time."
On 28 August 1979, on Harold's 85th birthday, there was a gala birthday banquet in his honor. It was much like the event known as "H.M.S. RICHARDS DAY," the Silver Anniversary of the Voice of Prophecy in 1955. As Harold sat there in the 13,000 - seat Long Beach Arena, he looked up at the top rows of seats near the ceiling of that vast building and saw that almost all the seats were filled and his mind went back to row after row of empty seats he could remember from his past.
At that time Harold had felt he was receiving too much honor. He wished the people had put him in the background and had concentrated instead on the message he preached.
"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time when God wanted His message on radio, that's all."
Elizabeth CASON ends her book about her father with these words:
"On the rare occasions when Father's children and grandchildren are all together, he reminds his family that they all have an appointment to keep around the beautiful tree that grows beside the shining river in the earth God will make new for those who love Him. He encourages them to be present around that long table when Jesus Himself comes forth to serve His Faithful ones. Dad's faith burns so brightly, his example is so clear, and he is so alive with the Good News he has proclaimed for so long, that each family member looks forward with much anticipation to that happy day.
" ' Man alive,' Harold exclaims, 'it's ours!'"
ISSUE:
7-4-2-1-1-1 1. Virginia Dale Elizabeth RICHARDS, b. 9 Apr 1925, Ottawa, Canada.
7-4-2-1-1-2 2. Harold Marshall Sylvester RICHARDS, JR., b. 25 Oct 1929, Los Angeles, California.
7-4-2-1-1-3 3. Kenneth Eastman Halbert RICHARDS, b. 16 Nov 1930, Los Angeles, California.
7-4-2-1-1-4 4. Justus Alfred Norman RICHARDS, b. 6 Mar 1939, Los Angeles, California.
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7-4-2-1-1-1 VIRGINIA DALE ELIZABETH RICHARDS
Ewing Family Lineage: Harold-Berta-Jasper-Mary Jane-Andrew-John-James
Virginia could very easily have had a great career as an author. Her book, "H.M.S.RICHARDS: Man Alive!" the story of her father's life as a preacher, a leader of thousands and the far-reaching Voice of Prophecy, is a delight to read. It is a warm, human account of the life of a very great man, but, as a daughter looking at that great man, she makes him seem like "just folks." As Warren L. JOHNS, president of Freedom House which published the book, says in his Introduction: "Virginia's warm writing style reveals intimate family anecdotes which picture the man in his role as preacher, husband, father and friend."
Actually, Virginia is a writer - of children's stories - but she has not made that a "great career." She is more interested in being Mrs. Walter Dan CASON, and to be as much help to the Voice of Prophecy organization and her father as she can.
Virginia was born 9 April 1925 in Ottawa, Canada, when her father was a struggling young preacher there. She was 4 when that preacher and his wife headed to California and fame, and grew up right along with Harold's other "baby," his Voice of Prophecy.
She has long been a part of that organization, serving as secretary and tour director.
She was married on 27 January 1945 to a handsome soldier then serving in the U.S. Army, Dr. Walter Dean CASON, an anesthesiologist. Walter was born 7 June 1925, in Phoenix, Arizona, the son of Ernest and Mabel (EARP) CASON, and served in the Army from 1944 to 1946. In the early 1980's, he had his practice in Northern California, where he and Virginia lived at 1325 Crestwood Drive, Angwin.
On the 1st of June in 1972 there was tragedy in their lives when their dark-eye, raven-haired daughter, Elizabeth Rae, a 19 year old college student, was killed in a car accident.
Virginia is one of the cousins I have had the privilege of meeting. We got together one afternoon in 1979 at Laguna Niguel, California. What a warm, charming cousin she is! It was then that Virginia presented me with my copy of "H.M.S. RICHARDS: Man Alive!" which I shall treasure always.
Virginia is a member of the DAR under her Sylvester ancestor, Joseph, and is exceedingly interested in her family's genealogy.
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7-4-2-1-1-2 HAROLD MARSHALL SYLVESTER RICHARDS, JR.
Ewing Family Lineage: Harold-Berta-Jasper-Mary Jane-Andrew-John-James
Harold Jr. is the third generation of Seventh Day Adventist ministers. He was born 25 October 1929 in Los Angeles, California and like his sister grew up with the Voice of Prophecy, which came into being at about the same time he did. In 1952 he followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a pastor and evangelist, the southwestern United States his "stamping ground." In 1960 he was called to Los Angeles to assist his father in directing the huge organization that the Voice of Prophecy had become. Young Harold relieved the elder of much of the correspondence, acted as guest speaker on the broadcast from time to time, and held short evangelistic crusades to reap interests generated by the broadcasts and Bible schools.
And then what a simple transition it was when Senior Harold stepped aside. Now instead of H.M.S. Richards it was H.M.S. RICHARDS JR. - and the Voice of Prophecy continued.
Actually it expanded. The Nite-Owl programming in the late night hours, the Way-Out plan of youth evangelism, and the Campus Ministry to reach college and university age young people were largely his ideas or a result of his organization and planning. There is also the Voice of Prophecy Evangelistic Association and the West Point of Evangelism at which new soul-winning plans are shared.
Harold was married on 6 September 1951 at Arlington, California to Mary Margaret GULLETT, a former schoolteacher. She was born 16 July 1930 in San Diego, California and is the daughter of William and Margaret (LYALL) GULLETT. The Richards' lived in the early 1980's at 250 Edwards Place in Glendale, California.
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7-4-2-1-1-3 KENNETH EASTMAN HALBERT RICHARDS
Ewing Family Lineage: Harold-Berta-Jasper-Mary Jane-Andrew-John-James
In the family tradition, Kenneth, too, is a Seventh Day Adventist minister, and is involved in the "family business," the Voice of Prophecy, in the writing-for-radio end of it.
He was born 18 November 1930 in Los Angeles and was married on 16 September 1951 in Glendale, California to a secretary, Jacqueline Mignon MILLS. Jacqueline was born 13 March 1930 in Lincoln, Nebraska, the daughter of Paul and Goldie (FAGERBERG) MILLS. In the 1980's the family lived at 377 Mesa Avenue, Newbury Park, California 91320.
7-4-2-1-2 KENNETH DAVID RICHARDS
Ewing Family Lineage: Berta-Jasper-Mary Jane-Andrew-John-James
How do you follow an act like H.M.S. RICHARDS?
Kenneth David RICHARDS did not even try.
Two years younger than his famous brother, Kenneth was quite content to be the follower. He had neither great oratory powers, nor the art of gentle persuasion, nor indeed the inclination to sway men's minds. Through he was steeped in the ministerial tradition of his father and forebears, when it came time to choose his future course it was in the direction of engineering not the ministry.
Kenneth was born 14 August 1896 at the New Buda home of his Sylvester grandparents, Jasper and Elizabeth, whom he learned to call Two-Pops and Two-Moms, too. He was often with those two in his younger days, but more apt to be on the road with his traveling evangelistic parents.
Like his brother, he spent time with Two-Pops and Two-Moms at their cabin and farm near Loveland, Colorado, where there was much work to be done. This included tending the raspberry fields. In the summer the berries had to be picked. Before winter the vines had to be buried so they would not freeze. Harold, 12 years old Kenneth and Two-Pops worked dawn till dusk on those fields.
When Kenneth was about 16, his father was called to the East. Kenneth went there with his parents - and never left. He was married in 1921 in Rockville, Maryland to Gertrude Geneva CORNOR. They settled down in Maryland to live and raise their family. Kenneth was in hospital maintenance.
Gertrude was born 10 January 1891 in Laura, Ohio and was a nurse. Her parents were John and Sarah (CASSELL) CORNOR.
Kenneth died 25 November 1971 in Silver Springs, Maryland and is buried at Fort Lincoln Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
His widow and three children survived him in the 1980's.
ISSUE:
1. Patricia Elisabeth Capitola RICHARDS, b. 25 Mar 1922, Takoma Park, Maryland. Married: Oct 1964, Heidelberg, Germany, Reinhold KLEWERS, b. Apr 1925, Gladbeck, Germany. Parents: Oscar and Maria KLEWERS. Reinhold served in the German Army 1942 to 1945. 1979: Patricia a management analyst, lived in Alexandria, Virginia.
2. Jacqueline Marie RICHARDS, b. 3 Oct 1924, Takoma Park, Maryland. 1979: Teacher, resided Hagerstown, Maryland.
7-4-2-1-2-3 3. Kenneth David RICHARDS, JR. b. 22 Mar 1929, Takoma Park, Maryland.
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7-4-2-1-2-3 KENNETH DAVID RICHARDS JR.
Ewing Family Lineage: Kenneth-Berta-Jasper-Mary Jane-Andrew-John-James
Kenneth was born 22 March 1929 in Takoma Park, Maryland and served as a U.S. Naval officer from 1952 to 1957, and in the 1980's was manager of a data processing center for the Navy. He and his wife, the former Mary Elizabeth FUNKHOUSER lived at Route 1, Box 22, Hagerstown, Maryland 21740. Mary Elizabeth born 3 April 1930 in Ungers, West Virginia is the daughter of Claude and Katherine (DAVIS) FUNKHOUSER. Kenneth and Mary Elizabeth were married 10 December 1955 in Takoma Park, Maryland.
Ewing Family Lineage: Mary Jane-Andrew-John-James
I suspect that the E. in Andrew's name was for Ewing and that he was named for his maternal grandfather.
He was born 28 February 1839 in Meigs County, Ohio. He was not far behind his brother, Jasper, in age (14 months) and it is possible that he was along when Jasper headed west in the 1850s. At least in a later deposition he said he left Ohio at age 18, which would have been 1857, and he was not at home with his parents in the 1860 Meigs County census.
But while Jasper remained on the roaring frontier, Andrew returned to Ohio, and he enlisted on 11 December 1861 at Pomeroy, Meigs County for service in the Civil War. At that time he had red hair, a sandy complexion, hazel eyes and stood 5 feet 10 inches. His outfit was Co. E, 1st Battalion, 19th U.S.Infantry under Captain Francis FESSENDEN. Andrew was not in the Army to long before he had made sergeant.
The 19th saw much action, mostly in the South. For two years Andrew and Company E slugged it out with a relentless enemy. Then on 19 September 1863, the two armies collided at Chickamauga Creek in Tennessee, 12 miles south of Chattanooga. The name Chickamuga was an old Cherokee word meaning, "river of death."
Federal forces, the Army of the Cumberland, were under ROSECRANS ("Old Rosy" as his troops called him) and faced the Army of Tennessee under BRAGG. Bragg was the victor in this match on the 19 and 20 of September as he attacked, and fought and won the great Battle of Chickamauga.
Somewhere around the KELLY HOUSE on Lafayette Road where the U.S. Army was trying to hold off the attackers and on the 20th of September, the 19th went down - Andrew with it.
Company E was marched off for the long haul to Richmond, Virginia. Then came Danville Prison on 12 December 1863 and then the Chateau D'If of the Confederacy - Andersonville.
Andrew was a prisoner exactly one year - one long, horrendous year. Not many men at Andersonville escaped the scurvy, and Andrew was one of the majority. He was never the same again.
On the rolls for a year as "Missing in Action," Andrew was finally paroled at Rough and Ready, Georgia on the 18 and 22 of September 1864, and returned to his regiment. He was discharged at Lookout Mountain, Tennessee on 11 December 1864 - three years to the day of his enlistment.
He returned immediately to Meigs County - to find his family in the throes of selling out for a move west. Of course he would join them. In the Spring of 1865 they were off.
They were not long in Worth County, Missouri, when Andrew found the lovely lady who was to be his life's mate. She was Eliza Ellen BUTLER, born in Ohio in May of 1848. The two were married in Worth County by Squire W.L. NEAL, J.P. on 31 August 1865.
Though Andrew had an incurable disease of the mouth as a result of his prison-contacted scurvy, he managed to live a long and useful life. He and Eliza settled at first in Smith Township, Worth County, Missouri, near Andrew's Uncle John Smith EWING. They farmed and raised five children. For awhile, around 1880, they lived in Lott's Creek Township, Ringgold County, Iowa, near Andrew's brother Jasper and the VARNEYS, but before long they were back in Worth County - Allendale this time. Then came a move to Hatfield (Pawnee), Harrison County, Missouri around 1890, and then the big jump - on 11 March 1909 they moved to Boyero, Lincoln County, Colorado.
It was there, three years later that the 73 year old Andrew gave up. All the doctoring in the then-medical world could not cure that mouth disease and he suffered greatly all those later years. He died 20 August 1912 in Boyero.
Eliza and four children survived him.
ISSUE:
1. Milton V. SYLVESTER, b. 20 Aug 1868, Missouri. Married: 1897, Eva _____, b. Aug 1873, Illinois. Her parents from Kentucky. 1900 census: Lincoln Township, Harrison County, Missouri, owns home, had a boarder; probably went to Lincoln County, Colorado when parents did..
Issue:
1. Muriel SYLVESTER, b. Oct 1897
2. SYLVESTER, b. after 1900
3. _____ SYLVESTER, b. after 1900
2. Carrie Etta SYLVESTER, b. 29 Dec 1869, Missouri.
3. Addie SYLVESTER, b. 22 Jan 1871, Missouri.
4. Corbit SYLVESTER (son), b. 1874, Missouri, d. between 1880-1894 (not listed in Andrew's pension file of 1897.
5. John SYLVESTER, b. 1 Dec 1876, Missouri. Married: about 1899, Ella E _____, b. Mar 1879, MO. 1900 census: Hamilton Township,Harrison County, Missouri next to his parents.. Probably went to Colorado also.
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7-4-4 SARAH R. SYLVESTER
Ewing Family Lineage: Mary Jane-Andrew-John-James
Sarah was born in 1843 in Meigs County, Ohio and was married there on 17 October 1861 to Johnson W. COULTER. The two lived at first in Highland County, Ohio, but then went to Missouri at about the same time her parents did. They lived in the town Albany, Gentry County, Missouri, where Johnson was a merchant in hardware. Sarah died in 1907 in Gentry County and Johnson, who was born in 1839 in Ohio, died that same year.
ISSUE:
1. Carrie M. COULTER, b. 1862, Danville, Highland County, Ohio. Married: 1882, James Manlove CRANOR, b. 1857, d. pre-1912. DAR # 92776
Issue:
1. Pearl CRANOR, b. about 1883, Albany, Gentry County, Missouri. Married: _____ NELSON. DAR # 139402
2. Daughter COULTER, died young
3. Wade COULTER, b. 1873, Missouri Married: Fanny Grace GRAMPHAM, daughter of Enoch GRAMPHAM.
Issue:
1. Marguerite COULTER, b. 1909, Albany, Gentry County, Missouri. Married: Lloyd PATTON. 1979/1982 lived in Albany.
Issue:
1. Son PATTON, lived in Kansas City, Missouri, was in TV.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Mary Jane-Andrew-John-James
Aunt Doe, as she was called, was born in 1847 in Meigs County, Ohio. Theodosia was married in Missouri about 1882 to the husband of her sister, Mary, who died the year before. Theodosia's husband's name was MC LAIN, possibly the D.F. MC LAIN in the 1876 Harrison County, Missouri, Atlas, farmer of Clay Township, born Knox County, Ohio. Moving to Harrison County in 1868.
Mc Lain had died by 1900, when Theodosia was found in Hamilton, Harrison County, Missouri, with his and Mary's son, Dwight, and family. That is all the information attained about Aunt Doe.
No issue
Ewing Family Lineage: Mary Jane-Andrew-John-James
Rosaltha, born in 1850 in Meigs County, Ohio went through life as Zottie. She was married in 1870 to a man by the name of CHANNEL, who died before 1879. It was about 1879 that she and William N. ESTES were married. William was born in 1846 in Tazewell, Tennessee. In the 1880 census the family was found in Davis City, Burrell Township, Decatur County, Iowa. William was listed as a blacksmith (in partnership with Jasper Newton SYLVESTER, per chance?)
The Estes family later moved to Oregon, and A.E. EWING'S notes has them living there in 1900. Heppener, Morrow County, but I could not find them in the 1900 Oregon Index. However Heppener is where Rosaltha died 14 June 1903. It is known that a daughter was born in Morrow County in 1888.
William died 22 March 1911 in Buffalo, Wyoming.
ISSUE:
1. Frank CHANNEL, b. 1871, Missouri
2. Bessie ESTES, b. Jan 1880, Iowa. Married: _____ MERRIMAN
3. Blanche ESTES, apparently died young
4. Antonia Fern ESTES, b. 18 Sept 1888, Lexington, Morrow County, Oregon. Married: 2 Nov 1907, Alva M. HATCH, b. 4 Feb 1885, Denver, Colorado. DAR # 279370
Issue:
1. Helen Isabel HATCH, Married: _____ SHEA. DAR # 359141
5. Mamie ESTES, Married: _____ STABLER
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Ewing Family Lineage: Mary Jane-Andrew-John-James
Mary, called Mamie, was born in 1853 in Meigs County, Ohio and was married abut 1870 to a MC LAIN, probably the D.F. McLain as mentioned under the history of Theodosia. They lived in Harrison County, Missouri, but I could not find them in the 1880 census index. Mary died in 1881 in Harrison County and her husband subsequently married her elder sister, Theodosia. Berta Sylvester RICHARDS, her niece, gives her three children, Dwight, Hugh and Ned, but I have only seen a Dwight in any census.
ISSUE:
1. Dwight H. MC LAIN, b. Dec 1871, Missouri. Married: 1900, Eva _____, b. Dec 1881, Missouri. 1900 census: Hamilton, Harrison County, Missouri with step-mother, Theodosia.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Andrew-John-James
Elizabeth, born 24 December 1821 was one of those great-grandchildren of Indian John who was privileged to have been born in his lifetime. However, as she turned three years old on the day he died, 24 December 1824, it is doubtful that she held many memories of him through the years.
As has been noted in the section on Elizabeth's sister, Sarah Ann, there was in the Ewing neighborhood a family by the name of Sheppard, headed by John Henry SHEPPARD, whom Sarah Ann was later to marry, after the death of his first wife, also a Sarah Ann. One of the sons in the family was William Addison SHEPPARD, born 6 July 1823 in Washington County, Virginia. William was not quite 23 and Elizabeth was 24 1/2 when they were married 18 June 1846.
I am not quite sure where William and Elizabeth lived to begin with...Abigail, their first child, born in 1848, wrote that she was born 12 miles from Adamsville, Gallia County, Ohio - but no one lives 12 miles from Adamsville because if you live 12 miles from Adamsville, you live 2 miles nearer someplace larger and of more importance than the little wide place in the road that Adamsville was. (I do not think it is even on a map any more) If you live 12 miles west, you are in Jackson County, 12 miles north, Vinton County, 12 miles east, the Ohio River, and 12 miles south, Walnut Township and a lot nearer to Gallia's principal city of Gallipolis than Adamsville.
Maybe Abigail meant to put an 'or' between the 1 and the 2. If that's the case, she was born in Raccoon Township 6 or 8 miles south of Ewington where William and Elizabeth were living in 1848
Not long after Abigail's birth, William and Elizabeth went to Van Buren County, Iowa, where so many of our HOLCOMBS were. They were found there in the 1850 census, William a laborer.
Recorded in their family Bible are five more children born after Abigail, all of whom died as infants or, in the case of Mary, at the age of 5 1/2. None of these are recorded as being buried in Gallia County, Ohio, which suggests that they were born and died in Van Buren County, Iowa. If so, the Sheppards remained in Van Buren County until 1859, the year that Mary the last of the five, died.
By 1860, Elizabeth was back in Ewington, the head of the household, living next to John and Sarah Ann. William was no where to be found. But he was back in Huntington Township by 1862, for on 17 August that year he was at Vinton to enlist as a private in the unlucky Company K, 60th OVI, which so many of the other Huntington Township men joined. A month later the Regiment was at Harper's Ferry when Union forces surrendered to Stonewall JACKSON on 15 September 1862.
William and the others were captured and paroled that day and were marched to Annapolis. They were returned to Chicago (Camp Douglas) from where William wrote on 22 October 1862, to his daughter, Abigail, "the paroled soldiers are doing all manner of mischief. They can take the fence down as fast as the officers can have it put up. They will work all day building fence and before 9 o'clock, it is all laid flat. They have set fire to the camp three or four times, and have burned a good share of it to ashes and they swore if they are not sent home they will burn it all down...It is my opinion that we will be sent home before long. There have been a good many run away. For my part, I intend to come home honorable or not at all."
The company was mustered out 10 November 1862, by order of the War Department.
Apparently William did go home, but only for a short time. From a letter he wrote in 1865 we learn that he had not seen his family since at least the previous summer. He enlisted at Cincinnati 15 February 1865, as a baker in Company C of the 188th Regiment, OVI. He wrote to "Betty" and "Abby" on 30 March 1865, from Wartrace, Tennessee.
"It has been a long time since I have written you...I tried to enlist last fall but the doctor would not pass me. I was sick pretty near all summer and came very near death. In fact, I have not seen a well day ...(rest of the sentence was missing)."
At the time of the enlistment, William was 6 feet tall and had gray eyes and black hair. His war records do not show that he was in any battle or at any time even under fire. As a matter of fact by the time he enlisted at Cincinnati the war was pretty much over, especially in Tennessee.
William was discharged at Nashville on the 21st of September 1865 and he made his way back to Ohio, but to Cincinnati apparently - at least not Ewington. He never contacted Elizabeth or Abigail again.
Late in 1869, near Cincinnati, he met Margaret (CUSTER) SHORT, a widow with three children. Margaret's husband, Elijah SHORT, had been killed in North Carolina during the war. According to Margaret's later testimony, William did not talk much about his past, but some things he said led her to believe he had been of a roving disposition, living in many places. He told her that he had been married but that his wife had died and he had no family.
William and Margaret were married 5 March 1870 at Amelia, Ohio a little town near Cincinnati. William was then 46. Four days after the wedding they left for Windsor, Shelby County, Illinois, where they lived six years. Their next stop was Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas. They were there six years, except for a brief (five-month) stay in 1881 in Pitkin, Gunnison County, Colorado.
Finally on 28 May 1882, they arrived at Hotchkiss in North Fork Valley, Delta County, Colorado and that is where they spent the rest of their years.
On 10 June 1895, William, then 70 years old, filed for a pension, claiming old age, general debility and incapacity to earn any support by manual labor. He cited both enlistments in
his declaration.
In the meantime, Abigail had married in 1865 to George Washington CAMPBELL, a Civil War veteran, and about 1870 they left Ohio in favor of Waverly, Sangamon County, Illinois, Elizabeth with them. It was on the Campbell farm near Waverly that Elizabeth died on 20 December 1872, four days short of her 51st birthday.
The following spring the Campbells went to Lyons, Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas. That was their home for the next 24 years. George died in 1897 and Abigail moved to Medora, Reno County, Kansas. She filed for a widow's pension and it may have been that action that made her think to check with the pension bureau about her father, whom she had not seen in over 30 years. She wrote to the Bureau of Pensions and received this reply dated 30 October 1899: "...you are advised that the records of this Bureau show that on the 17th day of June, 1895, William Addison SHEPPARD filed a claim for pension for old age and general debility, which was allowed November 25, 1895, at $10 per month from June 17, 1895.
"The soldier's post-office address at the time of filing his claim was Hotchkiss, Delta Co., Colorado, and I learn from the Treasury Department that when he executed his voucher for the Quarter's pension due August 4, 1899, his address was the same."
Needless to say, Abigail was elated. She wrote her father and the two were reunited after being so long apart. About 1901 Abigail moved her family, lock, stock and barrel, to Hotchkiss to be near her aging father. The single children went with her, eventually the married ones, Addison, Bert, Edna and Eva, followed.
William died 2 October 1903, age 80 years, 2 months, 28 days and Margaret filed for a widow's pension. In her file is Abigail's General Affidavit, dated 16 April 1904: "William A. Sheppard and his wife Elizabeth were separated over three years before the death of my mother. I do not know the cause of the separation. William A. Sheppard deserted my mother in 1865. They were not divorced."
Included also were Margaret's statement on several occasions that she had believed William's first wife was dead at the time of her marriage to William. Margaret got her pension.
Margaret died 7 November 1910 and another chapter comes to a close.
There is an ironic twist to this story. It turns out that when Elizabeth died, she was within 75 miles of her husband and neither of them knew it. Elizabeth and the Campbells moved to Waverly, Sangamon County, in the Springfield, Illinois area, at about the same time (1870) that William and Margaret moved to Windsor, Shelby County, also not far from Springfield. Sangamon and Shelby Counties are separated only by Christian County, and the towns of Waverly and Windsor are not more than 75 miles apart. Though so near to each other, fate decreed that William and Elizabeth should not meet.
It is interesting to speculate how this story might have ended if they had.
ISSUE:
7-6-1 1. Abigail SHEPPARD, b. 15 June 1848. Adamsville? Gallia County, Ohio.
2. Infant SHEPPARD, b. 21 Sept 1850, Van Buren County, Iowa ? d.(information unreadable)
3. Mary S. SHEPPARD, b. 25 July 1853, Van Buren County, Iowa, d. Feb 1859.
4. Infant SHEPPARD, d. 1856
5. Infant SHEPPARD, b. 1857
6. Infant SHEPPARD, b. 16 Sept 1857, d. 28 Sept 1857
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Ewing Family Lineage: Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
Much of Abigail's story has already been covered under the section on her mother.
Abigail was born 15 June 1848 in Gallia County and was one of the few "only children" in this book. Deprived of a father in her teens, she had to go to work to help make ends meet, and became a school teacher. She was given a school in Perry Township, two townships south of Huntington Township, Ohio about 12 miles from Ewington. While there, she boarded with the Isaac GREEN family. It happened that the farm next to Isaac's was that of his uncle, Charles CAMPBELL. In that household was young, tall, handsome George Washington CAMPBELL, and it follows that Abigail and George would meet, fall in love and marry.
But first there was a war. George enlisted on 2 May 1864, as a private in company F, 141st Ohio National Guard Infantry, under Captain Amos RIPLEY, at Gallipolis, Ohio 3 September 1864.
George was born 18 March 1841, probably right there in Perry Township, to the above Charles and his wife, Irene (PROSE) CAMPBELL. He had black eyes, dark hair, fair complexion and stood 6 feet tall.
At the end of Abigail's school term on 6 July 1865, she and George were married in the Green home by Elder Levi MC DANIEL.
Before long, members of George's family began talking of moving to Illinois. George and Abigail began to talk about it too, and of course, Abigail's mother, Elizabeth, would go with them. It was about 1870 that the Campbells and others headed for Waverly, Sangamon County, Illinois. That is where Elizabeth SHEPPARD died in 1872.
Shortly after Elizabeth' death, George and Abigail decided to try Kansas. They headed for Lyons, Rice County (Victoria Township) and that is where they lived and farmed for the next several years.
George was only 56 when he died 4 February 1897 of dropsy and lung disease at Lyons. In 1900 the widow Abigail was living in Hutchinson, Medora Township, Reno County, Kansas - the next county over. That is where she applied for a pension and that is where she was when she discovered that her father, whom she had not seen in 30 years, was alive and well and living in Hotchkiss, Colorado.
Abigail was most eager to be near her father in his last years, and made plans immediately to move to Hotchkiss. The single children, the five who were still at home; Hardin, George, John, Maggie, and Una Laura, would be going with her, and the rest would follow soon. George, who was about 20 then, was working in a salt mine, but quit right away to help get the covered wagon ready for the move. George, who was 6 feet 4 inches, used to say that he grew so tall because he had to sleep under the tongue of the wagon.
What a reunion it was when they finally arrived in Hotchkiss! Abigail had a father she could hardly remember, and a stepmother she had never met, and the children found a grandfather they had only been told about before.
Sadly, they did not have him long for he died within two years of their arrival.
Abigail and the children, including the older ones who arrived later, took to Colorado and especially the Hotchkiss area, finding it their "greener pasture." Most remained there the rest of their lives and have descendants there today.
It was Abigail's home for a quarter of a century. She died there on the 20th of June 1926, just five days after her 76th birthday.
ISSUE:
1. Charles Addison CAMPBELL, b. 11 Aug 1867, Gallia County, Ohio, d. 30 July 1940, Paonia, Delta County, Colorado. Single
2. Edna Earles CAMPBELL, b. 14 Jun 1869, Gallia County, Ohio, d. 17 May 1946, Paonia, Delta County, Colorado. Married: 12 Jan 1890, Kansas, Bud TAYLOR, b. about 1865, d. 17 Dec 1944. Issue not known.
7-6-1-3 3. Ross Hardin CAMPBELL, b. 15 Sept 1871, Sangamon County, Illinois.
4. William Bert CAMPBELL, b. 6 sept 1874, Lyons, Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas, d. 11 Nov 1972, Delta County, Colorado. Married: 24 Nov 1897, Dora LIEBMAN, d. 23 Nov 1956. No issue.
5. Eva Floy CAMPBELL, b. 6 Mar 1876, Lyons, Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas, d. 4 Feb 1960. Married: 6 Mar 1897, Charles E. BALLARD. Lived in Hotchkiss, Colorado.
Issue:
1. William Ross BALLARD, b. 2 Oct 1898, Kansas .
6. Frank Roy CAMPBELL, b. 26 May 1879, Lyons, Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas, d. 31 Jan 1891, Lyons, Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas.
7-6-1-7 7. George Glen CAMPBELL, b. 20 Aug 1881, Lyons, Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas.
7-6-1-8 8. John Sheppard CAMPBELL, b. 7 May 1883, Lyons, Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas.
9. Nellie May CAMPBELL, b. 13 Feb 1885, Lyons, Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas, d. 20 Mar 1894, Lyons, Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas.
10. Maggie Esther CAMPBELL, b. 11 Oct 1886, Lyons, Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas, d. 14 Nov 1912, Delta County, Colorado. Married: Claude (Ted) HICE.
Issue:
1. Glenn HICE, b. 20 July 1905, d. 6 Apr 1972. Married: 1st (?). Married 2nd Ida ROBINSON, b. 8 Jan 1906.
Issue by Ida:
1. Glen Jean HICE, b. 22 Sept 1947.
7-6-1-11 11. Una Laura CAMPBELL, b. 13 Sept 1888, Lyons, Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas.
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Ewing Family Lineage: Abigail-Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
Ross was born 15 September 1871 in Sangamon County, Illinois. He was about 30 when the family moved from Reno County, Kansas to Colorado and was about 54 when he left Paonia, Delta County, Colorado in 1926 in favor of a picturesque little town in the mountains east of San Diego, California - Ramona, where his youngest sister Una Laura and her family were located. It was there, at that late date in life, that he married. She was Mattie (SANBORN) TINNIN, a widow with three children, Kate, Hugh and Love. Ross was in the poultry business in Ramona and was a member of the Mt. Woodson Odd Fellows. He died 16 May 1941 at the age of 70 years and is buried in Nuevo Memory Gardens Cemetery in Ramona, California. Mattie died in 1960.
In 1979 the stepdaughter, Kate TINNIN was living at
605 16th Street in Ramona, California. The wife of Ross's nephew, Winifred (CODDINGTON) HANSON (7-6-1-11-1) who also lived in Ramona in 1979 recalled Ross as a quiet, easygoing man, and a picture I have of him taken when he was 20 or 25 shows he had a handsome, serene face. His name is perpetuated among other members of the family, who must have thought highly of him.
No issue
Ewing Family Lineage: Abigail-Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
George was born 20 August 1881 in Lyons, Victoria Township Rice County, Kansas and was about 20 years old when the family moved to Colorado. He was married in Colorado on 4 June 1905 to Amelia Alice ALLEN.
ISSUE:
1. Edna Alice CAMPBELL, b. 31 Aug 1909, Midway, Colorado, d. 12 June 1984, heart attack at the age of 74 years. Single . Edna collected most of the Campbell information. When the job got to much for, her she passed it on to a young cousin, Esther HANSON WINDUS.
2. George Howard CAMPBELL, b. 3 Feb 1913. Midway, Colorado, d. 15 Oct 1946 - George was injured in a hay-stacker accident, died following surgery in a Denver, Colorado hospital. Married: 4 June 1938, Melva MILLER.
Melva remarried: 2nd July 1948, Ernest ANDERSON. Died: 28 July 1969, Mesa Arizona. Married 3rd 24 Feb 1974, Hjalmer SWANSON. No issue.
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7-6-1-8 JOHN SHEPPARD CAMPBELL
Ewing Family Lineage: Abigail-Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
John was born 7 May 1883 in Lyons, Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas and died 1 July 1942 in Paonia, Delta County, Colorado. His wife was Catherine (Kate) ALLEN, sister of Amelia who married his brother George.
ISSUE:
7-6-1-8-1 1. Margaret Helen CAMPBELL, b. 4 Feb 1904
7-6-1-8-2 2. Mary Una CAMPBELL, 11 Aug 1905
3. Allen Bertrand CAMPBELL, b. 26 Feb 1907, d. 10 Jun 1961. Married: 11 Nov 1934, Virginia Elizabeth TELLEM
Issue:
1. John Fredrick CAMPBELL, m: Shirley _____
7-6-1-8-4 4. Catherine Abby CAMPBELL, b. 3 Dec 1909
7-6-1-8-5 5. Alice Floy CAMPBELL, b. 11 Nov 1911 (11/11/11)
6. Lloyd Ivan CAMPBELL, b. 28 Dec 1913. Married: in Honduras, Hortense MC CARTHY.
7-6-1-8-7 7. John Phillip CAMPBELL, b. 12 Dec 1915
8. Colin CAMPBELL, b. 17 Apr 1918; d. Nov 1919
9. Calvin Clyde CAMPBELL, b. 14 July 1922. Married: Thanksgiving Day, 1951, Mildred (MORSE) HORN. Mildred had a daughter, Dale HORN, b. 21 July 1948. Dale went by the CAMPBELL name. She was married 31 May 1974 to David JACKSON and has two children, Tina Mae and Roy David JACKSON. Calvin owns the old William Addison Sheppard place at Hotchkiss, Midway, Colorado.
10. William Wayne CAMPBELL, b. 28 Apr 1924. Married: Mar 1943, Florine ELDSBERRY.
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7-6-1-8-1 MARGARET HELEN CAMPBELL
Ewing Family Lineage: John-Abigail-Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
Margaret was born 4 February 1904 and was married on Christmas Day in 1927 to Joseph Charles MC DANIEL. Margaret died 10 August 1971.
ISSUE:
1. Carol Helen MC DANIEL, b. 25 Sept 1928, d. 21 Mar 1929.
2. Donna Irene MC DANIEL, b. 3 Dec 1929. Married: Al GASWINT.
3. Lyle Allen MC DANIEL, b. 17 Apr 1931. Married: Sharon
4. Earl Edwin MC DANIEL, b. 13 Aug 1932. Married 1950, Helen FARLENE.
5. Daryl Charles MC DANIEL, b. 20 May 1934, d. 19 Oct 1934.
6. Loren Lee MC DANIEL, b. 28 April 1936
7. Larry Joe MC DANIEL, b. 1 July 1938. Married: 22 Mar 1976, Goldie BAKER.
8. Colleen Margaret MC DANIEL, b. 20 Mar 1943. Married: Paul RANDALL
9. Charleen MC DANIEL, b. 31 Aug 1945, d. Dec 1945
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Ewing Family Lineage: John-Abigail-Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
Mary Una was born 11 August 1905. John Frank STORY and Mary were married in September of 1923. John died the 14th of April in 1972. Mary's address in the 1980's was Route 1, Box 79, Paonia, Colorado, 81428.
ISSUE:
1. Kathryn Elizabeth STORY, b. 15 July 1924. Married 1st 30 Mar 1942, Franklin E. BEATTIE, Killed in Korea, l951. She married 2nd 1 Nov 1952, Don M. CRABTREE.
2. Mary June STORY, b. 9 June 1926. Married: Ralph COON.
3. John Frank STORY, b. 31 Jan 1929, d. 20 Feb 1975 - Killed in a truck crash. Married: 29 Feb 1952, Derre Nell BULLOCK.
4. Melvin STORY, b. 14 Mar 1932. Married: 21 Jan 1954, June KING.
5. Lois Pauline STORY, b. 12 June 1933. Married: 2 Dec 1953, Jim PAVLISICK.
6. Patricia Ann STORY, b. 16 Nov 1936, d. 31 Oct 1956. Married: 28 May 1955.
7. Karen Kay STORY, b. 15 Sept 1939. Married: 3 Oct 1964, Mike JARMAN.
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7-6-1-8-4 CATHERINE ABBY CAMPBELL
Ewing Family Lineage: John-Abigail-Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
Catherine was born on the 3rd of December 1909. Catherine and Clifford SPARKS were married in August of 1928.
Clifford died 27 June 1975
ISSUE:
1. Margaret Jean SPARKS, b. 5 May 1929. Married: Winston WOOD
Issue:
1. Marvin Dean WOOD, b. 8 Aug 1950
2. Katherine Luella WOOD, b. 23 June 1952
2. James Sheppard SPARKS, b. 5 Dec 1931. Married: Janet RULE.
Issue:
3. Thelma Ann SPARKS, b. 11 Mar 1935. Married: Galen BENNETT - Galen was killed in 1962 in Grants, New Mexico, when the roof of a uranium mine he was working in collapsed. Galen was on the safe side of the cave-in, but he was killed when he went back in to rescue the others.
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Ewing Family Lineage: John-Abigaill-Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
Alice was born 11 November 1911. Her first marriage took place in November 1929 when she and Charles AUSTIN were wed. He died in October of 1943 and Alice was married again in 1944 to Dale FRITCHMAN.
ISSUE:
1. Award Gail AUSTIN, b. 27 Nov 1937. Married 1st Marlene ACKERSON, 14 Aug 1955; divorced 1962.
Married 2nd Elois _____, Award adopted her son, Billy.
Issue by Marlene:
2. Ellis Pert FRITCHMAN, b. 19 July 1945. Married: Patricia Darlene _____
7-6-1-8-7 JOHN PHILLIP CAMPBELL
Ewing Family Lineage: John-Abigail-Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
John was born 12 December 1915 and he died 11 July 1972. He was married in October 1935, to Phyllis HUTCHINS.
ISSUE:
1. Phillip Sherrin CAMPBELL, b. 17 Sept 1936. Married: 14 Nov 1959, Jody ABSECK.
2. Stanley Allen CAMPBELL, b. 27 Feb 1939. Married: 9 Feb 1963, Willeta Faye LIVINGSTON
3. Terril Clare CAMBPELL. Married: (1) July 1963, Julie SHUMARD, divorced. Married 2nd 18 May 1968, Sharon FRITZLAN, who had a daughter, April Annette, b. 9 May 1967.
7-6-1-11 UNA LAURA CAMPBELL
Ewing Family Lineage: Abigail-Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
Una Laura went through her first several months known only as Cootie. She was finally given the name Una Laura, but she always used it as Laura Una, and her children all thought that is what it was until family research revealed otherwise.
She was born 13 September 1888 at Lyons, Rice County, Kansas and was about 13 when the move to Hotchkiss, Colorado came. It was in Hotchkiss that she and Jason HANSON JR. were married on 4 September 1907.
Jason was born 24 February 1882 in Baldwin, Maine and had gone with his parents, Jason and Emma (DEVEREUX) HANSON, to Colorado around the turn of the century.
In 1912 Una and Jason moved to Ramona, California in the mountains east of San Diego. In 1915 Jason started a chicken ranch at 1256 San Vicente Road, Ramona, where his son, Hardin lived in the early 1980's. Jason later took up turkey ranching. He served as a director of the Ramona Turkey Growers Association, and for a time hatched turkeys for the association.
While his children were in high school, Jason served on the Board of Trustees for Ramona High School, retiring in 1943 after many years. He was a member of the Ramona Rotary Club and the Odd Fellows Lodge, and served about 14 years as a director of Nuevo Memory Gardens Association.
Una brought up seven children and was a member of the Rebekah Lodge. She died 8 December 1948 at Mercy Hospital in San Diego, California after a short illness at the age of 60. She is buried at Nuevo Memory Gardens Cemetery in Ramona.
In the 1950s, Jason turned 1256 San Vicente Road over to Hardin and went to Whittier, California to make his home with his daughter, Alene FLETCHER. The Fletcher home was the scene of an enormous family reunion on Jason's 79th birthday in 1961, with all seven of his children present, plus his eighteen grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Not long thereafter Jason became ill and was taken to a convalescent home in Lemon Grove, near San Diego. He died there 24 August 1962, age 80 years and is buried next to Una at the Nuevo Memory Gardens Cemetery in Ramona, California.
ISSUE:
7-6-1-11-1 1. Warren Everett HANSON, b. 30 Apr 1909, Paonia, Delta County, Colorado.
7-6-1-11-2 2. Evanell Frances HANSON, b. 2 July 1911, Paonia, Delta County, Colorado.
7-6-1-11-3 3. Cora Ethel HANSON, b. 7 Dec 1913, Paonia, Delta County, Colorado.
7-6-1-11-4 4. Alfred Jason HANSON, b. 3 Oct 1916, Ramona, California.
7-6-1-11-5 5. Alene Abby HANSON, b. 18 Dec 1920, San Diego, California.
7-6-1-11-6 6. Hardin Campbell HANSON, b. 22 Aug, San Diego, California.
7. Marjorie Meryl HANSON, b. 1 Apr 1925, San Diego, California. Lived in Spring Valley, Single.
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7-6-1-11-1 WARREN EVERETT HANSON
Ewing Family Lineage: Una-Abigail-Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
Warren was born in Paonia, Colorado on 30 April 1909, but grew up in Ramona, where he was married on 30 March 1935 to Winifred Rose CODDINGTON. Winifred had gone to Ramona with her parents, Leonard and Winifred (PELLEY) CODDINGTON, from Oklahoma City in 1935. Oklahoma City was where Winifred was born on the 6th of January 1915.
In 1941 Warren and Winifred moved to 3521 Thorn Street in San Diego, which is where Winifred still lived in 1983. It had been the family home for 42 years. During World War II, Warren was a sprayer for Consolidated Aircraft. He then went to work for San Diego Gas and Electric Company as a painter and was with them for 25 years.
Warren died 6 June 1981 at Hillside Hospital in San Diego at the age of 72 years old. He is buried at Nuevo Memory Gardens Cemetery in Ramona, California.
ISSUE:
7-6-1-11-1-1 1. Betty Corene HANSON, b. 27 Jan 1937, San Diego, California.
7-6-1-11-1-2 2. Laura Rose HANSON, b. 5 Dec 1941, San Diego, California.
7-6-1-11-1-3 3. Esther Winifred HANSON, b. 25 Apr 1943, San Diego, California.
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7-6-1-11-1-1 BETTY CORENE HANSON
Ewing Family Lineage: Warren-Una-Abigail-Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
Betty, born 27 January 1937 in San Diego, California, was married on 11 June 1955 at Trinity Methodist Church, San Diego, to Roland Glenn CLARK. Roland was born 29 August 1931 in Westbrook, Maine.
Roland's parents were Wilber and Esmerelda (GOODNOUSH) CLARK. Betty and Roland and their family live in Beaumont, Riverside County, California.
7-6-1-11-1-2 LAURA ROSE HANSON
Ewing Family Lineage: Warren-Una-Abigail-Elizabeth-Andrew-John-James
Laura has an easy to remember birthday, she was born two days before Pearl Harbor Day, 5 December 1941. She was born in San Diego and was married on 6 March 1961 at Trinity Methodist Church to James William HOLSTINE. James was born in San Diego 20 December 1940, the son of James and Lucy HOLSTINE.
After several years and three children, that marriage ended in divorce. On 28 June 1980, Laura was married in Olympia, Washington to John Albert HOPPER, a social worker. Born 1 February 1941, the son of Howard and Grace HOPPER, John had previously been married and had three children, John Jr., James and Laura LuAnn (three Lauras in the family!)