Charles Shepherd: Revolutionary soldier, settled in Henry County

Editor?s note: The following article on the only Revolutionary War veteran buried in Henry County (a monument to his service is displayed at Forest Home Cemetery) was submitted by Sylvia Ridinger. Information for the article was taken from the Iowa Historical Record of January 1897.

There are old men now living who, when boys in Eastern states, remember that on the Fourth of July celebrations of those days, an old man would occupy the place of honor.

The orator of the occasion would turn to him, when speaking of the debt of gratitude owed to the patriot soldiers of the War of Independence, and invoke blessings on him as one of the heroes of that struggle.

Strong hands would raise the old man aloft that all might see him and the old man?s presence would kindle a more intense flame of patriotic fire in the hearts of the multitude than could be kindled by the most impassioned oratory.

One of these old men came to Iowa in early years, lived a few years and was buried within our borders, but the old man?s memory has almost faded away and no monument has been reared over his dust to mark a spot that should be one of the most honored in the state.

In 1837, Charles Shepherd came to the Territory of Iowa, from Brooklyn, N.Y., with his wife, three sons and one daughter ? two of his sons were married and had families. Shepherd had served in the War of Independence (Revolutionary War) as a private in the Pennsylvania troops under Capt. Patrick Duffee and Col. Thomas Proctor.

For the first three years of his actual service he received in 1818 a pension of $8 per month. At the time of his application for pension he was 58 years of age. He was living at the time at Duanesburg, N.Y., but afterwards moved to Brooklyn where his son, Henry, had a bowling alley.

Shepherd lived a number of years after he came to Iowa in a little cabin beside the Old Territorial road, 2 miles west of Rome, Henry County. The cabin stood a few rods east of where the road to Millspaugh?s Mill diverged from the main road.

Shepherd is remembered as being a very small man, who time had bowed until he almost went double. It cannot be denied that the Shepherd family was not held in high esteem by the neighboring settlers, but this was because of the worthless character of the sons, one of whom lived with his parents and all of them depending upon his pension to a great extent for a living.

However, emigrants and travelers, in passing by the humble cabin, when they learned of the history of its occupants would stop to see the old soldier that they might be able to tell that they had seen the one who served in the Revolution.

They would make him small presents of tobacco and whiskey for he was not an exception to the rule that ?drinking is the soldier?s pleasure.?

To those who, mindful of the honorable part he had borne in our country?s history, would listen. He never tired of fighting his battles over again. He had been at Trenton and Valley Forge and that battle and Washington?s considerate care of his men were often the subjects of his talks.

In 1843 Shepherd moved to the east side of Skunk River and built a cabin in the bottom land, some one mile-and-one-half up the river from Millspaugh?s mill. Here he lived until April 1845.

The summer of 1844 had been a very rainy one and workers had been unable to construct the dam.

Early in the spring of 1845, he had employed a number of young men with ox teams to get the material together for the dam. At night, the oxen were turned loose to pasture on the wild grass already springing up for the spring was unusually early.

One morning a young man, George W. Crawford, in collecting the oxen, called at Shepherd?s cabin and found the old man very ill. Returning at night, he watched by the bedside until death came. Afterwards, Crawford with the assistance of Isaac Shoults, dug a grave and buried the neglected old man.

Shepherd was buried on the hill (he was later moved to Forest Home) that rises just beyond where his cabin stood in view of the river. The grave is in a patch of weeds and briars in a meadow onto which a pile of huge tree stumps have been rolled.

From the hill, a beautiful prospect is spread before one of the river, of farms near and beyond the river, of hills and valleys and scores of farm houses in the eastern part of Jefferson County.

Some years later, a move was made by Crawford and other men of Henry County to p lace a monument to Shepherd?s memory at this place, but through want of interest the project failed.

Crawford, the man who helped to bury Shepherd is yet living in the neighborhood of Rome but when he shall have gone and the pile of stumps shall have been burned and the field shall be entirely smoothed, the place of the grave of Charles Shepherd, perhaps the only gave of a revolutionary soldier within the bounds of the State of Iowa, will have been lost.