Edith Anna Dickinson, in my opinion, was what I would call a spunky woman. She had a mind of her own and accomplished what she wanted to accomplish, which was quite a lot.
Two months after Edith's birth in 1881, her mother died. Fortunately, Edith's maternal grandparents, who had moved to Michigan to be near their daughter, Emma and her family, adopted baby Edith and took good care of her. Edith's father, Cyrus, had Edith's three older brothers to tend to. Carrie Dickinson, Edith's older sister, was already married and lived in Denver, Colorado.
Before 1897, Cyrus had moved to Denver. So, Edith, at age 16, in 1897, boarded a train and left for Denver, also. She wanted to be near her dad and sister. She obtained a job, working for a seamstress, who seemed to be living next door to the family Edith was living with in Denver, in the 1900 census. (I have to think that this is where and how Edith learned to make such tiny stitches in the quilts that she made.)
Edith was happy in Denver at her job and meeting the friends of Cyrus and Carrie. She fell in love with John Stewart, Cyrus' friend, and they married on the 25th of December in 1901. It didn't matter to Edith that John was 30 years older than she was. She knew that he loved her and needed her. Their first daughter, Mildred, was born in September 1902. At an interview I had with Mildred sometime in the 1990s, she said, "Dorothy Louise was born October 12, 1904. My father died May 15, 1904, six months before Dorothy was born."
One of Edith's brothers had a resort in Northern Michigan where I believe Edith felt that she could be useful and helpful and could provide her daughters with a good place to be brought up. She found a nice church nearby and this is where she met Luke Hyman, the son of the minister.
Some time later, Luke proposed to Edith, saying that he would be a good father to her daughters and would like her to be his wife. She said "Yes". See the words of the Marriage Certificate below:
"Certification of Marriage of Mr. Luke Hyman of Atwood, Michigan and Mrs. Edith A. Stewart of Ellsworth, Michigan on Tuesday, 11 Sep, 1906 at the home of Luke Hyman, Reverend G.W. Hyman officiating. Witnesses: Mr. & Mrs John Docter"
There is almost too much for me to write about Edith because she was a lovable, determined, and ambitious person. She was my husband's only grandmother that he knew, and he loved and admired her greatly. She made a point of visiting her family in Akron, Ohio as often as she could. And she certainly welcomed all of her relatives to visit her in Detroit, where she lived near her daughter, Dorothy and family, in Edith's later years.
Cancer was the cause of her death in 1943. Her grave is at the White Chapel Cemetery in Birmingham, Oakland, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.
EDITH ANN DICKINSON
BORN: 8 Mar 1881 in Evergreen, Montcalm, MI
MARRIED: 1) 25 Dec 1901 in Denver, Arapahoe, CO 2) 11 Sep 1906 in Atwood, MI
DIED: 3 Jul 1943 in Detroit, Wayne, MI
BURIED: White Chapel Cemetery in Birmingham, Oakland, MI
SOURCES:Federal Censuses of 1880-1940; Interviews with Mildred and Robert C. Shepard; Benoni Dickinson Book by Mrs. Elden Elsch; Certificates of Death, Birth, and Marriages; Mildred's scrapbooks and photographs.
This grandfather, John Stewart, was born in North River, Prince Edward Island, Canada on the 20th day of November in 1851. I vividly remember the day that I learned about this man because my mother-in-law, Mildred Stewart Shepard, was excited to present me with her father's Naturalization papers to add to my genealogy files. This was a new kind of record for me to study and learn from. And so, I admit that John Stewart became one of my more colorful characters in my genealogical pursuits.
John lived with his parents and family until he was 23 and married Annie Marie Comerford. It appears that John and Annie may have lived in Windsor, Nova Scotia in the first years of their marriage. They had three children, a boy and two girls. By December 1884, the family seems to be living in Golden, Jefferson, Colorado where John signed papers for his "Declaration of Intent", a prerequisite before a foreigner can earn his Naturalization. See some of the words of this document below....
John Stewart declared: "here in open Court, upon oath, that he will support the constitution of the United States, and that he doth absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity and every Foreign power, Prince, Potentate, State or Sovereignty whatsoever, and particularly to the Queen of Great Britain & Ireland of whom he was heretofore a subject. It is therefore ordered and adjudged by the Court that the said John Stewart," [ etc.]
According to John's side of the story, his wife, Annie deserted him, taking the two eldest children with her. He was given custody of the 12 year old, Isabella. John went to court to get a divorce which was granted him in October 1892, at age 40.
In October 1894, John received his citizenship papers. The Denver city directories and census records list John as a painter for two different Rail Road Companies, from 1889 to 1898...the D.U. and Pacific R.R. and the B&M R.R.
He met Edith Anna Dickinson through a good friend, Edith's father, Cyrus Dickinson. Edith was a great deal younger than John but she wanted to marry and care for John Stewart. The marriage took place on Christmas Day, December 1901. John was 50, Edith was 20. They had two beautiful daughters, Mildred and Dorothy.
Sadly, John died on the 15th day of May in 1904 and was buried at the Fairmount Cemetery in Denver. He was only 53 years old.
JOHN STEWART
BORN: 20 May 1851 in North River, Prince Edward Island, Canada
MARRIED: 1) 20 Sep 1875 in Charlottesville, P.E.I., Canada
2) 25 Dec 1901 in Denver, Arapahoe, CO
DIED: 15 May 1904 in Denver, Arapahoe, CO
BURIED: Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, Arapahoe, CO
SOURCES: John Stewart's Naturalization Papers; Census Records of North River, PEI, Canada 1851, 1861, 1871 and Denver, CO 1870-1910; Denver City Directories 1884-1910; Interviews with Mildred Stewart Shepard at my home in Coos Bay, OR.
Fannie's parents moved from Ohio to Iowa around 1854, probably looking for land like so many folks were doing in those years. Fannie was born on the 6th of December in 1856 in West Union, Fayette County, Iowa. This town was originally called Knob Prairie, which gives us a better description of what the countryside looked like. Everyone knows that Iowa is where corn is grown!
Evidently this environment didn't suit the Huffman family because they moved back to Ohio and are found in the 1870 census at Washington, Defiance County. Fannie had two brothers and two sisters but something drastic happened to her family before the 1880s. Her mother died in 1871 in Hicksville, Defiance, Ohio, and then all of Fannie's siblings died in their 20s. I suspect it was typhoid fever because I saw some newspaper articles about this epidemic in Defiance County, Ohio during this time period. How devastating this must have been for Fannie and her father, the only persons remaining of their entire family. But Fannie busied herself making hats (listed as a milliner) in the 1880 census. Her father was in the lumber business.
On the 29th of December 1881, when Fannie was 25 years old, she married Charles G. Shepard in Hicksville. I think that this must have been a happy marriage because I was told that each member of the Shepard family played an instrument (Robert, for instance, played the cello, Nellie and Jessie played the piano) and there were many occasions where they would play together, possibly Charles joining in with his tenor voice, too. Here is the list of the children and their birth dates, all born in Hicksville:
Fred Larrison 6 Nov 1882
Lelia Huffman 3 Oct 1883
Nellie Eleanor 14 Aug 1885
Ward Beecher 14 Mar 1887
Jessie S. 7 May 1890
Mary G. 26 Feb 1894
Robert 1 May 1896
Soon after Charles' death, the Shepard family had to sell the beautiful Shelby house in town. Fannie bought a farmhouse and small farm with cows and became a milk laborer, with help from her children. The farm was about 2 miles southwest of Shelby.
Fannie was quite ill with carcinoma of the colon for about a year and died at the farm house on the first of March 1930 when she was 73 years old. Her funeral was at the Barkdull Funeral Home in Shelby and she was buried at the Oakland Cemetery there.
FANNIE JOSEPHINE HUFFMAN
BORN: 6 Dec 1856 in West Union, Fayette, IA
MARRIED: 29 Dec 1881 in Hicksville, Defiance, OH
DIED: 1 Mar 1930 in Shelby, Richland, OH
BURIED: Mar 1930 at Oakland Cemetery in Shelby, Richland, OH
SOURCES: Marriage and death certificates, Ward Shepard, informant on the death certificate; Censuses of 1860-1930;Deed Index Defiance, Ohio, Fannie Shepard, Grantor to Joseph S. Bunnell, LDS film #0900483; "The Huffman and Shepard Genealogy Booklet, published in 1967, compilers, Mary and Jeffrey Shreffler.
Today we begin our study of the third generation of the Shepard Family history....the grandparents. Charles G. Shepard was born on the 13th day of June in 1858 in the city of New London, Henry County, Iowa. Three years later, his parents made the move to the Tustison neighborhood in Allen County, Indiana close to the Ohio border. Charles was usually called Charley and the G. in his name is considered to stand for George by some of his relatives.
In the 1870 Federal Census, Charles and his family are located at Newville Twp. in Dekalb County, IN and by 1875 the Shepards are settled into life in Hicksville, Defiance, Ohio, where they lived for a number of years.
Charley and his best friend in Hicksville, L. E. Griffin, were involved in singing in a male quartet in their 20s. Charley was the tenor and Griffin was the bass. These two pals were also members of the Hicksville Masonic Lodge #478. I suppose that this quartet sang at many of the Masonic occasions and at local social gatherings as well.
The 1880 census shows that the Shepard family is living on Spencer Street in the city of Hicksville. But, Charles is working as a fire insurance clerk in Auburn, Dekalb, IN, age 22. At the end of December 1881, Charles and Fanny J. Huffman became man and wife.
Now, I want to explain, that a good deal of Charley's story was told by L. E. Griffin via Charley's funeral oration at the Masonic Lodge. After Griffin delivered this eulogy, the local Hicksville newspaper copied Griffin's speech and posted it. Therefore, since our relatives in Shelby, Ohio kept a copy of this news story, and my husband, Bob Shepard, made a copy of it, I am able to relate to you, in this epistle, many of the details that Griffin shared. For instance, below is a list about Charley's occupations:
In 1888, sold fire insurance in Auburn, IN
From 1889-1890, sold mill dogs for George F. Knight
From 1891-1893, was a restaurateur in Hicksville
From 1893-1898, was a salesman for Gold Leaf Baking Powder
From 1898-1899, was in the stave business for D. G. Sharp at Hicksville
From 1900-1904, was a salesman for the Tiffin Wagon Co., boss, Mr. Shelley
In 1904, was in partnership with John Hire at Mark Center, and at stave mills in New Washington, Battlecreek, and Toledo, Ohio.
L. E. Griffin said that Charles was at his happiest while he was building his big home in Shelby, Richland, Ohio. Griffin visited the Shepard family at their new residence in the early1900s. He said that Charley was ecstatic about having such a fine place for his big family to live. He was making great plans for the landscaping, a driveway up the hill to the entrance, and hoped to have a section in the backyard for a picnic area and a gazebo. The above photograph of their house was taken in May 2015.
Charley's descendant, Delight Shreffler Schirmer, mentioned to Bob and I in our recorded interview with her in 1997, that one of the reasons Charley moved to Shelby was because there was a Rail Road crossing in the center of town for the Big Four Rail Companies.
Around 1906, Charley's legs were causing him problems and the doctors described his disease as creeping paralysis. Charley sought help from many medical people who prescribed a variety of things to ease his distress. Unfortunately, Charley died of this disease on the last day of December 1908 in Hicksville, and was buried there at the Forest Home Cemetery.
CHARLES G. SHEPARD
BORN: 13 Jun 1858, New London, Henry, IA
MARRIED: 29 Dec 1881, Hicksville, Defiance, OH
DIED: 31 Dec 1908, Hicksville, Defiance, OH
BURIED: 2 Jan 1909, Forest Home Cemetery, Hicksville, OH
SOURCES: Federal census of 1860-1900; marriage certificate, death certificate, interview with Delight Shreffler Schirmer in 1997, in Tucson, AZ; newspaper funeral oration of Charles Shepard by L. E. Griffin.; photos of the Shelby, OH Shepard residence taken by Marj and Robert L. Shepard in 2015,
There is much to be said about Mildred and I hardly know how and where to begin to write of this loving woman. It was obvious to me, from my first meeting of her in the spring of 1954, that she loved her family above all else. She always wore a charm bracelet that hung with the "charms" of her grandchildren, which included each child's birth date. It was important to her to show this bracelet to whomever was sitting close to her, at any occasion. I use this example of her pride in her descendants to give a picture of how I remember her.
Mildred was born in Denver, Arapahoe, Colorado in 1902. She had one sibling, a younger sister, Dorothy, who was also born in Denver. Their father, John Stewart, died when they were just toddlers. Their mother, Edith Dickinson Stewart, married Luke Hyman a few years later in Ellsworth, Michigan. Then, this family moved to Yale, St. Claire, MI. Mildred and Dorothy attended a boarding school. I am inserting some comments about this experience below, from an interview with Mildred's daughter, Milla Shepard Pairan:
Interview Doc #211-Milla said: "My mother hated the religious boarding school that she and her sister, Dot, attended. Mom dropped out of school in 1917 at 17 years of age and moved to a Detroit apartment. She shared the apartment with Mildred Fowzer and worked at the Telephone Company. Mildred Fowzer's boyfriend introduced Bob Shepard to Mom."
We have more evidence of Mildred in the Detroit, MI census of 1920 below (my notes of the census entries):
3 January 1920 Census of Detroit, MI=Mildred living at Dormer Hall with 36 other telephone operators working at the Telephone Co., Detroit, MI. She was not at school that school year. She listed her father as having been born in U.S. and her mother in MI [Interesting to note that Mildred may not have known, at age 17, that her father was actually born in PEI, Canada].
Well, soon after Bob and Mildred met, they married, in April 1922, at the home of her mother and step-father in Yale, MI. Then, Bob and Mildred went to be with Bob's family in Shelby, Ohio, for a few days.
During a visit that my husband and I had with Bob's cousin, Delight Dever in 1997, we were viewing a photograph of these newlyweds' visit to Shelby. Laughingly, Delight had these words to say:
"We Shepards laughed about her blue taffeta dress that she wore on the day she came to visit us in the country. She brought a whole wardrobe of city clothes." Delight also mentioned that Mildred had difficulty in traipsing around the Shepard farm in her fancy shoes, too. After all, Mildred was accustomed to living in the big cities. Bob and all of his family were country dwellers.
Mildred and Bob spent their married years in South Akron, near where Bob was employed, at the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. They had three children named Fred, Milla, and Robert Carlton. Mildred busied herself with cooking fine meals, raising beautiful roses, and helping her children and husband in all their activities. She made friends with her neighbors and belonged to a bridge club. One of her hobbies was to recite jingles, especially to her grandchildren. My sons loved these rhymes and made a point to memorize and recite them for their own enjoyment. I must tell you, also, that Mildred adored butterflies.
When Mildred and Bob moved to Florida for retirement in November, 1955, it seemed awfully far away, but they usually came to be with their Ohio family at least one time per year. After Bob died, in 1976, Mildred sold their house and moved back to Ohio. We all admired her spunk to accomplish that big job. She made arrangements to live in a retirement home on Main Street in Akron, Ohio. She enjoyed having a grandchild stay overnight with her now and then at this place. And, there was just no stopping Mildred when she decided to visit her family. Once, she even made a huge trip to Iceland, of all places, to visit with her sister's daughter and family!!!
It's impossible for me to really do a good job of telling about all the generous things Mildred did for her family. She certainly made us all aware of her love for us. Though she needed to depend on a wheelchair in her later years, she still continued to travel, bless her heart. She died in 1991 and we miss her greatly.
MILDRED LUCILLE STEWART
BORN: 6 Sep 1902 Denver, Arapahoe, CO
MARRIED: 29 Apr 1922 Yale, St. Claire, MI
DIED: 10 Aug 1991 Stow, Summit, OH
BURIED: Oakwood Cemetery, Cuyahoga Falls, Summit, OH
SOURCES: Marriage, birth, and death certificates; Censuses of 1910-1940; Many interviews with Milla Pairan and a recorded interview with Delight Dever Schirmer. Mildred's scrapbooks, saved letters and postcards from Mildred, photographs, handwritten recipes from Mildred, and my personal memories of Mildred.
