EDWIN RUTHVEN SHAPARD (1838-1889): INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

         About the year 1773, Lewis Shapard, grandfather to Edwin Ruthven Shapard, was born in Cumberland County, Virginia. After the American Revolution, Lewis moved with his parents (William and Mary) and siblings to rural Granville County, North Carolina, where he spent his teen years.  When he was about 22 years of age, Lewis moved to Caswell County, North Carolina and engaged in agricultural pursuits throughout his adult life, purchasing large tracts of land and developing it with the use of slave labor. Over the years he purchased land in North Carolina and Tennessee. It was reported that in June of 1833, Lewis Shapard died of cholera at the house of his son, James Paine Shapard, in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Lewis married Martha Paine on November 22, 1796. She had been widowed by her first husband, Michael Nicholson. Martha was the daughter of Capt. Robert Paine and Elizabeth Miller and the granddaughter of Dr. James Paine and Mary Hardin. Martha was also the aunt of Rev. Robert Paine who would become one of the most influential Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. From the union of Lewis and Martha, many children were born, one being Robert Paine Shapard, father of Edwin Ruthven Shapard.
          Robert Paine Shapard was born on January 9, 1805, in Caswell County, North Carolina, and in the year 1813, he was taken by his parents to Wilson County, Tennessee, where he was reared amid pioneer scenes. In 1813, when he was 8 years old, his mother, Martha Paine Shapard, died and, approximately a year and-a-half later, on April 11, 1814, his father remarried to Elizabeth Strother Parrish, who had been widowed by her first husband, Henry Parrish. In late 1816, Robert’s step-mother abandoned her new family and the Shapards moved to Smith County, Tennessee and then to Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tennessee. Murfreesboro was recognized as the State Capital of Tennessee from 1818 until 1826, when the capital was moved to Nashville.
           On February 1, 1817, Robert was legally apprenticed to his brother-in-law, Joshua Norman Harrison (1789-1825), to learn the trade of nailmaking.  At this time only wrought iron nails were in use. Each nail was handmade, by being cut from a piece of iron then placed in a vice and having a head hammered. Mr. Harrison operated a successful nail factory located on the Public Square in Murfreesboro, in a small one story shop of about 18 feet by 25 feet made of cedar logs.  The apprenticeship agreement also stipulated that Robert was to be furnished with food, clothing, stationary, washing and lodging, and taught to read, write, and "cipher through the rule of three". The terms of apprenticeship would end when Robert reached the age of twenty-one, in 1826, at which time he would receive a suit of clothes worth fifty dollars. Mr. Harrison died on Christmas day in 1825.
          Afterwards, Robert did not follow the nailmakers trade and, instead, embarked in mercantile pursuits, successfully operating a store for the duration of his life, first in Murfreesboro and later in Fayetteville and Shelbyville, Tennessee. Robert was a devout Methodist and helped pioneer the early churches, banks, schools and infrastructure of his area. He died of a bacterial infection on September 18, 1871, in Shelbyville, Tennessee, and was buried in the Willow Mount Cemetery. On November 12, 1829, Robert Paine Shapard married Miss Parthenia Mitchell in Rutherford Co. Tennessee. She was the daughter of William Mitchell and Elizabeth Curry. Mr. Mitchell was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, having taken part in the battle of King’s Mountain. He also owned and operated a large plantation a few miles northwest of Murfreesboro.  From the union of Robert and Parthenia, 10 children were born:

William Shapard was born August 17, 1830, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He was educated in Fayetteville, Tennessee and baptized in 1846, by Rev. S.S. Yarborough. He became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South on December 19, 1849, and became a licensed preacher for the church on June 25, 1850, being admitted on trial to the Tennessee Conference. He served the circuits of Rock Creek, Middleton, and Edgefield before being transferred to the Memphis Conference where he was stationed at Aberdeen. He married Susan Emily Hall on November 11, 1856. The ceremony was performed by Rev. W.C. Johnson. William was transferred to the Alabama Conference and supplied Eufaula Station, Auburn, Montgomery District and St. Francis Station in Mobile. He joined the Confederate army on September 10, 1861, and served until his health failed, being discharged near the end of 1862. In 1868, he was appointed to the East Alabama Male College board of trustees and moved to Auburn, Alabama. Beginning in 1870, he served as the president of Auburn Female College for seven years. He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1873. In 1876, he moved to Texas and was appointed by the church to St. Johns in Galveston and First Church on Tenth Street in Austin until 1880. On January 1, 1884, he was made Superintendent of the Texas School for the Deaf and Dumb until February 1, 1887. He retired to his farm in Texas, east of Austin. William died on May 21, 1894, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin, Texas; He and his wife had seven children; Ava (1858-1862), daughter (1860-1860), William, Jr. (1862-1865), Adella (1864-1941), Emma (1866-1944), Herbert Hall (1869-1921) and Robert Sumner (1874-1946).

James Hodge Shapard was born October 17, 1832, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and died July15, 1836, in Jefferson, Rutherford County, Tennessee.

A daughter was born April 20, 1835, and died July 13, 1835, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Avarilla Elizabeth Shapard was born June 15, 1836, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She married Abner Steed Boone on October 4, 1853, in Fayetteville Tennessee; the ceremony being conducted by Rev. Ambrose Driskill. She died on August 3, 1854, in Fayetteville and was buried in Old Fayetteville City Cemetery in Fayetteville, Lincoln County, Tennessee. Capt. A.S. Boone was killed in the Civil War in Raymond, Mississippi on May 12, 1863, and was buried in the Raymond Confederate Cemetery. They had one child; Archie Boone (1854-1861).

Edwin Ruthven Shapard, the subject of this book, was born December 16, 1838, and died November 16, 1889.

Robert Addison Shapard was born June 24, 1841, in Fayetteville, Tennessee. During the Civil War he was the only member of his family to join the Union Army. He acquired the rank of Lieutenant in the Union Cavalry and was dishonorably discharged in 1863 after shooting a Union soldier over an insult. He married Imogene Hill, daughter of J.B. and Mary Jane (McMurray) Hill, on Jan 3, 1866, in Nashville, Tennessee. He was employed as a merchant and later worked for the railroads. As an adult, Robert struggled with alcohol and other vices. He died November 6, 1871, in Memphis and was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. He and his wife had one child; John Robert Shapard.

Evander Shapard was born November 2, 1843 in Fayetteville, Tennessee. He joined the Confederate army on his 18th birthday on November 2, 1862, enlisting under his brother-in-law, Capt. Abner Steed Boone. He fought in every major engagement of the Army of Tennessee, having his hat shot off his head at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain and being taken prisoner at the Battle of Fort Donelson. He was paroled as a first lieutenant on May 1, 1865.  He married Emma Frierson Lipscomb on June 17, 1869, in Shelbyville Tennessee. He became a lawyer and judge in Shelbyville. Evander was very active in veteran’s organizations and often wrote for the Confederate Veteran Magazine. He was a member of the First Methodist Church of Shelbyville. He died in 1921 and is buried at Willow Mount Cemetery, in Shelbyville Tennessee. He and his wife had eleven children; Robert Paine (1872-1933), Thomas Lipscomb (1874-1937), Rebecca (1877-1965), Emma (1879-1905), Fannie Lipscomb (1881-1883), Evanda (1883-1952), Juliet Stevenson (1885-1940), Mary Davidson (1888-1978), Stella Eakin (1891-1895), Evander Jr. (1893-1940), and Marjorie Lee (1897-1989).

David Green Shapard was born February 28, 1846, in Fayetteville, Tennessee. He married Martha Jane Allen, in Bedford County Tennessee, on December 14, 1871. The ceremony was conducted by his brother, Rev. William Shapard. He was a member of the First Methodist Church of Shelbyville. He operated a grocery and dry goods store from the 1880s until 1904, becoming the leading grain dealer in Shelbyville. In 1904 he retired from dealing in grain and went into the lumber business with great success. He died Jan 21, 1919 and was buried in the Willow Mount Cemetery in Shelbyville, Tennessee. He and his wife had six children; William Allen (1873-1935), Sara (1874-1936), Mary (1875-1922), Martha Jane (1879-1924), Evander (1884-1945), and David Green, Jr. (1896-1978).

Sarah “Sallie” Shapard was born October 24, 1848, in Fayetteville and married Thomas Cooper Whiteside, Jr., on July 26, 1871, in Shelbyville, Tennessee. He was a merchant in Shelbyville, Tennessee, and died in 1879. She died in Riverside, California on August 29, 1933. Sallie and her husband had three children; Patricia (1872-1873), Thomas Cooper (1875-1908) and Robert Shapard Whiteside (1877-1957).

John Mitchell Shapard was born June 25, 1851, in Fayetteville, Tennessee and died January 9, 1858, in Shelbyville, Tennessee. He was buried in the Willow Mount Cemetery in Shelbyville.