Sarah (Scott) Shepard

Florence Shepard, Sarah Scott Shepard, and Eugene Shepard, Jr. circa 1900 in Worcester, MA
William Bullard, Mrs. Shepard and Two Children, about 1900, courtesy of Frank Morrill, the Worcester Art Museum, and Clark University.

Sarah Ann Scott is my 3rd great-aunt. She was the daughter of Edward Scott and Catherine Annie Jackson of Warrenton, VA. You can read more about Sarah's parents and her younger brother, Charles, here and about her older sister, Mary Jane, here.

Sarah was born on 7 Oct 1864 in West Boylston, MA - the 2nd Scott child to be born free in Massachusetts. On 30 Nov 1893, she married Nipmuc Eugene James Shepard in Sturbridge, MA. Eugene was the son of Jeremiah Shepard and Harriet White, a member of the Dorus/White Nipmuc clan from the Sturbridge area. Sarah and Eugene had two children, Florence May and Eugene, Jr.

William Bullard, Eugene Shepard, about 1900, courtesy of Frank Morrill, the Worcester Art Museum, and Clark University.

The couple lived in Worcester for the entirety of their marriage. Eugene worked a variety of jobs from polisher at a car wash on Park Ave to a janitor in a theater to a molder at a foundry. Sarah worked as a housekeeper in a private household. Eugene died on 18 Nov 1925 and Sarah continued living in Worcester with her adult children (and for a short while her sister Mary Ann) until she herself passed away sometime after 1949. There is no record of her death in Worcester. It is possible that she moved with her son Eugene Jr. to Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Florence May Shepard was born on 28 Jul 1895 in Worcester. In 1920, she married Mashpee Wampanoag Julian Arthur Piper who was a private in WWI. The Pipers quickly divorced and Florence continued to live in Worcester with her mother and Eugene who was also divorced. Florence worked as a laundress and for a time, served as the secretary of the Hassanamisco Club, an organization founded by Sarah Cisco for Nipmuc tribal members.

Eugene, Jr. was born in Worcester on 4 Feb 1897. He married Alma Eva Nixon, a native of Springfield, Massachusetts in 1921 after serving in WWI. The couple's only child, Eugene III was born on 19 Jul 1923. Eugene Jr. and Alma were divorced by 1935 and Eugene moved in with his mother and sister. He eventually moved to Holyoke where he passed away on 24 Jul 1981. Alma lived in the Beaver Brook neighborhood with Eugene III until she moved with him to Leominster, Massachusetts where she passed on 31 Jul 1995.