Shepard's Settlement Cemetery:
What Remains When the Settlers are Gone
This cemetery tells the story of families on the move:
settling and resettling an area until
all that is left is the name.
But who was Shepard?
John Shepard and his family
This cemetery derives its name from the families that settled here in the early 1800s.
Ever wonder what it took to find your homestead?
Read below:
"John Shepard- founder of Shepard Settlement. Died at age 85. In 1794, John Shepard, at the age of 23, with his savings in his pocket, left his home in Massachusetts and made his way to New York state. In Utica, he purchased a lot, then in the Town of Marcellus, from a land dealer for $162.
He continued on to Onondago(sp.) Lake, then followed the ancient Iroquois trail to Camillus and climbed the steep westerly hill. He fought his way tangled thickets and over fallen trees to the bottom of Carpenters Brook. Then he climbed to the top of a limestone ledge where he found a plateau. It was here he located a notched tree that told him he had arrived at his new home.
By 1796, he had built a small cabin, cleared 30 acres of land, and had 20 acres planted with crops. He returned to Massachusetts, and brought back Eunice, his new wife. The couple had two children, when Eunice suddenly died in 1801. She may have been buried in the original cemetery across the road.
John made the trip back home again, married Nancy Leonard, and brought her to Skaneateles. They had 11 children. John died in 1855; Nancy died in 1868. Her name is on the north side of the stone." ~~Find A Grave
The extended Shepard Family settled here.
An 1787 map with very sparse details.
Imagine trying to figure out your homestead from this!
The Military Tract map from the 1790.
The payment for Revolutionary War Soldiers was land.
It takes about 40 adults to make a settlement work.
And while Shepard's Settlement looks like
your average country road today,
This was once a bustling farm community.
Here it is on the 1852 map:
(and of course, in this community, they had settled the quandary of where to bury the dead,
setting aside a spot for a cemetery)
By 1859, more families moved in
and only a few Shepards remained.
and by 1874:
The cemetery is a testament of just how many Shepards there were in this area.
The NE corner of the cemetery is where you will find the Shepard Family.
One of the earliest markers, made of slate is that of
Harriet Sharp
The Cemetery is a who's who of local settlers,
including the Chapmans,
The Clarks,
and Newells,
But many pioneers who came here faced dangers from
every day living such as disease and injury.
While many children died young
it was possible to live a long life!
But here in this cemetery is a monument to a tragic loss.
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Chester Chapman was a veteran of the War of 1812.
He moved to land his grandparents' Coy owned.
Coy served in the Revolutionary War.
Five of the Chapman children went off into the woods,
ate some berries,
and died on the same day 😢
A tragic loss for the family
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20205056/chester-clark
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20205056/chester-clark
But their most famous son, isn't buried here at all.
But he came from the farming community of Shepard's Settlement
One of John Shepard's 11 children was Luman Shepard.
He had a house on what is now Chapman Rd.
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Luman moved his family in 1856
to the new lands opening out west to Michagan.
(The Ingalls family moved from there home in Malone
around the same time to Wisconsin Territory for reference)
His son, Irwin would continue his education out there.
In 1861 the Civil War broke out.
and at 18, Irwin joined the fight for the Union.
He earned a Medal of Honor in 1863, at just 20, for:
"Having voluntarily accompanied a small party to destroy buildings within the enemy's lines, whence sharpshooters had been firing, disregarded an order to retire, remained, and completed the firing of the buildings, thus insuring their total destruction; this at the imminent risk of his life from the fire of the advancing enemy."
After the war, he went on to complete his education
and became a teacher.
He went on to become a principal, superintendent,
and set up a training program called
"Normal School"
that standardized the training teachers received
before becoming a teacher in the classroom.
Later in life he was the secretary for the NEA,
National Education Association.
He passed away at age 72 in Winona, Minnesota .
He is buried there:
His Military Marker
His simple headstone:
And while he is not buried on his ancestral land
that bears his grandfather's name,
he is remembered here:
And while the settlement disappeared from the landscape,
the cemetery did not.
It stands today as a testament to those
First Military Tract Settlers who came here.
And when you pass through,
You can remember the bustling settlement that was once here
and that things as you see them today,
are not always as they have been...
...and remember the settlement that once was!
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