Shepherd Family Tree

Shepherd Family Notes

In April, 2002, I went to see my maternal gramma, Lillian McBee at her home in Florida. I asked her to tell me stories of her family and where she grew up, since there appears to be no written genealogical record of her side of the family.

From the notes I have taken in listening to gramma, I have been able to piece together some written history about the Shepherd family at last:

According to gramma Lillian, her mother, Rebecca Elizabeth Shepherd was Scottish.
Rebecca Elizabeth Shepherd was born on July 15, 1888 in Virginia, and died in 1957 in an auto accident, possibly in Georgia.

Rebecca had four siblings; Grace, Myrtle, Jess and Felix.

It is not known at this time who Rebecca's parents were.

Rebecca married Floyd Henderson Hughes, who was a coal miner. Floyd had to uproot often in search of new jobs, since mining is on a contract basis. One such uproot took Floyd and his wife Rebecca to Kentucky.

Rebecca's first child was Charles Desmond Hughes, but it is not known at this time what year he was born.
Rebecca had Earl Frederick Hughes, and then bore Lillian when she was 35 years old. Lillian was born in Verda, Kentucky on March 10, 1923.
Rebecca's other children were Jessie, Nola and Thelma.

Sometime in 1926 or shortly after that year, when Rebecca was about 38 years old with three small children (perhaps four children by this time), her husband Floyd moved the family again so Floyd could find work. They moved to Closplint, Kentucky, within the same county as Verda, that being Harlan County. The move was approximately 12 miles to the North East in a mountainous region, which is on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. Both Verda and Closplint are situated along the Cumberland River.
Gramma Lillian recalled the town name as Clover's Splint, and that may very well have been at the time, as "Closplint" obviously seems like a shortening of the name Clover's Splint.

See also Closplint, KY, which says:

Closplint, KY 

Region:  Mountains

On the Clover Fork of the Cumberland River 

Named for the Clover Splint Coal Company, which began operating here in 1926

The family spent about ten years in Closplint, but sometime around 1936 when Rebecca was about 48 years old, Floyd had to uproot the family yet again to find more work.
This time, they moved from Harlan County to Whitley County, Kentucky, where they settled in Corbin.

"Corbin, the largest town in Whitley county, is on Lynn Camp Creek 
on the northeastern edge of the county, extending into Knox county."

The move to Corbin shows that Floyd's migration pattern continued along the Cumberland River; Lynn Camp Creek is on the Upper Cumberland River Basin.

It is not yet known when and how Floyd died.

A tragic end befell Rebecca Elizabeth (Shepherd) Hughes.
One day in 1957, Rebecca's grandson was driving her somewhere, when for some reason, the car went off the bridge. There aren't many details as to the height of the bridge or why the car went off the road, except that the doctor had told Rebecca's family that the massive trauma to her head had killed her before the car hit the water, and that no water was found in her lungs, so, as per the doctor, it was safe to say she died instantly and did not drown.

This was Rebecca's daughter Jessie's kid who was driving, and he lived. One of Jessie's residences was in Atlanta, Georgia, and this may be where Rebecca died.

That story was told to me by my mother, Dollie.

Rebecca was 69 years old.

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