Thursday, April 24, 2014

Nancy "Nannie" Jenkins Shepherd

Nancy was my second great grandmother and the mother of Robert E Shepherd, my maternal great grandfather. She was born June 21, 1846 in La Grange, Lewis County, Missouri and lived there her entire life. Her parents were James L Jenkins and Nancy Ann Tuley. James had been one of the early pioneers of LaGrange and, as I mentioned in the last post, he had been on the first town council there back in 1854. Nancy married William H Shepherd on April 16, 1866 in LaGrange. They had been married for 59 years when he passed away in 1925. Nancy had been a member of the First Baptist Church in LaGrange for 64 years.

Nancy and William’s family included William P, Edward, Jennie Irene,  Mary Elizabeth, Robert Elmore (my great grandfather), Charles H., and Pearl Mabel.

Because Nancy was one of LaGrange’s oldest residents, she was honored at the planting of a centennial tree in LaGrange on Friday, April 4, 1930. She placed the first shovel of dirt around the tree. On Saturday, her children came and got her for a visit to Quincy with family for a few days. She was staying at the home of her son, Robert. Sadly, on Wednesday, April 9, 1930, Nannie died at her son’s home.

There were family stories that she was part Cherokee, but I have never been able to determine that. I just don’t know much about her life in LaGrange. However, from reading one article published about her in a local newspaper and from her obituary,  she was a loyal member of her church having been a member for so long and she seemed to be very devoted to her family and they to her.

I can’t help but wonder what she must have thought about all of the changes in the world that she would have witnessed such as the inventions of electricity, automobiles, trains, and airplanes to name but a few. She would have been 16 years old when the Civil War began; so she probably had some remembrances of it. She would have remembered the Spanish-American War and World War I. It would have been amazing to have been able to talk to her about all of this!
The photo above is a four-generation photo. Standing are my grandmother, Edna Shepherd Happekotte and my great grandfather, Robert E Shepherd. The child is my mother, Patricia Happekotte Schell and holding her is my second great grandmother, Nancy Jenkins Shepherd. 

The photo below, I believe, is Nancy. The back of the photo says South Park [in Quincy, IL] and the date is May 1, 1927