Beaver Co. - Bio Asa Henderson Shepherd

Submitted by Donna Shepherd donna@shepherd.ms

************************************************************************
USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE:  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced 
in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons.  Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative
of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of
this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives
to store the file permanently for free access.

http://www.usgwarchives.net/
***********************************************************************
	 Asa Shepherd was born at Villisca, Iowa. When
he was eight years old, he helped drive cattle on foot to eastern
Colorado; he and his family were at Cripple Creek, Colo., during the gold boom.  He
and his father and five brothers helped build the railroad through that area.

   When Asa was 14 years old, he rode the Pony Express from Hugoton to
Ulysses, Kansas.  He also drove freight wagons from Dodge City to
Woodward.

   Asa came with his parents to Okla. when he was eighteen years old.  His
father filed on a claim near Fargo.  When he became of age, he came to
Beaver County and filed on a quarter section five miles east and one and one half
miles south of Ivanhoe.  This was in 1903.  Here he bulit a one-room sod
house to which he brought his bride Goldia Drake in Nov. 1906.

   Three children were born in this house.  Later, they built a two-room
frame house, and the lumber was hauled by wagon and team from Higgins.  In 1928
a still larger house was built to accommodate their growing family.

   Most of the grain crops; mile, kaffir and broomcorn were hauled by
wagon to Shattuck.  They brought back supplies.  Most of the trading, though, was
done at Ivanhoe and later at Follett. 

   Asa and Goldie lived in the Lovell School District where their children
attended school.

   They later bought another quarter adjoining thier land, making them a
half section where their family grew to adulthood.  They were active members
of the Catesby Methodist Church for almost thirty years.  Asa and Goldie
celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in the home they had built years ago on
their beloved land.  They reared a family of six boys and two girls.  In 1957
they moved to Laverne to make their home in their declining years.  Goldie
died in 1962, and Asa died in 1968.  They are interred in the Poplar Grove
Cemetery where the Shepherd families have their lots.  One son, Ancel, died at the
age of 20.

   The living children are Hazel, who married Columbus Treat, has three
children; Oden, who married Eloise Johnson, has eight children; Oran
married Alice Odell, and they live in Buffalo.  Ferman married Edith Baker, and
they have two children.  Glades married Harold Copple, and they have three
children; Chester married Betty Wheeler, and they are the parents of four children;
Lester married Thelma Smoot and are the parents of four.  

As told by Mrs. Hazel Treat and Glades Shepherd Copple.

   (Note: Asa did not actually ride for the Pony Express but did ride the
mail run from Hugoton to Ulyssses.)